The Effect of Rice Husk Ash in Concrete

Construction materials are quite expensive and are barely affordable for an average man, which has led to the research of preferable substitutes for basic construction materials like cement and steel. With the large amount of the rice husk produced worldwide, a proper method of disposal is required or an alternative use of the rice husk is proffered, which leads to this project.During the course of this study, some tests were carried out. These include compressive strength test, split tensile strength test, flexural strength test, rapid chloride ion penetration test and water absorption test.The results showed that the compressive, tensile and flexural strengths of the control concrete were higher than that of other levels of cement replacement with rice husk ash (10%, 15%, 20%, 25%), but within the same range, while the water absorption test showed that the control concrete absorbed the least amount of water. The rapid chloride ion penetration test also showed that 10% cement replacement with rice husk ash is the least susceptible to chloride attack.From this research, it has been observed that the optimum replacement level of cement with rice husk ash is 10%.