Performance of Groundnut Shell Ash as Partial Replacement of Cement in Concrete

The Agricultural and Industrial sectors are generating numerous volumes of decomposable and non-decomposable wastes. The solid waste generated gases pollutes the environment, consequently contributes to greenhouse effects. Because of these wastes the environment gets polluted by various gases which lead to greenhouse effect. The construction sector also imparts its own part of waste to the environment. There are numerous amounts of agro waste products like rice husk, groundnut shells and ash, corn hub, coconut coir. Focusing the cost of the cement which is an in peak demand we have to concentrate on low cost construction material. This experimental work investigates the possibility of using the groundnut shell ash as a replacement material for the ordinary port land cement. At first, the chemical analysis of the groundnut shell ash was determined to conform the cementitious properties of the cement. The physical properties of the materials (cement, groundnut shell ash, fine aggregates and coarse aggregates) were also determined. The mix design adopted for this experimental study is M30 grade of concrete with 1:1.20:2.90 mix ratio. The fresh concrete tests were carried out to check the workability of using groundnut shell ash in concrete. The cubes and cylinders were casted in the sizes of 150mm x 150mm x 150mm and 150mm diameter with 300 mm height. The specimens were subjected to membrane curing of 7, 14 days. The replacement value changes from 5% to 25 % of ash replacement ordinary Portland cement to groundnut shell ash. The compressive strength decreased as the ash content increased. There was an increase in tensile strength at 15 % of ash content.