SUITABILITY OF THE USE OF RICE HUSK IN CONCRETE

S.  Yusuf and B. Adejo

Department of Civil Engineering

Kaduna Polytechnic, Kaduna

email: ibnyusuf2005@yahoo.com

ABSTRACT

In order to verify the compressive strength of concrete cube when rice-husk ash is used as partial replacement of cement, a laboratory analysis was carried out in this paper. The rice-husk percentages used are: 10%, 20% and 25% and a mix ratio G 20 i.e. 1:2:4 was used. The results obtained shows that up to 20% of rice- husk can be used to replace cement in the mixture, because nearly 20N/ mm² is achieved, which is within the compressive strength limit expected  from concrete mix ratio of 1:2:4. However, the percentage ratio of the rice-husk should not be increased to above 20% say 25%. This is because the results obtained when 25% rice-husk was used after curing for 7,14,21,28 days, are 12.70, 10.80, 9.10 and 7.8 N/ mm² respectively. All these are far less than the 20 N/ mm² the minimum compressive strength expected.