Behaviour of colour adsorbed fly ash RCC beams with fibres

Fly ash particles consist of silica, alumina, oxides of iron, oxides of calcium, oxides of magnesium and toxic heavy metals such as lead, arsenic, cobalt and copper. In this research, an adopted new experimental method was found to be innovative and worked better to treat the textile effluent, a treatment in which the fly ash was effectively used as a colour adsorbent. The sludge – that is the colour adsorbed fly ash (CAF) – was then used in the preparation of the concrete by partially replacing the cement. The major advantage of using packed column set-up method with fly ash as an adsorbent is that one waste material (the fly ash) is used to treat another waste material (textile-processed effluent). CAF concrete and CAF reinforced cement concrete (RCC) beams with polypropylene fibres (CPPST) are studied and analysed in this work. The ultimate load-bearing capacity, ductility, energy absorption and toughness characteristics of RCC beams are quantified. With the addition of fibres, energy absorption and ductility characteristics are improved for RCC beams and hence, this system can be adopted in high seismic zone areas.