Towards Sustainability: An Experimental and Analytical Investigation of an Agricultural Waste as a Pozzolanic Material in Concrete Mixtures

The aim of the current study was to explore the potential use of Ethiopian rice husk ash in concrete properties using various replacement levels. A detailed laboratory investigation was conducted to evaluate the chemical, physical, and mechanical properties of normal grade concrete specimens with the addition of finely grounded rice husk ash collected from Fogera Area, Ethiopia. Consequently, a total of 96 concrete cube specimens were molded in varying degrees of proportions of ground risk husk ash including 5%, 10%, 15%, and 20% replacement levels and 12 cube specimens with the addition of superplasticizing admixture. All concrete specimens were cured in a laboratory setting, and compressive strength results were recorded at 3, 7, 28, and 56 curing days. The findings reveal that the Ethiopian rice husk ash is suitable for 5% to 15% replacement levels. However, the slump flow and density of specimens’ tests show that the results have decreased with an increase in rice husk ash level of replacement. Further, the laboratory test results were then validated using a two-way factorial analysis of variance (ANOVA) and post hoc tests.