Determination of Creep Behavior of Concrete Beams Made with Rice Husk Ash

Creep in concrete is a long-term deformation under sustained loading. It is influenced by many factors, including constituent materials, environmental conditions, among others. Whenever there is an alteration in the convectional concrete preparation process, the creep characteristics need to be realistically assessed. In the present construction, rice husk ash has been used for partial replacement of cement in concrete production. This is because its properties of both tensile and compressive strength in concrete have been tested and found comparable with plain concrete. However, durability characteristics such as creep, which take place in the long run, have not been realistically assessed. Therefore, it is important to study the creep of rice husk ash concrete, which will further help in the development of a creep prediction model for such concrete for use by design engineers. Rice husk ash was used as supplementary cementitious material in concrete, and the creep behavior was studied with the aim of producing a creep prediction model for this concrete. The cement was replaced with 10% of rice husk ash in concrete with a design strength of 30MPA. Reinforced concrete beams were cast and loaded for flexural creep 35 days after casting. The loading level was 25% of the beam’s strength at the time of loading. The creep observation was done for 60 days. The rice husk used was obtained locally from Mwea irrigation scheme in Kenya. The experiments were carried out in our school laboratory at Jomo Kenyatta university of Agriculture and Technology. The creep strain data of rice husk ash concrete beams was obtained with the highest value of 620 micro strain for 60 days. The results were used to develop a creep prediction model for this concrete. A creep prediction model for rice husk ash concrete has been developed, which can be adopted by engineers for class 30 of concrete containing rice husk ash at a 10% replacement level.