Abstract:
In this study, calcium carbide residue, a by-product from acetylene gas, was mixed withrice husk ash, a residue from burning rice husk, to be used as cementitious material. The calciumcarbide residue used in this study was sun-dried and then ground to small particle size retainingon sieve No. 325 not more than 10 percent by weight. The ground calcium carbide residue wasdivided into 2 portions, the first one was mixed with rice husk ash to form mortar, the secondone was burned at 6OO0C for 3 hours. The burned calcium carbide residue was also mixed withrice husk ash to form mortar. For rice husk ash, it was also ground to small particle size retainingon sieve No. 325 not more than 10 percent by weight. Physical properties such as normalconsistency and setting time of pastes made from the mixture of calcium carbide residue and ricehusk ash were tested. The mixture was also used as cementing material to make mortars. Flowand compressive strengths of mortars were investigated.The result showed that, normal consistency of paste of calcium carbide residue and ricehusk ash required higher water with the increased of rice husk ash in the mixture. The settingtimes of the new cementitious material pastes were longer than those of the cement paste. Themortar made from calcium carbide residue to rice hush ash of 50:50 gave the highestcompressive strength of 156 ksc at 28 days while the control mortar had 309 ksc at the same ageor 2 time higher. At the age of 180 days, the compressive strength of mortar of calcium carbideresidue-rice husk ash mixture increased to 191 ksc or equaled to 55 percent of the control mortarwhich was 347 ksc.The research results suggested that both of materials can produce compressive strengthof mortar high enough to use for some construction work without using any of cement. Thecompressive strength of mortar of 150 ksc can be used for making pipe of sewage, pedestrianpavement, lean concrete etc.