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ABSTRACT
This project work was created in order to highlight and present the findings from a study on the "EFFECT OF IMPROPER CURING ON THE STRENGTH AND TRANSPORT PROPERTIES OF LOW GRADE RICE HUSK ASH (RHA) CONCRETE" with the goal of understanding how various curing techniques for 3, 7, 14 and 28 days affect the achievable compressive strength and other structural properties of a low grade concrete such as 20MPA having Ordinary Portland Cement (OPC) (an agriculturally based pozzolanic material, lying in abundance around the globe most times as waste, found suitable by researchers to partially replace OPC in the production of concrete). After designing a low grade concrete mix with a goal mean strength of 20N/mm2, a number of concrete mixtures cast into 100mm metallic cubes were made in the lab using OPC as the binder (partially substituted with RHA at various percentages). In a fog/curing room with ambient temperatures between 30 and 20 °C and low relative humidity (RH), three different types of "curing methods" (a moisture management balancing act) were used for these samples. The first series of cubes cast after demoulding were fully submerged in water and cured at 100% RH for the duration of its curing period (signifying wet curing). The final set of cubes cast were completely cured out in open air without any water submerging after demoulding (signifying dry/air curing), while the other set of cubes stayed in water for 3 days after demoulding as well and then continued to cure for the remaining curing period at a relatively low humidity. Therefore, performance was assessed in terms of compressive strength, transport properties, and other tests conducted. It was found that while the strength of RHA concrete continued to decline after the addition of 15% RHA, the replacement level of 5% RHA gave the strongest results overall and demonstrated the greatest potential to be used as a useful material for various building materials. The partial replacement of RHA with OPC can be seen to have a positive impact on the environment by reducing the amount of agricultural waste produced, which results in more cost-effective and environmentally friendly concretes than those currently used in the industry.
