Waste Management 29 (2009) 1526–1531

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Waste Management
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/wasman

Quick monitoring of pozzolanic reactivity of waste ashes

Suppachai Sinthaworn *, Pichai Nimityongskul
School of Engineering and Technology, Asian Institute of Technology, P.O. Box 4, Klong Luang, Pathumthani 12120, Thailand

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: This article proposes a quick method of monitoring for pozzolanic reactivity of waste ashes by investigat-
Accepted 14 November 2008 ing the electrical conductivity of the suspension at an elevated temperature. This suspension is obtained
Available online 7 January 2009 by mixing tested pozzolan with an ordinary Portland cement (OPC) solution produced by mixing ordinary
Portland cement with water. For comparison, silica fume, metakaolin, rice husk ash and river sand –
whose pozzolanic reactivities range from reactive to inert – were used in the experimental investigation.
The electrical conductivity of the suspension was continually recorded by using an electrical conductivity
meter and stored by using a personal computer for a period of slightly over 1 day. The indicative param-
eters that can be related to pozzolanic reactivity were discussed and analyzed in detail. It was found that
it is possible to determine the pozzolanic reactivity of fly ash within 28 h by using the proposed tech-
nique, as compared to 7 or 28 days for the determination of strength activity index according to ASTM.
This technique would help concrete technologists to speedily investigate the quality of fly ash for use as a
cement replacement in order to alleviate pollution caused by cement production and solve disposal prob-
lems of waste ashes.
Ó 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction adopted in order to obtain a better pozzolanic property of waste

More than two million tons per year of fly ash, which are con-
tinuously produced, and abundant agricultural waste ashes in
Thailand – namely rice husk ash, bagasse ash and palm oil fuel
ash – are wastes which are normally disposed in landfills. These
wastes in landfills have an adverse effect on the environment, cre-
ating air pollution due to small dust and groundwater pollution as
a result of leaching of metals from the fly ashes during disposal
(Iyer, 2002; Ferreira et al., 2003). Using waste ashes as a pozzolanic
material to replace cement can reduce the consumption of cement
and reduce landfill area requirements. This in turn helps solve
environmental problems caused by cement production, decreasing
both energy used and CO2 emissions. It is well known that CO2 is a
major contributor to the greenhouse effect and the global warming
of the earth (IPCC, 1996; Tietenberg, 2003).
Pozzolanic material was defined as a siliceous or siliceous and
aluminous material which in itself possesses little or no cementi-
tious value but will, in finely divided form and in the presence of
moisture, chemically react with calcium hydroxide at ordinary
temperatures to form compounds possessing cementitious proper-
ties (ASTM C 618, 1999). According to Neville (1999), pozzolanic
reactivity results in increased concrete strength.
Currently, the utilization of waste materials as pozzolanic mate-
rial for partial replacement in concrete has been widely developed.
Usually, mechanical treatment such as grinding is successfully
* Corresponding author. Tel.: +662 524 6586; fax: +662 524 6059.
E-mail address: Suppachai.Sinthaworn@ait.ac.th (S. Sinthaworn).
ashes (Paya et al., 1995; Kiattikomol et al., 2001; Shi and Day,
2001; Cheerarot and Jaturapitakkul, 2004; Tangchirapat et al.,
2007). However, the improvement of the pozzolanic property is
based on a higher value of the strength activity index (ASTM C
311, 1998), which is mainly caused by two primary effects: the
pozzolanic effect, and the packing effect of the finer particles
(Goldman and Bentur, 1993; Tangpagasit et al., 2005). In other
words, the strength activity index according to ASTM C 311
(1998) not only shows the contribution of pozzolanic reactivity
but also includes the packing effect to improve the compressive
strength. Besides, in the case of fly ash, the small spherical-shaped
particles lubricate the mortar or concrete mixtures (Mora et al.,
1993; Neville, 1999). Using fly ash will automatically reduce the
water-to-binder ratio (w/b) for the same consistency, which is a
control parameter as specified in the determination of the strength
activity index. Consequently, tested mortar with fly ash yields a
high strength activity index due to the reduction of water demand.
In addition, assessing the pozzolanic activity by the standard test
methods for sampling and testing fly ash or natural pozzolans for
use as a mineral admixture in Portland cement concrete (ASTM C
311, 1998) requires a long time (normally 7 or 28 days) to obtain
the pozzolanic property in terms of the strength activity index.
Therefore, to determine only the pozzolanic effect of pozzolans in
a short time will help concrete technologists to speedily select
the appropriate reactive waste ashes for use as a cement replace-
ment in concrete, and also results in solving pollution problems.
Recently, the electrical impedance or conductivity measure-
ments have proved useful in monitoring setting and hardening

0956-053X/$ - see front matter Ó 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.wasman.2008.11.010
 S. Sinthaworn, P. Nimityongskul / Waste Management 29 (2009) 1526–1531 1527

processes within Portland cement pastes, and in investigating the Table 1

pozzolanic reaction of lime-pozzolan suspensions (McCarter and Chemical composition and physical properties of Portland cement and pozzolans used
in this study.
Afshar, 1988; Luxan et al., 1989; Tran McCarter and Tran, 1996;
Paya et al., 2001). In the case of Portland cement, it has been found Oxide (%) Cement FA RHA MK SF RS
that, when mixed with water, cement produces a solution super- SiO2 21.45 36.38 91.07 52.26 93.00 88.94a
saturated with calcium hydroxide, Ca(OH)2 (Neville, 1999). It is Al2O3 4.64 20.95 2.00 44.41 0.40 5.09a
well known that pozzolan, in the presence of moisture, will chem- Fe2O3 3.05 13.65 1.13 1.23 1.20 1.74a
CaO 64.99 19.68 0.59 0.04 0.20 2.79a
ically react with Ca(OH)2 (ASTM C 618, 1999; Neville, 1999). Be- SO3 2.47 1.44 0.33 0.01 0.30 na
side, pozzolans react also with C3A or its products of hydration Na2O 0.09 1.98 0.01 0.14 0.10 na
(Collepardi et al., 1978). To simulate the aqueous phase of a pozzo- MgO 0.88 2.99 0.57 0.01 1.20 na
lan–concrete mixture, products from the hydration reaction of ce- K2O 0.59 2.25 2.66 1.73 1.10 2.79a
LOI. 1.33 0.09 na na 0.75 na
ment with water were used as reactant when monitoring the
Specific gravity 3.15 2.43 2.16 2.54 2.10 2.52
pozzolanic reactivity of tested pozzolan. Moreover, it was noted Blaine fineness (cm2/g) 3000 7100 11,100 8000 na na
that elevated ambient temperature techniques could accelerate
FA = fly ash; RHA = rice husk ash; MK = metakaolin; SF = silica fume; RS = river sand
the pozzolanic reactivity (Neville, 1999; Paya et al., 2001; Shi and
and na = not applicable.
Day, 2001). These techniques can increase the chemical reaction a
From Kiattikomol et al. (2000).
rate, as in accelerated curing of concrete.
The objective of this study is to propose a new alternative tech-
nique for quick monitoring of the pozzolanic reactivity of pulver- specific gravity – were 0.57%, 2.48, 2.50 and 2.52, respectively.
ized fly ash within 28 h. In order to compare the pozzolanicity of The fineness modulus was selected to be 3.05, which is close to
fly ash with other pozzolans, silica fume, metakaolin, rice husk the upper limit according to ASTM C 33 (1999). This was chosen
ash and river sand – whose pozzolanic reactivities range from reac- in order to reduce the packing effect by fine particles of sand,
tive to inert – were also obtained. The evaluation of pozzolanic which could influence the compressive strength. The other type
activity was investigated based on the change in electrical conduc- was natural river sand, used as an inert material for partial replace-
tivity for tested pozzolans dispersed in an ordinary Portland ce- ment of cement in tested mortar. It was oven-dried and sieved
ment (OPC) solution obtained from mixing OPC and water at a through sieve #50 and retained on sieve #100 before use.
high constant suspension temperature of 80 °C. The electrical con-
ductivity of the suspension was continually recorded by using an 2.2. Preparation of OPC solution
electrical conductivity meter and stored by using a personal com-
puter. This research establishes a new technique for quick evalua- The specially prepared solution, called OPC solution, was pre-
tion of the pozzolanic reactivity of waste ashes. An additional pared by mixing approximately 350 g of ordinary Portland cement
benefit of this technique is an environmentally sound method for type I with 1000 mL of water. It was stirred and stored for about
disposing of the waste. 30 min to allow precipitation to take place. After the mixture
was clear, it was carefully poured, and kept the clear solution (al-
most without dregs) in a sealed container to protect against car-
2. Experimental program bonation. If the OPC solution is prepared according to the mix
proportion mentioned above, the initial electrical conductivity of
2.1. Materials this solution would be found to be within a range of 10–11 mS/
cm at a reference temperature of 25 °C. The initial electrical con-
Materials used in this investigation consisted of Portland ce- ductivity was fixed in this range in order to avoid the influence
ment type 1, pozzolans and river sand. Ordinary Portland cement of an initial concentration which could affect the potential activity
(OPC) (Elephant brand, complying with ASTM Type I, manufac- in the solution. However, if the initial electrical conductivity is not
tured by Siam Cement Co., Ltd.) was used. Condensed silica fume, within this range due to the variation in the properties of cement,
Force 10000D was obtained from W.R. Grace & Co., Thailand. Pul- the initial electrical conductivity could be adjusted by either add-
verized fly ash obtained from Mae-Moh lignite power plant, Lamp- ing cement or distilled water. This initial range of electrical con-
ang province, Thailand, was used. Kaolin was obtained from ductivity was selected because the solution is already
Ranong. It was collected after sieving through mesh No. 325 and supersaturated with Ca(OH)2. Besides, increasing the electrical
burnt in an incinerator at 800 °C for 6 h (Sayamipuk, 2000). Then, conductivity beyond this concentration level is difficult. When a
the metakaolin was ground in the grinding machine developed pozzolan which contains calcium is added to an OPC solution, a
by Islam (1981) for 1 h. Rice husk was obtained from Ayuthaya. precipitation of Ca(OH)2 might be produced because the ionic
It was burnt in an open chamber with maximum temperature of product becomes greater than the solubility product.
650 °C. After gray color rice husk ash was obtained, it was ground
in the grinding machine for 45 min (Prabin, 2003). Oxide analyses 2.3. Testing regime
and physical characteristics of the materials used in the experi-
ment are presented in Table 1. The percentages of main chemical A 250-mL flask containing 200 mL of the solution was placed on
composition (SiO2 + Al2O3 + Fe2O3) of pulverized fly ash (hereinaf- a magnetic stirrer with hotplate, as shown in Fig. 1, and heated un-
ter referred to as FA), rice husk ash (RHA), metakaolin (MK) silica til its temperature became stable at 80 ± 1 °C. Then 1.0 g of tested
fume (SF) and river sand (RS) were 71.0%, 94.2%, 97.9%, 94.6% sample was added to the solution under continuous stirring. The
and 95.8%, respectively. suspension was continuously stirred at 80 ± 1 °C, with a stirrer
Two types of natural river sand were used in this testing. The bar and the flask was sealed with rubber cork to protect against
first type was fine aggregate, used in casting mortar specimen; carbonation during the measurement. An electrical conductivity
and the other was regarded as unknown material for comparison meter (model Cond 340i, WTW brand) with serial interface output
with other pozzolans. The fine aggregate was air-dried before was used to measure the electrical conductivity (with nonlinear
being sieved by a mechanical sieving machine to obtain the re- temperature compensation according to EN 27 888) and tempera-
quired grading according to ASTM C 33 (1999). The physical prop- ture. A personal computer using software which can read (via
erties – absorption(%), bulk specific gravity (SSD) and apparent interface) the output every minute over a duration extending from
1528 S. Sinthaworn, P. Nimityongskul / Waste Management 29 (2009) 1526–1531
Meter probe
Conductimeter
&
Thermometer
Stirrer bar
Heat control knob Stirrer control knob
Magnetic stirrer with hotplate
Fig. 1. Schematic diagram of test setup.
4 to 28 h, as shown in Fig. 1, was used to record the data. The mea-
surements showed the electrical conductivity decrease to be very
low at later times, which indicates that the electrical conductivity
had stabilized.
2.4. Strength activity index determination
Standard 50-mm cube mortars were molded both from the con-
trol mixture and from a test mixture that follows the requirements
of ASTM C 109 (1999) for investigating compressive strength. Port-
land cement type I was replaced by tested pozzolan at a rate of 20%
by weight of cementitious materials. A constant ratio of cementi-
tious materials to sand was set at 1–2.75 by weight, and the w/b
ratio was kept constant at 0.484. For each type of pozzolan, the
consistency of mortar was determined by measuring the flow
diameter in accordance with ASTM C 109 (1999). The average flow
diameter was obtained by measurements of the flow diameter ta-
ken in three directions. After molding, the specimens and molds
were placed in a moist room at room temperature. The specimens
were removed from their molds and the cubes were placed in sat-
urated lime water after casting for 24 h. The compressive strengths
were determined at the ages of 7, 14, 28, 56 and 91 days, and the
strength activity index with Portland cement was calculated
according to ASTM C 311 (1998).
3. Experimental results and discussion
3.1. Results obtained from proposed method
The proposed method was applied to four different pozzolans:
FA, MK, RHA and SF. River sand (RS), which is normally considered
inert material, was also tested for comparison. Fig. 2 shows the rela-
tionship between the electrical conductivity expressed in terms of
millisiemens per centimeter (mS/cm) and elapsed time in hours
for all pozzolans. It was observed that after the tested sample was
added to the OPC solution, there was a gradual decrease in electrical
conductivity, which indicated that the ion concentration of the
solution was reduced over time. The electrical conductivity of the
solution depends on amount of ions in the solution. The electrical
conductivity is decreased by the interaction between both Ca2+
and OH ions and tested pozzolan (Yu et al., 1999) to form reaction
product resulting in a reduction of ions and hence the decrease in
the electrical conductivity. This interaction depends on the degree
Interface
Personal computer
8
Electrical Conductivity (mS/cm) RHA
7 SF
FA
6 MK
RS
5
4
3
2
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20 22 24 26 28 30
Elapsed time (hours)
Fig. 2. Relationship between electrical conductivity and elapsed time of tested
pozzolans and river sand.
of pozzolanic reactivity of the tested pozzolan. It should be noted
that only 1 g of pozzolan was used in the experiment, mainly be-
cause it was intended that a small amount of pozzolan could be
more completely consumed by Ca(OH)2. It has been found from
other research work (Sinthaworn, in press) that the optimum
amount of pozzolan used in the proposed method is 1 g.
Interestingly, in order to evaluate the pozzolanicity of tested
pozzolan there are several observations which can be derived from
Fig. 2, as follows:
– Stabilized electrical conductivity: This is referred to as the magni-
tude of electrical conductivity reduction which occurred at the
stabilization time. It was found that the reduction in electrical
conductivity, or stabilized electrical conductivity, was highest
for SF, followed by MK and RHA. As expected, the electrical con-
ductivity of RS, which is inert, was almost unchanged. It is evi-
dent from Fig. 2 that the electrical conductivity/time response
of FA was significantly different from those of the other reactive
pozzolans. In other words, it can be said that the chemical reac-
tion of the FA and OPC solution was much delayed as compared
to other pozzolans. It is of interest to observe that the long-term
strength development of FA concrete was similar to the electrical
conductivity/time response obtained from this proposed
method. Similarly, the early strength gain of SF, MK and RHA con-
crete was also reflected in the curve shown in Fig. 2. Hence, the
tested pozzolan was considered to be reactive when the differ-
ence between the initial electrical conductivity and the stabilized
 S. Sinthaworn, P. Nimityongskul / Waste Management 29 (2009) 1526–1531
Table 2
Summary of test data.
Sample SF MK RHA FA
(a) Initial electrical conductivity 6.31 6.79 6.56 6.87
(mS/cm)
(b) Stabilized electrical 2.70 3.25 3.19 3.87
conductivity (mS/cm)
(c) Normalized electrical 0.428 0.479 0.486 0.563
conductivity (c) = (b)/(a)
(d) Stabilization time (s) 28,100 23,800 25,100 98,700
(e) Normalized electrical 0.927 0.931 0.93 0.842
conductivity of RS at
stabilization time of each
pozzolan
(f) The corrected reduction in 0.499 0.452 0.444 0.279
normalized electrical
conductivity (f) = (e)–(c)
electrical conductivity of the suspension was high. In other
words, the tested pozzolan was non-reactive if this difference
was negligible or very small.
– Rate of change of electrical conductivity: This is referred to as the
slope of the electrical conductivity/time curve. Evidently, for FA
the rate of change of electrical conductivity was found to slow
down, whereas those of SF, MK and RHA were much faster.
The slope of the electrical conductivity/time curve of river sand
was the lowest. Hence, it can be concluded that the tested poz-
zolan was reactive if the rate of change of electrical conductivity
of the suspension was high: the higher the rate of change of
electrical conductivity, the more reactive the tested pozzolan.
– Time required for the stabilization of electrical conductivity: In this
case, it was found that the FA sample required the longest
elapsed time (approximately 28 h) for the electrical conductivity
to stabilize, whereas MK took the shortest elapsed time for sta-
bilization (about 4 h). For convenience, this time will be called
‘‘stabilization time”. For all four types of pozzolan tested in this
study, including RS, the stabilization times were compiled and
are shown in Table 2. Hence, it can be said that the tested poz-
zolan could be regarded as high-reactive if the time required for
the stabilization of electrical conductivity was short. It is evident
that for reactive pozzolans – namely MK, RHA and SF – the times
required for the stabilization of electrical conductivity were
much shorter than those of FA and RS. In the case of FA, it can
be observed that a much longer time is required. This phenom-
enon will be explained in more detail in a subsequent section.
– The saline dissolved material: During the elapsed time of 0–8 h,
the electrical conductivity of FA was found to be higher than
that of the RS curve. This indicated that the FA had liberated salt,
which led to an increase in electrical conductivity (Paya et al.,
2001). However, the 19.68% CaO content in tested fly ash could
not indicate the amount of saline dissolved material. Hence, it
cannot be said that the higher CaO content of FA will lead to
higher liberation of calcium hydroxide, as in the result shown
in Paya et al. (2001). The contributions of ions coming into solu-
tion and contributing to the conductivity remains to be solved.
The results shown in Fig. 2 can also be plotted based on the log-
arithm of the elapsed time, as illustrated in Fig. 3. The relationship
between normalized electrical conductivity and elapsed time dur-
ing the first 4 h (expressed in seconds) of the tested pozzolans
can be clearly distinguished from the results in Fig. 3. The electrical
conductivity of FA was more or less stable before approximately 3 h
(10,000 s) of elapsed time (as the result from Paya et al., 2001). Loss
in electrical conductivity of high-lime fly ash at 80 °C did not show
the dependence of reactivity on temperature when compared with
a temperature of 40 °C within 10,000 s. However, in general the
chemical reactions are greater when the tested temperature is
1529
1.1
RHA
1.0 SF
Normalized Electrical Conductivity
RS FA
6.84 MK
0.9
RS
5.76 0.8
0.842
0.7
79,000
0.6
0.842
0.5
0.000 0.4
100 1000 10000 10000 1000000
Elapsed time (seconds)
Fig. 3. Relationship between normalized electrical conductivity and logarithm of
elapsed time for four different pozzolans and river sand (RS).
raised. It should be noted that although, the temperature was ele-
vated to 80 °C, the released salinity of fly ashes required much long-
er than 10,000 s to show some result. After 10,000 s the electrical
conductivity of FA was clearly reduced due to the slowdown in
the liberated salt from fly ash particles, which counterbalances
the electrical conductivity from a pozzolanic reaction. Subse-
quently a drop in electrical conductivity was dominated by the poz-
zolanic reactivity of the reactive part of fly ash. As a result it is
necessary to extend the monitoring duration of fly ash to be longer
than 4 h, in order to reflect the reduction in electrical conductivity
of the suspension.
The major chemical components of pozzolan are SiO2, Al2O3 and
Fe2O3, which are some of the indicators used to classify pozzolan
(ASTM C 618, 1999). Although, the sums of SiO2, Al2O3 and Fe2O3
in RHA, MK, SF and RS ranged from 94.2% to 97.9%, they possessed
both reactive pozzolan and inert material, as shown from the re-
sults in Fig. 2. Therefore, these results can probably be explained
by the fact that different pozzolans may possess different phases
of reactive components, which is consumed by the OPC solution.
In other words, the rate of chemical reaction between tested poz-
zolan and the OPC solution depends upon the reactivity of the ac-
tual reacted components. Hence, the results obtained through XRF
technique reflected only quantitatively the oxide composition of
the tested pozzolan. By using this new monitoring technique, the
quality of the pozzolan can be obtained, as shown in Figs. 2 and 3.
The reduction in normalized electrical conductivity and the sta-
bilized time are two significant parameters which reflect the poz-
zolanic reaction of pozzolan. However, RS is known to be an inert
material, and its result indicated a slight reduction in electrical
conductivity over time. Therefore, an adjustment is necessary to
reflect the net reduction in the correction of electrical conductivity
due to the effect of pozzolans. The corrected reduction in normal-
ized electrical conductivity would be used as an index to indicate
the reactivity of pozzolan, expressed mainly in terms of compres-
sive strength at different ages. The stabilized electrical conductiv-
ity, initial electrical conductivity, normalized electrical
conductivity and corrected reduction in normalized electrical con-
ductivity are summarized in Table 2.
3.1.1. Influence of fineness
Many researchers have found that the fineness of pozzolan is an
important parameter in the pozzolanic reaction (Neville, 1999;
Kiattikomol et al., 2001). MK was prepared to have different de-
grees of fineness by varying the grinding time from 5 to 60 min,
and the resulting degrees of fineness were found to range from
8450 to 11,060 cm2/g as measured by a light-scattering technique,
in order to investigate the influence of fineness and its adsorption.
1530Normalized Electrical Conductivity S. Sinthaworn, P. Nimityongskul / Waste Management 29 (2009) 1526–1531

65.0
1.0

Compressive Strength (MPa)

MK1 (11,056) 60.0
0.9
MK2 (9,153) 55.0
0.8
MK3 (8,451)
50.0
0.7 MK4 (9,985)
45.0
0.6
40.0
0.5 MK RHA
35.0
SF Control
0.4 30.0 FA
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 RS
Elapsed time (hours) 25.0
0 7 14 21 28 35 42 49 56 63 70 77 84 91 98
Fig. 4. The normalized electrical conductivity of MK having different degrees of Age (days)
fineness.
Fig. 5. Compressive strength development of tested mortars according to ASTM.

It can be observed from Fig. 4 that the reduction of electrical

conductivity of MK having four different degrees of fineness shows
more or less the same trend. The influence of fineness on the poz-
zolanic reaction of MK cannot be clearly observed. The results sug-
gested that the samples of MK, in which the fineness ranged from
8450 to 11,060 cm2/g showed the same trend of rate of change in
conductivity and stabilized electrical conductivity. It might suggest
that the proposed technique had a standard deviation of testing
higher than the variation of observable electrical conductivity,
due to the effect of fineness in the tested range. In other words,
the fineness of MK has negligible influence on its pozzolanic reac-
tion based on the proposed technique.
3.2. Evaluation of pozzolanic reactivity by strength activity index with
Portland cement
Table 3 shows the average flow diameter, compressive strength
and strength activity index of all mortars. Four types of pozzolan –
SF, MK, RHA and FA – are investigated. RS, which is considered as
inert material, is also included in the testing program for compar-
ison. The strength activity index as determined by ASTM C 311
(1998) is defined as a ratio of the compressive strength of mortar
mixed with pozzolan (or inert in this study) at 20% by weight of
binder to the control mortar. The compressive strengths of stan-
dard mortar specimens at ages of 7, 14, 28, 56 and 91 days for dif-
ferent types of pozzolan are shown in Table 3. It is of interest to
note from this table that the average flow diameters of SF and
RHA were more or less the same, and significantly lower than that
of the control mortar. As expected, the consistency of FA mortar
was found to be the highest due to the spherical shape of fly ash.
Fig. 5 depicts the compressive strength development of all
mortars. Evidently, the compressive strength of RS mortar was
found to be the lowest among all mortars tested. It can be ob-
served from this figure that among the mortars containing reactive
pozzolans, at early ages the compressive strength of MK mortar
gave higher compressive strength, whereas that of FA mortar gave
the lowest. It is noted that the early age strength of SF was almost
similar to that of MK mortar. However at the age of 91 days the
compressive strength of mortars containing different types of poz-
zolan were found to range between 55 and 60 MPa, whereas that
of RS mortar was only 42 MPa. It should be mentioned that the
w/b ratio of all mortars was kept constant throughout this
investigation.
3.3. Comparison of results obtained from proposed method and
strength activity index test
An attempt will be made in this section to relate the results ob-
tained from the proposed method to those from the strength activ-
ity index test, based on ASTM as shown in Figs. 2 and 5. The results
shown in Fig. 2 can be divided into three main groups. The first
group, which represents well known reactive pozzolans, consists
of SF, MK and RHA; the second group consists of FA; and the last
group RS. The first group shows a rapid decrease in electrical con-
ductivity, which could be interpreted as reflecting the high
strength development of pozzolan at an early age. For the pozzolan
in the second group, the stabilization time for FA was found to be
significantly longer than for those in the first group. For river sand,
which is known to be an inert material, the electrical conductivity
was found to be more or less unchanged with elapsed time; in
other words, both the stabilized electrical conductivity and the sta-
bilized time could not evidently be identified. For fly ash, it was
found that the curve falls between that of river sand and reactive
pozzolans, which indicated that the fly ash used in this testing
could be regarded as a pozzolan. It can also be noted that the poz-
zolanic reactivity of fly ash was not as good as that of MK, RHA or
SF. The same qualitative phenomenon could be observed in the test
results obtained from the ASTM strength activity index shown in
Fig. 5.
Moreover, the correlation between the strength activity index
at 28 days and the corrected reduction in normalized electrical
conductivity is illustrated in Fig. 6. In this figure, the corrected
reduction in normalized electrical conductivity, which was ob-
tained by subtracting the actual normalized electrical conductivity
of the pozzolan sample from that of RS, was plotted versus the
strength activity index of pozzolan at 28 days. It can be seen that
a close – almost linear – relationship between the results from
the proposed method and the strength activity index test was
found. This might suggest that there exists a relationship between

Table 3
Compressive strength and strength activity index of mortars containing different types of pozzolan.

Sample Average flow diameter (mm) Compressive strength (MPa) (strength activity index)
7 days 14 days 28 days 56 days 91 days
Control 66 43.1 (1.00) 49.9 (1.00) 51.9 (1.00) 54.3 (1.00) 58.5 (1.00)
MK 36 50.8 (1.18) 55.6 (1.12) 56.2 (1.08) 56.8 (1.05) 55.3 (0.95)
SF 14 50.1 (1.16) 53.7 (1.08) 57.2 (1.10) 61.1 (1.13) 58.9 (1.01)
RHA 11 46.5 (1.08) 55.0 (1.10) 58.2 (1.12) 59.2 (1.09) 60.3 (1.03)
FA 91 36.9 (0.86) 46.6 (0.93) 51.1 (0.98) 53.9 (0.99) 57.7 (0.99)
RS 64 27.2 (0.63) 31.4 (0.63) 33.3 (0.64) 37.2 (0.69) 41.9 (0.71)
 S. Sinthaworn, P. Nimityongskul / Waste Management 29 (2009) 1526–1531
0.60
Corrected Reduction in Normalized
y = 0.9533x - 0.618
0.50 2
Electrical Conductivity
R = 0.9579
0.40
0.30
0.20
0.10
RS
0.00
-0.10
0.60 0.70 0.80 0.90
Strength Activity Index at 28 days
Fig. 6. Correlation between strength activity index at 28 days and corrected
reduction in normalized electrical conductivity.
the mechanical strength of mortar and the level of pozzolanic reac-
tivity of pozzolan as observed by the proposed method. It should
be emphasized that the amount of pozzolan used in this method
is relatively small compared with other methods (Luxan et al.,
1989; McCarter and Tran, 1996; ASTM C 311, 1998) and yet the re-
sults were convincingly satisfactory. Therefore it could be said that
the proposed method is a useful, accurate and rapid technique to
evaluate the degree of pozzolanic activity of pozzolans.
4. Conclusion
Based on the test results obtained in this study, the following
conclusions can be drawn:
1. From the relationship between electrical conductivity of tested
pozzolan and elapsed time, it was found that three main indic-
ative parameters which can be interpreted to show the pozzo-
lanic reactivity of pozzolan were time required for the
stabilization of the electrical conductivity, rate of change of
electrical conductivity, and stabilized electrical conductivity.
2. The tested pozzolan was reactive when the difference between
the initial electrical conductivity and stabilized electrical con-
ductivity of suspension was high. In other words, the tested
pozzolan was considered as non-reactive if this difference was
negligible or very small.
3. The tested pozzolan was reactive if the rate of change of electri-
cal conductivity of the suspension was high. The higher the rate
of change of electrical conductivity, the more reactive the tested
pozzolan.
4. The tested pozzolan can be regarded as high-reactive if the time
required for the stabilization of the electrical conductivity is
short. It is evident that for reactive pozzolan – MK, RHA and
SF – the times required for the stabilization of the electrical
conductivity are much shorter than those of FA and RS. In the
case of FA, it is necessary to extend the monitoring duration
of fly ash to be longer than for the other pozzolans, in order
to reflect the reduction in electrical conductivity of the
suspension.
5. By comparing the results obtained from the proposed method
and from the strength activity index test according to ASTM C
311, it was found that the two results agreed well qualitatively.
The results revealed that the proposed method is an alternative
tool for quick monitoring of the pozzolanic reaction of pozzolans.
This technique would help concrete technologists speedily investi-
gate the pozzolanic reactivity of waste ashes for use in concrete
and also results in lowering the cost of concrete, alleviating envi-
ronmental problems from concrete production, and solving dis-
posal problem of fly ashes.
1531
Acknowledgement
SF
MK
The authors gratefully acknowledge the financial support of the
RHA
Ministry of Education of Thailand, which sponsored this research
FA
under its Ph.D. program.
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