Characterization and utilization of rice husk ash (RHA) in fly ash - Blast furnace slag based geopolymer concrete for sustainable future

Rice husk ash is an agro-waste of rice milling industries produced more than 20 million tons per annum globally, causing various environmental and public health issues. The first part of this study attempted to analyse its physical, chemical, and microstructural properties with different advanced analytical techniques, such as- XRF, XRD, PSA, FTIR, and FESEM. Furthermore, the experimental program has been conducted to study the behaviour of fly ash- blast furnace slag based geopolymer concrete with different percentage of rice husk ash inclusion for its utilization in geopolymer concrete. The result explicates that with an increasing percentage of RHA in geopolymer concrete, both the workability and compressive strength reduces. Nevertheless, the geopolymer concrete with 10% RHA exhibited a compressive strength of 25 MPa; the grade of concrete which is widely accepted for most of the construction works which ultimately widens the scope of RHA for a greener binder synthesis through geopolymerization. (C) 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.