The Effect of Acid Type in Mechanochemical Treatment of Rice Husk Ash for Concrete Application

Abstract

Abstract Concrete was successfully produced using rice husk ash (RHA) as a partial cement substitute. RHA was mechanochemically treated using ball mill as mechanical force and acids (HCl and CH3COOH) as chemical force. Mechanochemical treatment decreases particle size as demonstrated by particle size analyser test and reduces crystallinity of RHA as demonstrated by X-ray diffraction analyses. These characteristics make RHA more suitable as partial substitution of cement as well as pozzolanic material. The compressive strength of concrete increases 11-26 % by addition of RHA as cement substitution. The significant increase of compressive strength was obtained from RHA mechanochemically treated with HCl which has compressive strength of 14.8 MPa in comparison of standard concrete which has compressive strength of 11.72 MPa.