Effect of coal bottom ash as a fine aggregate substitution on the engineering properties of hardened concrete

Abstract

The excessive extraction of natural river sand and stockpiling of coal bottom ash on landfills significantly caused many problems related to the environment and humans. The present study is aimed to investigate the effect of using coal bottom ash to partially or fully replace natural river sand in concrete. Five concrete mixtures were designed with a fixed water-to-binder ratio of 0.45. The bottom ash was used to replace 0, 30, 50, 70, and 100% river sand in the concrete mixture. Test results showed that the maximum compressive strength value of about 24 MPa was obtained with the concrete sample containing 30% bottom ash.