This paper investigates the properties of rice husk ash (RHA) produced by using a ferro-cement furnace. The effect of grinding on the particle size and the surface area was first investigated, then the XRD analysis was conducted to verify the presence of amorphous silica in the ash. Furthermore, the effect of RHA average particle size and percentage on concrete workability, fresh density, superplasticizer (SP) content and the compressive strength were also investigated. Although grinding RHA would reduce its average particle size (APS), it was not the main factor controlling the surface area and it is thus resulted from RHA's multilayered, angular and microporous surface. Incorporation of RHA in concrete increased water demand. RHA concrete gave excellent improvement in strength for 10% replacement (30.8% increment compared to the control mix), and up to 20% of cement could be valuably replaced with RHA without adversely affecting the strength. Increasing RHA fineness enhanced the strength of blended concrete compared to coarser RHA and control OPC mixtures.

The assessment of magnesium sulphate attack on concretes containing rice husk ash (RHA, 20wt% of the cementitious materials) with various average particle sizes was investigated. The total cementitious materials were 390 kg and the water-to-binder ratio (W/B) was 0.53 for all mixtures. Specimens were initially cured in water for 7 d and then immersed in the 3wt% magnesium sulphate solution for up to 111 d of exposure. The specimens were subjected to drying-wetting cycles to accelerate sulphate attack. In addition to the visual monitoring of the specimens, the concrete specimens were subsequently tested for compressive strength, dynamic modulus of elasticity, and length and mass changes. The results show that the specimens exposed to sulphate attack exhibit higher strength and dynamic modulus than those kept in water. The length change is negligible and can be attributed to the normal swelling of concrete. On the other hand, concretes suffers mass loss and surface spalling and softening; the fine RHA-concrete results in a better resistance. For the accelerated sulphate attack method used in this study, mass change and visual monitoring are recommended for assessing the deterioration degree and the effectiveness of supplementary cementitious materials to resist sulphate attack.