Effect of agricultural olive, rice husk and sugarcane leaf waste ashes on sustainable ultra-high-performance concrete

The accumulation of agricultural waste is a growing environmental problem in many countries. Therefore, this study focuses on the assimilation of large quantities of agricultural waste ash as a partial substitute for Ordinary Portland Cement (OPC) to produce Sustainable Ultra High-Performance Concrete (SUHPC). Local agricultural residue ash from rice husk (RHA), sugarcane leaf ash (SLA), and olive waste ash (OWA) were used to replace 50% of the weight of the OPC. Sixteen mixtures were prepared by replacing the OPC with agricultural residue ash of RHA, SLA, and OWA at 0%, 10%, 20%, 30%, 40%, and 50% by weight. The effect of using RHA, SLA, and OWA on the properties of UHPC in terms of slump flow, compressive strength, tensile strength, flexural strength, and modulus of elasticity was evaluated. As well as water sorptivity and permeability, and chloride penetration of SUHPC were also evaluated. The results indicated that SUHPC could be prepared when replacing 50% of the OPC weight with (SLA 25% + RHA25%) with a compressive, tensile, and flexural strength of more than 155, 19, and 27 MPa, respectively. Moreover, substituting 50 wt% OPC with (RHA) reduced the water permeability and chloride penetration to 1.45 × 10−6 cm/s and 220 Coulombs, respectively.