THE EFFECTS OF TYPES OF RICE HUSK ASH

ON THE POROSITY OF CONCRETE

M.F. NURUDDIN
Associate Profesor Department of Civil Engineering, Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS Malaysia
Email: fadhilnuruddin@petronas.com.my

N. SHAFIQ
Associate Profesor Department of Civil Engineering, Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS Malaysia

N.L.M. KAMAL
Research Assistant, Department of Civil Engineering, Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS Malaysia

ABSTRACT
Controlled burning can produce amorphous rice husk ash (RHA) with high silica content and this can significantly
enhance the porosity of concrete. This study has been undertaken to investigate the effects of replacing 5%, 10%,
15% and 20% of cement in concrete by both RHA and microwave incinerated rice husk ash (MIRHA) burnt at
800°C, 700°C and 600°C. The porosity of concrete mixes was determined at 28 days and in general showed that
5% replacement of MIRHA-800 provided the lowest percentage of porosity compared to all mixes. X-Ray
Fluorescence (XRF) analysis was performed to determine the content of various chemical oxides in RHA and
MIRHA.

Keywords: amourphous, silica, porosity.

1. INTRODUCTION products formed due to the pozzolanic reactions occupy

1.1 Burning Combustion
Uncontrolled burning or open-field burning is common
place in rice paddy fields in managing rice husk that is
a by product of rice production. This method is the
fastest, cheapest and most effective way of disposal but
these proven benefits are outweighed by the
environmental hazards imposed by open-field burning
which distinctly leads to smoke contamination. To
address these environmental issues the use of controlled
burning method is proposed and it was found that under
controlled combustion condition, rice husk ash (RHA)
with high reactivity of amorphous silica can be
produced [1]. RHA has been used as a highly reactive
pozzolanic material to improve the concrete properties.
Recent researches have shown that, RHA, rich in silica
(about 85% to 90%), can be a green material and re-
utilized in construction materials, by controlling the
burning temperature to ensure it is in a non-crystalline
state. It has been reported that RHA can be added to
concrete mixtures to substitute the more expensive
Portland cement to lower the construction cost while at
the same time protecting the environment. It also cites
that RHA is not only cheap but also can improve the
durability of concrete [2]. Some researchers found that
through pozzolanic reaction, the addition of pozzolanic
materials can affect the porosity of concrete by
strengthening the aggregate-cement paste and the
reaction can modify the micropores structure. The
the empty spaces in concrete pore structures which thus
become densified. The porosity of cement paste is then
reduced, and subsequently the pores are refined.
1.2 Amorphous Silica
Amorphous silica rice husk is burnt in controlled
temperatures which are below 700°C. The ash
generated is amorphous in nature. The highest amount
of amorphous silica occurs in samples burnt in the
range of 500°C - 700°C [3]. Another researcher
reported that a highly reactive ash can be produced by
maintaining the combustion temperature below 500°C
[1]. It was also stated by Hamad that ash prepared at a
temperature of about 500°C to 600°C consist of
amorphous silica [4]. In addition, the amorphous state
can achieve with under oxidising conditions for
relatively prolonged period or up to 680°C provided the
high temperature exposure was less than one minute.
The transformation of this amorphous state to
crystalline state takes place if the ash is exposed to high
temperatures of above 850°C. It is reported that silica
was predominantly in amorphous form that the crystals
present in the ashes grew with time of burning for
incineration temperature up to 700°C [5].
1.3 Crystallinity
It is not suggested to burn rice husk above 800°C
longer than one hour, because prolonged heating above
this temperature may cause the material to convert (at
least in part) to crystalline silica; first to cristobalite and
then tridymite [3]. At 800°C, the ash will convert to
cristobalite and after burning at 1150°C both
cristobalite and tidymite will be formed. This
crystalline will becomes less reactive.
1.4 Pozzolanic
Pozzolanic materials are the main siliceous that
produce calcium silicate hydrate after reacting with
water and lime. It has been studied that high content of
amorphous silica and large internal surface area can
make RHA a highly reactive pozzolanic material that
can improve the strength and durability of concrete.
1.5 Porosity
Concrete porosity is definitely stated in terms of
percentage by volume of concrete. The strength and
durability of concrete are also influenced by its porosity
characteristic [6]. Many researchers have same opinion
that porosity of concrete can be reduced using
pozzolana or supplementary cementing material. There
are two principal contributing attributes of pozzolana.
Firstly, the pore structure in the cement paste matrix
can be more denser using a quality pozzolan, secondly
the chemical reaction of lime crystals that form binders
increase paste density, reduced porosity over time, and
enhance the matrix chemical resistance to many
aggressive attacks.
2. MATERIALS AND EXPERIMENTAL DETAILS
2.1 Materials
MIRHA was obtained by burning rice husk in UTPMI
(Figure 1) with a controlled temperature in order to
establish the optimum burning temperature.
Fig. 1 UTP Microwave Incinerator (UTPMI)
The UTPMI used for the burning process had the
temperatures set at 800°C, 700ºC and 600°C to produce
good quality MIRHA. The source of rice husk was
taken from rice milling plant, Bernas-Malaysia. One
type of RHA was obtained from rice mill in Sungai
Ranggam, Perak (assigned as SG-RHA) and it is a
waste product of rice husk that was burned as fuel for
boilers at 1000°C for 1 minute. While another type of
RHA was obtained from rice mill in Sungai Manik,
Perak (assigned as SM-RHA) which has been burnt to
get the energy from the burning and supplied it for
parboiling of rice. It was burnt in the range of 600°C to
900°C. Grinding of MIRHA, SG-RHA and SM-RHA
are conducted using a Los Angeles abrasion machine
with 3000 cycles. The cement used in this investigation
was ordinary Portland cement. The fine aggregate used
was natural sand with the fineness modulus 2.7 and
classified in Zone 3. The coarse aggregate used was
crushed aggregate with the maximum size of 20 mm
according to BS 812-103.2 1989. The absolute volume
method adopted in calculating the mixture proportions.
MIRHA, SG-RHA and SM-RHA were incorparated as
a replacement of cement on a weight basis. A number
of mixes have been chosen so that the performance of
concrete with different admixtures can be compared.
MIRHA, SG-RHA and SM-RHA is then used to
replace 5%, 10%, 15% and 20% of cement content in
concrete with 0.45 w/c. The control concrete was
designated normal concrete (NC) without any addition
of MIRHA, SG-RHA and SM-RHA as a comparison.
Superplasticizer was used in concrete containing
MIRHA to increase its workability. The mixture
proportion for 0.45 water cement ratio is shown in
Table 1.
Table 1 Mixture Proportions of Concrete
MIRHA/
SG-RHA/SM-RHA SP Cement
(%) (kg/m³) (%) (kg/m³)
0 0.00 0.0 475.00
5 25.00 0.4 450.00
10 50.00 0.8 430.00
15 70.00 1.5 405.00
20 95.00 2.0 380.00
2.2 Casting, Curing and Testing of Specimens
The concrete specimens were prepared in the laboratory
using wooden moulds of size 400x400x40mm and
compacted on table vibrator. After casting, the concrete
planks were covered with plastic sheet and left in the
casting room for 24 hours. After that all specimens
were demoulded and put into the curing tank at room
temperature until the desired age of testing. At the
defined ages for testing: three 50mm diameter discs
were cored-out from the slab of concrete. Total porosity
of the samples was determined according to the vacuum
saturation method that was developed by RILEM [7]
using the Eq. 1 stated below:
Wsat  Woven
P  100
Wsat  Wwater (1)
Where, P is the total porosity in percentage, Wsat is the
weight of saturated samples measured in the air; Woven
is the weight of oven dried samples measured in the air,
and Wwater is the weight of saturated samples measured
in water, all weight measurement are in g.
2.3 X-Ray Fluorescence
Figure 2 shows the X-Ray Spectrometer used in this
research.
Fig. 2 Bruker Axs S4 Pioneer X-Ray
Spectrometer
X-Ray Fluorescence (XRF) analysis was performed to
determine the content of various chemical oxides in
MIRHA. The analysis was carried out using
spectrometer of Bruker Axs S4Pioneer. The powder
sample of MIRHA was compacted in a specific
container using hand compactor and brought into the
spectrometer. The analyzed result was captured using
the installed software.
3. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
3.1 X-Ray Fluorescence (XRF)
X-Ray Fluorescence (XRF) analysis is proficient in
analyzing material contents inside MIRHA, hence the
amount of SiO2 can be observed. The presence of
various materials within MIRHA sample can be seen in
Table 2. This table shows the result of XRF analysis of
MIRHA burnt at 800°C, 700°C, 600°C, RHA collected
from Sg. Ranggam mill (SG-RHA) as well as from Sg.
Manik mill (SM-RHA). It is evident that burning RHA
with higher temperature will give higher silica content.
Despite of no significant different of SiO2 content
between MIRHA burnt at different temperature but
MIRHA burnt at 800°C showed a lower result on
porosity. The oxide content of MIRHA burnt at 800°C
was the optimum composition that could give
significant improvement to the concrete porosity. The
lower percentage of porosity of MIRHA burnt at 800°C
compared to SG-RHA as well as SM-RHA revealed
that burning temperature can influence the quality of
RHA. It is shown that even the percentage of SiO2 is
higher with high burning temperatures; it is believed
that the RHA have partially converted to crystalline
silica which is could not react with Ca(OH)2. It has
been revealed that at higher temperatures with longer
burning times, a crystalline structure is formed and this
can lowers the pozzolanic activity [8].
Figure 2 presented the concrete porosity characteristic
of concrete with different binder types. The porosity of
concrete containing RHA was found to be lower than
normal concrete regardless of different burning
temperatures and percentages inclusion of RHA. When
subjected to increasing of MIRHA and SG-RHA
inclusion, the concrete exhibits lower performance due
to declining of OPC amounts in mixtures. This could be
due to the un-hydrated MIRHA, SG-RHA and SM-
RHA that absorb more water. Nonetheless, the SM-
RHA concretes show that only 5% of inclusion gave a
better performance compared to normal concrete while
10%, 15% and 20% inclusion of RHA leads the
increasing of porosity. Its show that, addition of
MIRHA which is more than 5%, to the concrete
mixture absorbed water in large amount and cause the
mixture to be dry. As shown in Figure 3, there is only
slight difference in porosity between all percentages of
MIRHA-800 in concrete. This shows consistency in the
amorphousness and highest amount of SiO2. It is
evident from the slight difference of other percentage
inclusion of MIRHA. This confirm that’s 5% is the
best. Nevertheless, MIRHA-700 and MIRHA-600
concretes show significant difference between all
percentages of inclusion. It is believed that with lower
burning temperature the ability to extract the optimum
amount of silica in rice husk is hampered. Even though
RHA burnt at 600°C, open burning doest not improve
the quality of RHA. Therefore microwave burning
contributes significantly.
 Table 2 Chemical composition of OPC, MIRHA, SG-RHA and SM-RHA

Weight %
Oxide
OPC MIRHA 800 MIRHA 700 MIRHA 600 SG-RHA SM-RHA

Na2O 0.0164 0.1215 0.0725 0.0195 0.0203 0.0371

MgO 1.4334 0.4864 0.5036 0.5885 0.3562 0.5696
Al2O3 2.8357 0.4473 0.4181 0.3572 0.4889 0.9607
SiO2 20.4449 89.3430 87.2145 86.3115 90.3289 90.3615
P2O5 0.1023 2.5792 3.0006 3.008 2.5118 2.3052
K2O 0.2646 4.9756 6.1856 6.3366 4.5351 4.2964
CaO 67.7341 0.7584 0.8106 0.9996 0.5634 0.8627
TiO2 0.1701 0.0183 0.0184 0.0191 0.0843 0.0278
Fe2O3 4.6352 0.3971 0.3957 0.7227 0.3900 0.2907
SO3 2.2020 0.8952 1.3131 1.5145 0.6458 0.2038
MnO 0.1614 0.0807 0.0836 0.1301 0.0667 0.0844

Fig. 3 Porosity of OPC, MIRHA, SG-RHA and SM-RHA concretes

This phenomena had interrupted the cement hydration
process to produce Ca(OH)2. Lower content of
Ca(OH)2 produced also affected the pozzolanic reaction
with SiO2 [9].With insufficient amount of Ca(OH)2,
pozzolanic reaction could not occur properly and
resulted in lower calcium silicate hydrate (C-S-H) gels
being produced. While the first provides a denser
interface by acting as a filler and providing secondary
hydration products, the second helps towards
deflocculation of the cement and MIRHA particles, and
reduction in the water content of the mix as well as
providing extra consistency. The increased rate of
hydration may be attributable to the ability of MIRHA
to provide nucleating sites to precipitating hydration
products like lime, CSH, and ettringite. It has been
revealed that with correct mix proportion, MIRHA
concrete can achieve early strength higher than normal
concrete as recommended by many researchers [10].
4. CONCLUSIONS
This research was carried out to identify the effect of
burning temperature between control combustion and
uncontrolled combustion of RHA on concrete porosity.
This study also was carried out to identify the optimum
burning temperature and percentage inclusion of
MIRHA, to obtain quality rice husk ash that can
significantly improve the concrete porosity. The
utilization of Microwave Incinerated Rice Husk Ash
(MIRHA) into the concrete mix proportions has given
various effects to the concrete properties. The
improvement of porosity characteristic results of
MIRHA concrete samples was influenced by the
quality of MIRHA and mix proportion that were used.
The following conclusions can be drawn from the
study:
1. The percentage porosity of MIRHA concretes are
lower compared to plain cement mortar regardless of
burning temperature of MIRHA.
2. The percentage porosity of MIRHA concretes are
lower compared to plain cement mortar regardless of
percentage inclusion of MIRHA of each different
temperature.
3. This research shows that increased burning
temperature for MIRHA produced concretes with
decreased porosity.
4. Porosity of MIRHA concretes are found lower
compared to RHA burnt at rice mills under high
temperature.
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