Evaluating the effects of agricultural wastes on concrete and composite mechanical properties: a review

Wastes generation and emission of greenhouse gases are the major concerns of the contemporary world. Concrete’s cements companies in the globe are producing up to 2.8 billion tons of cements annually. This contributed to the emission of anthropogenic substances into the atmosphere which destroys the ozone layers. The incessant disposal of these agricultural wastes has detrimental effect on the environmental and human health. Thus, utilizing these wastes as secondary resources in concrete is a reasonable consideration in sustainable waste management in the circular economy. The use of agricultural wastes in concrete production has been gaining attraction in recent years, however, their effectiveness and performance in concrete need evaluation. This study presents an overview of the effects of some agricultural wastes: Bagasse, Coconut shell, Cotton, Oil palm and Hemp fibers on concrete and composite’s mechanical properties. As reviewed, Sugar-Cane Bagasse Ash (SCBA) and Coconut Shell Ash (CSA) are rich in cementitious (pozzolanic) properties (SiO2, Fe2O3 and Al2O3) for cement production up to 70%. Sugar-cane bagasse and oil palm-fiber ashes improved concrete workability. SCBA and CSA highly increased the concrete compressive strengths. The concrete tensile strengths were increased up to 97% with the inclusion of cotton and bagasse ashes. The SCBA, hemp-fiber and treated oil palm - fiber ash increased the concrete and composite’s flexural strengths up to 11.3%, 26.2% and 50.7% respectively. In conclusion, the output of this review will supply full data of the research gaps yet to cover on the use of agro-wastes in concrete for future investigations

A review of the effect and optimization of use of nano-TiO2 in cementitious composites

There are some problems and weaknesses related to cement-based materials, such as their very low tensile strength, low chemical resistance and the huge contribution of cement production to industrial CO2 emissions. One possible method to reduce the impacts of such problems is the partial replacement of cement in cementitious materials with nano materials. This work provides a detailed review of incorporation of one of the most widely used nano materials, namely nano-titanium dioxide, and its effect on the properties of cementitious composites. Different properties have been considered in the current study, such as fresh properties, mechanical properties (compressive strength, split tensile strength and flexural strength), durability (permeability, ultrasonic pulse velocity (UPV), electrical resistivity, carbonation resistance, freeze and thaw resistance and sulfate attack resistance) and microstructural properties. This paper also investigates the optimum content of nano-TiO2 in cement-based materials. Moreover, the cost effectiveness of use on nano-titania in cementitious composites has been discussed. Nano titania reduces the workability and setting time of cement-based materials. It can be very effective in improving the mechanical properties, durability and microstructural properties of cementitious composites.

Analysis of effect of variation of Honeycomb core cell size and sandwich panel width on the stiffness of a sandwich structure

A sandwich structure consists of three main parts i.e. the facing skins, the core and the adhesive. It acts in a way similar to that of the I- Beam. In this research, a sandwich structure has been designed with a regular hexagon honey-comb core made up of Kevlar® and face sheet of carbon fiber. The design has been modelled and the model has also been validated with the experimental and analytical method. Six different configurations of sandwich structures have been proposed. Out of these six, three configurations have the varying cell size i.e. 3.2 mm, 4 mm and 4.8 mm and the other three configurations have the varying panel width i.e. 40 mm, 45 mm and 50 mm keeping rest of the design parameters unchanged. Using ANSYS, analysis has been performed for all these six configurations and equivalent stiffness has been calculated. It has been observed that the honeycomb core cell size does not have a significant effect on the stiffness properties of a composite sandwich panel. The analysis also reveals that with the increased panel width the stiffness of composite panel increases significantly.