Behaviour of a sustainable concrete in acidic environment

Abstract

Sustainability has become one of the most important considerations in building design and construction in recent years. Concrete is susceptible to acid attack because of its alkaline nature. The socioeconomic losses associated with infrastructure deterioration due to acid attack exceed billions of dollars all around the world. An experimental investigation was carried out to study the behaviour of sustainable concrete in 3% sulphuric acid and 1.5% nitric acid environment in which cement was replaced by a combination of fly ash and ultra fine fly ash. It was found that the compressive strength loss of concrete in these acid environments was the minimum in which cement was replaced by 30% fly ash and 10% ultra fine fly ash. This mix also showed the lowest mass loss when exposed to these acids.