An Experimental Investigation Use of Fly Ash as Partial Replacement Cement in Concrete

Infrastructural development is at its peak all over the world and is a symbol of growth for any country. The most popular construction material is concrete which involves use of cement which is responsible for 7% of total world’s carbon dioxide emissions. Carbon dioxide is the main threat in causing global warming of the environment. The attempts have been made to reduce CO2 emissions in environment by all possible ways, but cement has not found a suitable replacement for it till date. Fly ash concrete is an effort in reducing cement content of construction. Fly ash concrete has economical and environmental advantages. It also makes concrete sustainable. In India, presently nearly 50% of fly ash produced is consumed. The paper aims at discussing the use of fly ash concrete in construction as a solution to address two environmental problems – one, disposal of huge amounts of fly ash, by production of thermal power plants, causing environmental degradation through large areas of landfills and two, high percentage of carbon dioxide emissions in the atmosphere from the cement industry.