Assessment of Strength of Concrete containing ESP and IESP as Partial Cement Replacement

Abstract

In the present era of technically feasible and environmentally compatible low-cost material substitution with the basic ingredients of conventional concrete mix, the infusion of eggshell powder in its raw as well as incinerated forms was tried with the cement mantle. Experimentations carried out to endorse the compressive strength, split tensile strength, flexural strength, workability and durability aspects revealed that it had the edge over the properties standardized for the conventional concrete mix at a specific mix strength of 20 MPa. The experimental results for variations in the treatments of eggshell powder and incinerated eggshell powder corresponding to the responses on the evaluation parameters were compared with the conventional concrete mix by means of regression analysis and modelling. The regression model at more than 95% correlation level of the experimental data fortified the relative supremacy of eggshell powder and incinerated eggshell powder-infused concrete mixes over the conventional concrete mix in terms of workability, strength, and durability. Based on the statistical regression point of inflexion and the point of tolerance, it was clearly established that 20% optimal proportional addition of eggshell powder or 30% addition of incinerated eggshell powder could result in a superlative performance compared to the conventional concrete mix. This final outcome of the optimal combinations of eggshell powder and incinerated eggshell powder incorporated concrete (EPIC) was also test verified by SEM and EDAX analyses.