Permeability and expansion of concrete mortars made with incinerator fly ash

The main theme of this research is to investigate the durability of concrete made using waste materials as a cement replacement in order to produce green sustainable concrete. The mixes contained incinerator fly ash which was obtained locally from the domestic waste incinerator at Coventry. The other materials used in the mixes included blast furnace slag, silica fume and kiln bypass dust, which was used as an activator and was also obtained locally from the Rugby cement plant. Mix designs were developed to optimise the strength results. The optimised mixes were then tested for permeability and expansion. Promising results were achieved for the expansion of the mixes with a low W/B ratio. Some initial expansion was, however, observed for the wet cured samples. Some loss of mass was observed after wet curing, despite strength increases, indicating some dissolution into the curing water.