Detailed Investigation on Concrete Using Lime Sludge from Sugar Industry

The sand requirement for construction activities increased proportionately but, all the materials required for producing cement and concrete are obtained from the earth's crust only. Hence, the natural resources are exploited in an extremely high manner and resulted in depletion of the same and creating environmental strain. The increase in demand for the ingredients of concrete is met by partial replacement of the materials by the solid waste products obtained by means of human activities on the earth. Lime sludge is one of such waste material obtained from agricultural industry by processing sugarcane. The annual production of sugar in our country comes around 110 million tons. For every 660 tons of sugar cane crushed, about 2 tons of lime sludge is produced. Experimental investigations have been made to study the suitability of the use of lime sludge as a waste material from sugar industry for sand replacement in concrete in order to reduce the environmental problems. This experimental study is aimed to utilize such lime sludge as a partial replacement material for sand in concrete and to study the suitability of this waste material for sand replacement. M20 grade of concrete is taken for investigation. The sand is replaced by lime sludge from 0% to 30% with an increment of 5%. The concrete mix design is done as per IS 10262-2009 for various percentage of replacement of sand. The properties studied include the durability tests such as acid resistance and flexural strength for various percentage of replacement of sand by lime sludge. The investigations show that the lime sludge can be effectively used in concrete up to 10% replacement of sand without affecting much of its strength characteristics