Development of sugarcane bagasse ash based Portland pozzolana cement and evaluation of compatibility with superplasticizers

Sugarcane bagasse ash is a by-product from sugar industries and can be used as supplementary cementitious material in concrete. The development of new cementitious blends with processed sample of sugarcane bagasse ash is described in this paper. Utilization of various supplementary cementitious materials significantly influences fresh and hardened properties of concrete. Interaction of pozzolanic material with cement and chemical admixtures produces diverse effects in the fresh properties of blended cement concrete. This paper aims to ascertain the effect of different bagasse ash replacements of cement on the compatibility with superplasticizers in cement paste. Sugarcane bagasse ash based Portland pozzolana cements were produced with three different levels of replacement – 10%, 15%, and 20%. Marsh cone and mini-slump test were used to determine the effect of superplasticizer type and water binder ratio on the saturation dosage. From this study, it was observed that polycarboxylic ether based superplasticizer was more compatible with bagasse ash blended cement than sulphonated naphthalene based superplasticizer.