Optimising the Workability and Strength of Concrete Modified with Anacardium Occidentale Nutshell Ash

Abstract

Strength failure persists both in structural and mechanical analysis. One of its prominent characteristics is the adequate provision for parameters that minimise or maximise strength objectives while satisfying boundary conditions. The previous optimisation of concrete strength usually neglects mix design mechanisms induced by optimisation. Recent efforts to accurately optimise the concrete compressive strength have factored in some of these mechanisms. However, optimising concrete strength modified with high silica and alumina precursors, and crucial mix design factors are rare. Consequently, this paper optimised the concrete workability and strength, incorporating binding, water/binder ratio, binder/aggregate ratio, and curing mechanisms using the Box–Behnken design approach (BBDA). A waste material, anacardium occidentale (cashew) nutshell ash, was valorised and used at 5, 10, and 15 wt.% of cement. The composites were made, cured and tested at 14–90 d. The results revealed a high precision between the experimental slump and the optimisation slump at 97% R2. In addition, a 5% increase in compressive strength was obtained compared with the target compressive strength. Besides, the correlation between the model equation obtained from this study and predictions of previous studies via BBDA yielded a strong relationship.

Cement-Based Concrete Modified with Vitellaria Paradoxa Ash: A Lifecycle Assessment

“…5, the results revealed a marginal decrease in strength with increasing VPA content in the mix at all concrete strength grades. The reason could be related to the passive rate of pozzolanic reaction between VPA and Portlandite (Ca(OH) 2 ) produced by the PLC hydration, retarding the strength development [73][74][75]. However, a 5-15 wt% of VPA substitution met the 28-day target strengths for all concrete strength grades.…”

“…The concrete compressive strength (fc) was tested at 28 days of curing, following the BS EN 12390-3 [72] 's procedure and relevant studies [73][74][75] via the 2000 kN maximum capacity compressive testing machine, Model: YES 2000. For the analysis, an average of three samples crushed was used.…”

Exploring the potential of cashew nutshells: A critical review of alternative applications

“…The construction industry relies heavily on materials, particularly cement composites (Tantri et al 2021). Unfortunately, cement production contributes significantly to CO2 emissions and incurs high energy costs (Thirumurugan et al 2018;Oyebisi et al 2019Oyebisi et al , 2021Mendu and Pannem 2021). To address this problem, researchers have explored CNS-derived supplementary cementitious materials (SCMs) pretreated at different temperatures such as CNS ash (CNSA) (Lima and Rossignolo 2010;Pandi and Ganesan 2015;Thirumurugan et al 2018;Oyebisi et al 2019Oyebisi et al , 2021Tantri et al 2021Tantri et al , 2022, uncalcined CNS (burned below 400 °C), and CNS powder (CNSP) (Pavithra et al 2020).…”

Systematic Experimental Assessment of POFA Concrete Incorporating Waste Tire Rubber Aggregate

“…In addition, p -value and F -value were also taken into account to validate the significance of the proposed equation. The achievement of high F-value and p -value less than 0.005 led to considering the equation is significant [ 78 ]. …”