Feasibility study on characterization and use of pond ash as fine aggregate in concrete beams under flexure

Concrete is the very important product used in all types of constructions. It plays a very vital role in every construction. Concrete is a freshly mixed material which can be molded into any shape. The relative quantities of cement fine aggregate coarse aggregate and water mixed together control the properties in the wet state as in the hardened state. Cement is manufactured in factories and it is made available up to the required optimum quantities for the construction field. But aggregates are naturally available and their availability is limited one. Since the construction industry is developing very fast the requirement of concrete and their constituent materials are also increasing day by day. Hence the need becomes inevitable to find various alternate means for the aggregates and accordingly the researchers are going on in this way. Now a day practically it seems most probably coarse aggregate is available without any scarcity. But the availability of fine aggregate becomes difficult day by day. Fine aggregate is taken from the river beds which are the natural sources for storing the river water. Hence more than the certain quantity of fine aggregate cannot be taken from natural resources. Hence the need arises to find alternative for the fine aggregate. The material which is known as pond ash is available ash waste byproduct material from the thermal power plants. In India most of the thermal power plants use wet system for disposal of ash. The bottom ash from the boilers and the fly ash from the precipitators are mixed together and pumped off in the form of slurry to lagoons, where water is drained of or recycled. This material is being referred as pond ash. In this project work the material pond ash is experimentally analyzed and studied for its suitability as replacement as fine aggregate in concrete. So far few researchers analyzed its suitability as fine aggregate by finding the compressive strength of concrete. But in this project work the split tensile strength of concrete and flexural strength of concrete were analyzed by replacing pond ash as fine aggregate.