Mechanical behaviour of composite produced with quarry dust and rice husk ash for sustainable building applications

Over the years, the cost and environmental issues with the utilization of conventional building materials such as cement and river sand for housing projects kept increasing with the increase in the human population. This has led researchers to explore alternative building materials that are affordable and sustainable. This study is aimed at developing a sustainable composite using quarry dust (QD) and rice husk ash (RHA). Different percentages of QD and RHA (5%, 10%, 15%, 20% and 25% wt/wt) were used for the partial replacement of river sand and cement respectively to produce non-conventional composite samples and conventional composite samples were produced using cement and river sand. The produced composites were moulded into block samples and cured at different curing ages (7, 14, 21, 28 and 56 days). Compressive strength results of the block samples were obtained using a Universal testing machine. The compressive strength of the samples increased with an increase in the curing age. The bulk density of non-conventional composite samples was found to be lower than that of conventional composite samples. The failure pattern of the conventional composite samples showed several localized shear surfaces/multiple cracks while that of non-conventional composite samples indicated delamination of outer surfaces. The study indicates that QD and RHA could be used for partial replacement of river sand and cement respectively in developing sustainable building materials.