International Journal of Advance Civil Engineering and Technology

Volume 5 Issue 2

A Literature Review on the Study of Partial Replacement of Cement

with Rice Husk Ash in Concrete

Paurush Chandra Joshi

PG Student
Department of Civil Engineering
Giani Zail Singh Campus College of Engineering and Technology, MRSPTU Bathinda,
Punjab 151001, India
Corresponding Author’s Email id: joshi.paurush12@gmail.com

Abstract
In the present paper, the works done by various researchers by replacing
Cement with Rice husk ash have been studied and their conclusions are
compiled. The all construction industry is searching for an appropriate and
effective waste product (rice husk, fly ash, crumb rubber etc.) that might
considerably minimize the utilization of cement and ultimately reduce the
construction cost. The rice husk ash may be a green supplementary material
that has applications on small to large scale. It can be used for waterproofing.
It’s also because of the admixture to form the concrete resistance against
chemical penetration. Various test results of compressive strength, durability,
flexural strength and workability have also been reported from the available
literature. Among the low-cost construction materials, cement concrete plays
a crucial role. Rice husk is one of the waste products which may be used as
cement in concrete resulting in low-cost, lightweight concrete.

Keywords: - Cement, rice husk ash, light weight concrete, low cost.

INTRODUCTION aggregate, water and admixtures. It’s used

Concrete is used as a composite material quite the other man-made material within
worldwide and is most generally used for the world. About 10-15 billion tons of
all types of construction work. It is a man- concrete are produced per annum. It is
made product consisting of cement, increasing due to the high growth of

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 International Journal of Advance Civil Engineering and Technology
Volume 5 Issue 2

infrastructure development and Rice Husk Ash

construction activities in the world. A
large amount of natural aggregates, sand
and water are being consumed in concrete
production.
Consequently, to minimize
researchers have concentrated on using
waste materials as potential alternatives in
the construction industry, especially in
concrete construction. In fact,
materials (i.e.., fly ash, Rice husk ash,
coconut shell, crumb rubber,
coconut coir, slag, plastics etc.) in the
concrete constitution is one of the prime
research interests to reach the goal of
achieving sustainable construction. The
concrete production in construction
activities using conventional aggregate
like granite immoderately reduces the
natural stone deposits and affects the
environment, causing ecology imbalance.
Therefore, the consumption of other waste
materials in concrete production protects
the environment and makes concrete a
sustainable and environment-friendly
construction material. Hence to overcome
such problems, cement can be replaced
with Rice husk. It reduces the disposal
problem, atmospheric pollution
improves the mechanical properties of
concrete.
The performance of rice husk ash in
concrete is of the things influencing the
quantity of silica added. Rice husk ash as a
pozzolanic reactive material can be used to
improve the surface area of the transition
this, zone between the microscopic structures of
cement paste and aggregate within the
high-performance concrete.
waste HISTORY
Rice husks are the hard protective
glass, coverings of rice grains that are separated
from the grains during the milling process.
Rice husk is an abundantly available waste
material in all rice-producing countries,
and it contains about 30%–50% of organic
carbon. In the course of a typical milling
process, the husks are removed from the
raw grain to reveal whole brown rice,
which upon further milling to remove the
bran layer will yield white rice. Current
rice production in the world is estimated to
be 700 million tons. Rice husk constitutes
about 20% of the weight of rice and its
composition is as follows: cellulose
(50%), lignin (25%–30%), silica (15%–
20%), and moisture (10%–15%). The bulk
density of rice husk is low and lies in the
and range of 90–150 kg/m3.
Sources of rice husk ash (RHA) will be
within the rice-growing regions of the

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 International Journal of Advance Civil Engineering and Technology
world, such as China, India, and the far-
East countries. RHA is the product of the
incineration of rice husk. Most of the
evaporable components of rice husk are
slowly lost during burning and the primary
residues are the silicates. The
characteristics of the ash are dependent on
(1) composition of the rice husks, (2)
burning temperature, and (3) burning time.
Every 100 kg of husks burnt during a
boiler, for example, will yield about 25 kg
of RHA. In certain areas, rice husk is used
as a fuel for parboiling paddy in rice mills,
whereas in some places, it is field-burnt as
a local fuel. However, the combustion of
rice husks in such cases is far from
complete and the partial burning also
contributes to air pollution. The calorific
value of rice husks is about 50% of that of
coal, and assuming that husks have about
8%–10% of moisture content and zero
bran, the calorific value is estimated to be
15 MJ/kg. Under controlled burning
conditions, the volatile organic matter in
the rice husk consisting of cellulose and
lignin is removed. The residual ash is
predominantly amorphous silica with a
(microporous) cellular structure. Due to its
highly microporous structure, the specific
surface area of RHA as determined by the
Brunauer–Emmett–Teller (BET) nitrogen
adsorption method can range from 20 to as
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Volume 5 Issue 2
high as 270 m2/g, while that of silica fume,
for example, is in the range of 18–23 m2/g.
Rice Husk Ash Applications
1. Utilized in cement and construction
industries.
2. Utilized in steel industries.
3. Use of rice husk ash as a silica source.
4. Due to the fine insulating properties of
rice husk-like low thermal
conductivity, high melting point, low
bulk density high porosity, it is used
for the production of top-quality steel.
5. It is also used as a coating over the
molten metal and in the ladle, which
acts as a very good insulator and does
not allow quick cooling of metal.
6. Blended cement is produced by using
rice husk ash for fulfilling the
increasing need for building material.
Rice husk ash may be a highly reactive
pozzolana. Rice husk ash mainly used
a replacement of silica fume or as an
admixture in the manufacturing of low-
cost concrete block.
7. Due to large silica content in rice husk
ash, the extraction of silica is
 International Journal of Advance Civil Engineering and Technology
economical. Silica is used in rubber
industries as a reinforcing agent, in
cosmetics, in toothpaste, in food
industries as an anti-caking agent.
There is a growing demand for fine
amorphous silica in the production of
high-performance cement and
concrete, use in bridges, marine
environments, nuclear power plants
etc. Silica aerogels prepared from Rice
Husk Ash (RHA) finds application in
super thermal insulators, catalyst
supports and dielectric materials. It can
be an economically viable raw material
for the production of silicates and
silica.
LITERATURE REVIEW
Along with the utilization of rice husk ash
as cement by replacing it with the cement
is additionally reviewed for analyzing the
strength characteristics of concrete. The
abstracts and conclusions of various
researchers in their literature are studied
and presented in the present paper.
S. S. Vivek in this paper, examined the
performance of Self Compacting Concrete
(SCC) by replacing cement with varying
the silica fume (SF). An attempt was made
to check the performance and properties of
fresh concrete by slump flow test, T500
test and the hardened properties of
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Volume 5 Issue 2
concrete by the compression test. There
were four mixes of SCC made by
replacement of cement with different
percentages of silica fume from 5 to 20%
with an increment of 5%. Tests were
carried out to assess the compressive
strength of concrete at different ages,
namely 7, 14 and 28 days. For SCC, super-
plasticizer (Conplast SP430) was added in
an optimized dosage. It was found that
replacement of cement by 10% of silica
fume with water to powder (w/p) ratio of
0.8 gave better results on fresh properties
and compressive strength of admixed
concrete. The replacement of cement by
15% of silica fume with a w/p ratio of 0.8
gave better results in Slump flow and
T50test. Whereas replacement of cement
by 5% of silica fume with a w/p ratio of
0.8 gave better compressive strength at the
time period of 7 and 14 days, but it fails in
flow properties and also the replacement
of cement by 10% of silica fume with a
w/p ratio of 0.8 gave a better fresh
concrete performance and compressive
strength at the time of 28 days.
Amarnath Yerramala Ramachandrudu C
in his experimental study, the coarse
aggregate was partially replaced by
coconut shell and fly-ash. Percentages of
replacement by coconut shell were 10%,
15%, 20% and Percentages of coconut
 International Journal of Advance Civil Engineering and Technology
Volume 5 Issue 2

shell replacement by fly-ash were 5%, concrete improves the strength properties
25%. He concluded in his study that of concrete. Also, it is an attempt made to
workability decreased with an increase in develop the concrete using rice husk ash as
CS replacement. Compressive and split source material for partial replacement of
tensile strengths of CS concretes were less cement, which satisfies the various
than control concrete. structural properties of concrete like
compressive strength and Flexural
Yaghuob Mohammadi studied that the strength. From the entire experimental
effect of silica fumes on properties of self- work & studies, it is concluded that mix
compacting lightweight concrete (SCLC) M2 (M0+20% RHA) is the best
containing perlite and leca. For this combination among all mixes, which gives
purpose, silica fume has been replaced by max, tensile, flexure & compression
different contents. In this study, all strength over normal concrete.
mixtures total cementitious materials
(cement + silica fume) were kept at 450 S.Ramesh studied the behaviour of cement
kg/m3. The test was carried out, such as concrete with rice husk ash. In this study,
Slum flow, L-box, U-box, V-funnel and J- RHA partially replaced to 20% by weight
ring. This research showed that mixtures of cement. Experimental works and studies
without silica fume were not satisfactory. conducted are workability, weight
For all tests added, the silica fume comparison, compressive strength, tensile
demonstrated acceptable values. However, and flexural strength of concrete. This
for the SCLC mixture containing 15% paper reported the properties, benefits and
silica fume, significant results were uses of RHAC by experimental works.
attained. Adding silica fume, the From the experiments and test results on
compressive strength of samples increased. fresh and hardened concrete, it is
concluded that it will increase the
Makarand Suresh Kulkarni studied the workability as compared to normal
Effect of Rice Husk Ash on Properties of concrete. The use of rice husk ash will
Concrete. The main objective of this work increase the corrosion resistance and
is to study the suitability of the rice husk durability of concrete and it reduces the
ash as a pozzolanic material for cement environmental pollution due to
replacement in concrete. However, it is construction.
expected that the use of rice husk ash in

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 International Journal of Advance Civil Engineering and Technology
P.Padma Rao studied the Use of Rice
Husk Ash in Concrete. In this
investigation, a feasibility study is made to
use Rice Husk Ash as an admixture to
already replaced Cement with fly ash
(Portland Pozzolana Cement) in Concrete,
and an attempt has been made to
investigate the strength parameters of
Concrete. Five different replacement levels
namely 5%, 7.5%, 10%, 12.5% and 15%
are chosen for the study concern to
replacement method. A large range of
curing periods starting from 3 days, 7
days, 28 days and 56 days are considered
in this investigation. All materials shall be
brought to room temperature, preferably
270+ 30 C, before commencing the results.
At all the cement replacement levels of
Rice husk ash, there is a gradual increase
in compressive strength from 3 days to 7
days. However, there is a significant
increase in compressive strength from 7
days to 28 days, followed by a gradual
increase from 28 days to 56 days.
Ahmadi reported the development of
Mechanical properties up to 180 days of
self-compacting concrete and ordinary
concrete mixes with rice-husk ash (RHA),
from a rice paddy milling industry. Two
different replacement percentages of
cement by RHA, 10%, and 20%, and two
different water/cementitious material ratios
40 Page 35-42 © MANTECH PUBLICATIONS 2020. All Rights Reserved
Volume 5 Issue 2
(0.40 and 0.35) were used for the self-
compacting and normal concrete
specimens. The results were compared
with those of the self-compacting concrete
without RHA. SCC mixes show higher
compressive and flexural strength and
lower modulus of elasticity rather than the
normal concrete. Up to 20% replacement
of cement with rice husk ash in matrix
caused a reduction in the use of cement
and expenditures, and also improved the
quality of concrete at the time period of
more than 60 days. It was said that RHA
provides a good effect on the Mechanical
properties after 60 days.
Krishna Murthy N reported Self-
compacting concrete possesses good
qualities, productivity and working
conditions due to the removal of avoids.
Designed for self-compacting concrete
mix design with 29% of coarse aggregate,
replacement of cement with Metakaolin
and class F fly ash, combinations of both
and controlled SCC mix with 0.36
water/cement ratio and 388 liters/m3 of
cement paste volume. After that, they
introduced Metakaolin and class F fly ash,
which were user-friendly for the SCC
design mix and considered to be the most
promising building for the revolutionary
changes on structures.
 International Journal of Advance Civil Engineering and Technology
Volume 5 Issue 2

CONCLUSIONS Concrete, IJEAR Vol. 4, Issue Spl-

The review of earlier studies related to the 2, Jan - June 2014, ISSN: 2348-
partial replacement of cement with rice 0033 (Online) ISSN: 2249-4944.
husk ash that there is a significant change
in the strength properties of concrete such III. OBILADE, I.O., USE OF RICE
as compressive strength, flexural strength HUSK ASH AS PARTIAL
and split tensile strength. These REPLACEMENT FOR CEMENT
experiments were carried out in various IN CONCRETE, ISSN 2305-
grades of concrete to find out the result. 8269, Sept. 2014. Vol.5. No. 04
From the above literature reviews, the
optimum percentage of rice husk ash IV. Sumit Bansal (2014) - Effect of
varies from 10% to 30% by weight of Rice Husk on Flexural Strength of
cement. Up to these percentage Concrete. (Published by Research
replacements, improvement in the strength Trend, Website:
of concrete has been observed in terms of www.researchtrend.net)
Compressive Strength, Flexural Strength
and Tensile Strength. Previous studies also V. Yogender Antil (2015) -Effect of
show that the utilization of rice husk ash Rice Husk on Compressive
replacement in concrete enhances the Strength of Concrete. International
durability of concrete. Journal on Emerging Technologies
6(1): 144-150(2015) ISSN No.
The use of rice husk ash results in a good (Print): 0975-8364
effect on compressive strength and these
materials are environmental-friendly. VI. Alefiya Kachwala, “Effect of Rice
Husk Ash as a Partial Replacement
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 International Journal of Advance Civil Engineering and Technology
Volume 5 Issue 2

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