DEVELOPMENT OF INTERNAL CURING FINE AGGREGATES WITH IMPROVED PROPERTIES USING DRINKING WATER TREATMENT SLUDGE
The present innovation reports the investigation of developing an internal curing aggregate using drinking water treatment sludge. The water treatment sludge converts to burnt clay chips by the process of clay mixing, sintering and crushing respectively. Thermo gravimetric analysis was carried out initially to identify the thermal behavior of sludge. X-ray fluorescence test was conducted to identify the chemical composition of the sludge. The firing temperature was ranged from 8000C to 13000C by 1000C intervals. Water absorption test, Water desorption, Relative density test was conducted to the developed fine aggregates which was heated to different temperatures to observe the physical properties and requirements to satisfy the internal curing property. Scanning Electron Micrographs (SEM) analysis was followed to observe the microstructure of the fine aggregates. The fine aggregate produced at 11000C was selected as an effective internal curing aggregate. The increased water absorption, water desorption and relative density was recorded as 15%, 95% under 94% relative humidity and 1.79 respectively.
