Shear strength of reinforced sugarcane bagasse ash-laterised concrete beams

Abstract

The need to utilise waste and locally available materials in the construction industry have necessitated research in them in different parts of the world. This study describes tests on experimental shear behaviour of concrete containing sugarcane bagasse ash and laterite as partial replacement of cement and sand, respectively. Concrete mix of 1:2:4 with a constant slump of 30 ± 2 mm was used to produce 7 beam specimens. The shear span/effective depth ratio was kept constant at 1.5. The results show that (a) the mode of failure of the beams is affected by the partial replacement levels (b) the ultimate cracking load decreases with load deceases with increase in the partial replacement levels (c) the ultimate shearing stress decreases with increase in the partial replacement level (d) all the beams with up to 15% replacement of cement by sugarcane bagasse ash and 20% replacement of sand by laterite soil gave higher shear strength than the control beam without shear reinforcement and finally (e) the presence of the sugarcane bagasse ash and laterite soil improves the deflection at ultimate applied load in comparison with that of the control specimen.