Contribution of Rice Husk Ash to the Properties of Mortar and Concrete: A Review

In the last decade, the use of supplementary cementing materials has become an integral part of high strength and high performance concrete mix design. These can be natural materials, by-products or industrial wastes, or the ones requiring less energy and time to produce. Some of the commonly used supplementary cementing materials are fly ash, Silica Fume (SF), Ground Granulated Blast Furnace Slag (GGBFS) and Rice Husk Ash (RHA) etc. RHA is a by-product material obtained from the combustion of rice husk which consists of non-crystalline silicon dioxide with high specific surface area and high pozzolanic reactivity. It is used as pozzolanic material in mortar and concrete, and has demonstrated significant influence in improving the mechanical and durability properties of mortar and concrete. This paper presents an overview of the work carried out on the use of RHA as partial replacement of cement in mortar and concrete. Reported properties in this study are the mechanical, durability and fresh properties of mortar/concrete.