Sustainable cementitious materials: The effect of fly ash percentage as a part replacement of portland cement composite (PCC) and curing temperature on the early age strength of fly ash concrete

Abstract

This research aims to determine the effect of fly ash percentage as a part replacement of Portland cement and curing temperatures to the early age strength of concrete. The percentages of fly ash used were 0, 10 and 15% by cement weight. The cured temperatures were 25, 30 dan 50°C. The concrete specimens were cubes of 150 x 150 x 150 mm3. The cubes, which were cured at 25°C, placed in water tank, while those cured at 30 and 50°C cured in oven until 7 days and then continued in water. The testing was conducted at ages 3, 7, 14 dan 28 days. The results showed that at early ages, the strength of concrete without fly ash cured at 25°C were higher than that of fly ash concrete. The higher level replacement of cement with fly ash, the lower strength of concrete obtained. The higher the curing temperature at earlier age resulted the higher the strength of concrete. The strength of concretes with 10% of fly ash cured at 25, 30 and 50°C at age three days were 15.111, 15.481 and 16.296 MPa respectively. Conversely, the strength of concrete that of cured at higher temperatures at ages 28 days, were lower than that of concretes cured at lower temperature. The results of this research also showed that fly ash could improve the workability of concrete.