Utilization of fly ash and cow dung ash as partial replacement of cement in concrete

The consumption of cement in concrete industries has been increasing day by day to fulfil the pressing needs of infrastructure due to growing population, industrialization and urbanization. The production of cement poses environmental problems due to emission of gaseous pollutants. Huge amount of fly ash generation have been causing waste disposal problems. Cow dung is used as fuel for the domestic purpose, which generates solid waste as ash. In this study, an attempt was made to replace the cement using fly ash and cow dung ash. Two sets of cubes of M20 grade for the rock and brick as coarse aggregate were prepared separately. These sets were prepared using different proportions of cement, fly ash and cow dung ash. Then the cubes were cured for the period of 3 days, 7 days, 14 days, 21 days and 28 days. The compressive strengths of all the cubes were determined using a Universal Testing Machine. Though the compressive strength of rock aggregate with cement was the highest but at some curing periods, the strength of brick aggregate with proportions of different mixtures were observed higher than the rock aggregate. The study revealed that fly ash and cow dung ash can be used as partial replacement of cement in concrete.