Physalis pith ash (PPA) is a renewable and green supplementary cementitious material. It is an effective approach to reduce the quantity of cement that could be used in blended cements. This will reduce the CO_2 emission, which in turn will lower the environmental pollution. In the current study, the influence of PPA on physicomechanical characteristics of hydrated cement pastes containing various ratios of PPA (0-30 wt.%) up to 90 days was evaluated. Results showed that the water of consistensy as well as setting times, chemically-bound water content, bulk density and compressive strength increased with PPA content. The apparent porosity and calcium dioxide (or free lime) content were clearly reduced with increasing the PPA content. It is therefore concluded that the cement could be partially replaced by 25 wt.% PPA with no reverse response on the features of cement pastes. Any further increase of PPA content, it affected negatively on all the specific attributes of the hardened cement pastes. So, an optimum PPA content was 25 wt% PPA.
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