UNIT-1

LECTURE - 6
LIGHT WEIGHT CONSTRUCTION MATERIALS

Brig. S.K. Sharma (Retd.)

Pro Vice Chancellor and Professor
Department of Civil Engineering,
The Northcap University, Gurgaon

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INDEX
WASTE MATERIAL BASED CONCRETE
ORGANIC WASTES
INORGANIC WASTES

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WASTE MATERIAL-BASED CONCRETE

Recent investigations have made it possible to make

concrete using agro, urban and industrial waste
materials. Successful utilization of a waste material
depends on its use being economically competitive
with the alternate natural materials. These costs are
primarily made up of handling, processing and
transportation.
The stability and durability of products made of
concrete using waste materials over the expected life
span is of utmost importance, particularly in relation
to building and structural applications. The forms in
which they are used are wide and varied: they may
be used as a binder material, as partial
replacement of conventional Portland cements
or directly as aggregates in their natural or
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University, Gurgaon
processed

For discussion waste materials may be classified as

Organic wastes (agro-wastes), Inorganic wastes
(urban wastes) and Industrial wastes.

A. ORGANIC WASTES
The waste materials included in this category are of
plant origin, namely sawdust, coconut pith, rice
husk, wheat husk, groundnut husk, etc. It must
be appreciated that development of concrete using
such aggregates is still in early stages and published
data are limited. Before using organic wastes on a
large scale as constituents in concrete, careful
investigations
regarding
their
structural
properties and durability need be carried out.
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Uses
Of
Materials

Natural

Organic

Waste

They are used for making lighweight concrete.

However, they often contain substances (cement
poisons) which retard the hydration and hardening
of cement which need be neutralized appropriately.
Moreover, it is difficult to obtain a waste material
which is not a mixture of several species.
Consequently, there is a considerable variation
in results from batch to batch. The lightweight
concrete produced using organic wastes have
comparatively high moisture movement and show
relatively higher percentage of volume changes.

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RICE HUSK
Huge quantities of rice husk are generated in rice mills.
Each tonne of paddy produces about 200 kg of husk.
Because of its very low density, rice husk requires large
space for storage and hauling. In India, it is disposed of
by burning, thus reducing the bulky waste to
manageable volumes of ash of less than 50 per cent of
its initial volume but open burning creates severe
pollution problems.
Rick husk contains only very small quantities of watersoluble cement poisons as compared to saw dust. It has
a low bulk density of only 100 to 150 kg/m3. The
light weight concrete of bulk density 600 kg/m3,
produced using rice husk as an aggregate is
suitable mainly for making precast blocks and
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slabs
for walls and partitions.

Central building Research Institute, Roorkee has

developed a cheap cementing material from rice
husk and waste lime sludge available from the
sugar and paper industries. The dried cakes of
mixture of sludge and rice husk are burnt, and the
burnt material on grinding yields a fast-setting
gray-colored cementing material which can be
used in place of cement or lime in mortars for
brick masonry work, plastering and foundation
concreting.

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RICE-HUSK ASH CEMENT CONCRETE: The compressive strengths

of concretes made with rice-husk ash cement using siliceous gravel and
crushed limestone are given in the Table below. The 28-day compressive
strength using crushed limestone aggregate is about 23 per cent higher
than that obtained using gravel aggregate, probably due to the formation of
a stronger interfacial bond between the cement paste and aggregate.
Because of black color of rice-husk cements, these cements can be
used to make permanent black concrete for glare-free pavements
and architectural applications. These concretes show better long-term color
stability than that obtained by using coloring pigments.

Aggregate
type

Crushed
aggregate
Gravel
aggregate
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Compressive strength, MPa

3 days
7 days
28 days

29

39

47

24

33

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Rice-husk ash when mixed with sand and lime

in suitable proportions with an appropriate quantity
of water can be used to cast bricks. These require
air curing followed by wet curing before being used.
The rice-husk ash bricks have a density of 14001600 kg/m3 and compressive strength of 5-6 Mpa.
The water absorption is 15-20 per cent.

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B. INORGANIC WASTE
The inorganic wastes which are hard, particularly, the
demolition waste such as broken concrete, broken bricks
and crushed glass can be used to produce concretes of
requisite strength and durability.
BROKEN OR RECYCLED CONCRETE: Huge quantities
of building rubble become available each year by the
way of demolition of old structures to make way for new
and modern ones due to rapid urbanization. The
quantities increase tremendously during massive
reconstruction after devastating earthquakes. Disposal
of such materials is difficult in view of the scarcity of
suitable
dumping
grounds,
and
meeting
the
environmental requirements. Hence, the broken
concrete is increasingly being recycled. Recycled
concrete is simply the old concrete that has been
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removed
from buildings, foundations, pavements

The basic requirements for recycled aggregates for

concrete construction is that the original concrete
shall be sound, hard, normal concrete. As a rule,
recycled concrete aggregate of distinctly different
qualities shall be used separately. The cement mortar
attached to the recycled aggregate primarily
determines the performance of recycled concrete.
Finishing materials, reinforcing bars and other
embedded material, if any, in the original concrete
shall be removed in the best possible way.
Recycled aggregates shall not contain excessive
amounts of dirt, plaster of Paris or gypsum and other
injurious foreign matter like wood and asphalt which
may adversely affect recycled aggregate concrete and
steel used therein.
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PRODUCTION: The basic method of the recycling

concrete is one of crushing the debris to produce a
granular product of given particle size and then
reprocessing and screening, the degree of which
depends on the level of contamination and the
application for which recycled aggregate is produced.
Recycled aggregates normally have more angular
shape and more coarser surface and exhibit more or
less similar particle size distribution as that for natural
aggregate.

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PROPERTIES
OF
RECYCLED
AGGREGATE
CONCRETE: The concrete produced with recycled
aggregate loses its workability more rapidly than the
conventional concrete, because recycled aggregate is
more porous than natural aggregate. Thus concrete
with recycled concrete aggregate may require 5
to 10 per cent more mixing water to achieve the
same workability as the gravel concrete. If both
fine and coarse aggregates are recycled
aggregates, around 15 per cent more free water is
required.

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APPLICATIONS: Utilization of recycled concrete in the

form of aggregate is widely accepted for pavements,
base and sub-base courses and to some extent for
foundation purposes. The lean concretes produced using
recycled aggregate are called econo cretes and have resulted
in a saving in the cost of construction of order of 30 percent.
BROKEN-BRICK AGGREGATE CONCRETE: Broken brick is a
waste product obtained as rejected overburnt or damaged
bricks in brick work and at construction sites. Brokenbrick aggregate is obtained by crushing waste bricks
and has a density varying between 1600-2000 kg/m3. It
is used in concrete for foundation in light buildings, flooring and
walkways. Broken-brick aggregate may also be used in
lightweight reinforced concrete floors. Broken-brick concrete
can be designed to obtain the compressive strength between 15
MPa to 35 Mpa generally required in practice and such a
concrete possesses satisfactory structural properties.
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Thank You

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