Pond Ash: A Sustainable Building Material for Smart Cities

Abstract

 Abstract

Energy is the backbone of modern civilization of our country and thermal power plant is a major source of energy, in the form of electricity. Fly ash and pond ash are two by products of thermal power plant being produced at an alarming rate. Efforts are required to safely dispose it and if possible find better ways of utilizing it. Fly ash possesses pozzolanic character and it is being utilized for manufacturing of cement, bricks, soil stabilizations etc. But, pond ash loses its pozzolanic property due to being disposed off in large ponds or dykes as slurry. It contains relatively coarser particles, so it can be utilized as fine aggregate in concrete or mortar. The following benefits may be achieved by using pond ash to construct a more sustainable concrete or mortar. They are: (1) reducing the amount of hazardous material on site; (2) creating a new product that reduces the air born toxins, (3) reducing the cost of construction using a waste. In this paper, the pond ash is used in brick masonry mortar as a sand replacement material. Sand is replaced with pond ash partially as 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30, 35 and 40% by volume in brick masonry cement mortar and compressive strength is determined after 3, 7, 28 and 90 days curing. A prism test is also carried out and a relation between compressive strength of mortar cube and brick masonry prism is established by regression analysis.

Keyword: Sustainable material, compressive strength, prism test, regression analysis