The Potential of Wood Ash to Be Used as a Supplementary Cementitious Material in Cement Mortars
Abstract
1. Introduction
2. Materials and Methods
2.1. Wood Ash Characterization
2.2. Raw Materials and Mixture Designs
- (1)
- In the first mortar series (WA1), the WA sample portion was subjected to sieving through a 2 mm sieve in order to separate unburnt carbon particles.
- (2)
- In the second mortar series (WA2), the WA sample portion was sieved through a 2 mm sieve and slaked in order to prevent the ash from swelling [23]. To avoid this phenomenon, WA was immersed in water for 24 h with a water–ash weight ratio of 1. A WA2 slurry was included in the mixture composition and water adjusted to the needed amount.
- (3)
- In the third mortar series (WA3), the WA sample was sieved and ground by using a planetary ball mill Retsch PM400 (Dusseldorf, Germany) for 10 min at 300 rpm. Before the milling process, WA3 was dried to avoid the clumping of WA particles.
2.3. Hardened Mortar Properties
3. Results
3.1. XRF and XRD Results of WA
3.2. SEM-EDX Results of WA
3.3. Particle Size Distribution of WA
3.4. Mechanical Strength of Mortar Samples
4. Discussion
5. Conclusions
- According to the pozzolan standards used for the classification of coal ash, the WA used in this study met the criteria of the class C classification in terms of the total amount of 55% of SiO2, Al2O3, and Fe2O3; a CaO amount of 21%; and a loss on ignition value of 6% and 5% by mass of particles retained on the 45 µm sieve.
- The most notable impact of ball-milling wood ash occurred in the particle sizes of 125 to 500 µm. Outside this particle size range, the ball-milling impact was unnoticeable.
- Both the compressive and bending strengths of all mortar samples containing wood ash were reduced with an increase in the wood ash mass content compared to the reference sample. The compressive and bending strengths of the reference sample after 28 days were 62 and 10 MPa, respectively. The best-performing sample with wood ash was WA2-10%, with 28-day compressive and bending strengths of 56 and 9 MPa, respectively, while the worst-performing sample was WA1-30%, with 28-day compressive and bending strengths of 32 and 6 MPa, respectively.
- Among the three treatment methods, WA2 (sieved/slaked) and WA3 (sieved/ground) showed significant improvements in mechanical performance compared to WA1 (only sieved), with WA2-10% demonstrating the highest compressive strength and WA3-10% exhibiting the best flexural strength. The better mechanical properties of the mortar samples with WA2 were attributed to the complete water absorption of WA. The mechanical improvement in WA3 was attributed to its denser mortar matrix due to a finer particle size.
- At 56 freeze–thaw cycles, the mass loss of the WA2-10% sample was 13,800 g/m2, whereas that of the reference was 11,800 g/m2, which is 14% lower compared to WA2-10%. The higher freeze–thaw mass loss of WA2-10% was attributed to bigger pores on the exposed surface of the sample.
Author Contributions
Funding
Data Availability Statement
Acknowledgments
Conflicts of Interest
References
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Compound | SiO2 | Al2O3 | Fe2O3 | CaO | MgO | SO3 | K2O | Na2O | Cl |
Result (w%) | 20.9 | 4.5 | 4.4 | 65.2 | 1.0 | 2.2 | 0.7 | 0.2 | 0.05 |
WA% in Mortars | WA Treatment/ Designation | Water–Binder | Sand–PC (Sand–PC + WA) | Plasticizer–Binder |
---|---|---|---|---|
0% | REF | 0.4 | 2.0 (2.0) | 0.2 |
10% 30% | WA1-10% WA1-30% | 0.4 0.4 | 2.2 (2.0) 2.9 (2.0) | 0.2 0.2 |
10% 30% | WA2-10% WA2-30% | 0.4 0.4 | 2.2 (2.0) 2.9 (2.0) | 0.2 0.2 |
10% 30% | WA3-10% WA3-30% | 0.4 0.4 | 2.2 (2.0) 2.9 (2.0) | 0.2 0.2 |
Compound | SiO2 | Al2O3 | CaO | MgO | SO3 | Na2O | K2O | Mn2O3 | Cl | CuO | TiO2 | BaO | PbO | SrO | ZnO | LOI |
Result (w%) | 49.6 | 4.4 | 20.9 | 4.7 | 9 | 1.1 | 4.5 | 0.2 | 0.6 | 0.02 | 0.4 | 0.1 | 0.03 | 0.03 | 0.3 | 6 |
Element | Result (w%) | ||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
(a) | (b)-1 | (b)-2 | (c)-1 | (c)-2 | (c)-3 | (d)-1 | (d)-2 | (d)-3 | |
C | 9.4 | 78.0 | 13.4 | 9.9 | 8.3 | 8.4 | 8.9 | 9.9 | 17.6 |
O | 50.9 | 17.0 | 59.5 | 50.2 | 44.0 | 58.3 | 50.6 | 53.2 | 50.6 |
Na | 0.8 | 0.1 | 0.3 | 1.1 | 0.3 | 0.7 | 0.9 | 0.6 | 0.5 |
Mg | 2.0 | 0.3 | 0.4 | 1.8 | 9.2 | 0.4 | 4.7 | 1.3 | 1.1 |
Al | 1.1 | 0.1 | 0.3 | 2.0 | 0.2 | 0.6 | 2.6 | 1.9 | 0.4 |
Si | 11.5 | 0.2 | 20.8 | 10.3 | 0.7 | 23.1 | 13.1 | 16.6 | 0.8 |
P | 0.9 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 1.0 | 1.1 | 0.2 | 0.0 | 0.7 | 0.0 |
S | 2.5 | 0.6 | 0.9 | 2.9 | 5.5 | 1.4 | 0.6 | 1.0 | 3.4 |
Cl | 0.5 | 0.3 | 0.3 | 0.5 | 0.5 | 0.2 | 0.0 | 0.3 | 0.8 |
K | 4.9 | 1.8 | 2.1 | 7.4 | 6.1 | 4.0 | 5.8 | 6.1 | 4.3 |
Ca | 13.6 | 1.4 | 2.0 | 11.2 | 22.9 | 2.5 | 5.3 | 7.0 | 18.8 |
Ti | 0.3 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.2 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.3 | 0.2 | 1.8 |
Mn | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.2 | 0.0 |
Fe | 1.1 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 1.4 | 0.5 | 0.2 | 6.6 | 1.2 | 0.0 |
Cu | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 |
Zn | 0.7 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.6 | 0.0 | 0.8 | 0.0 | 0.0 |
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Lescinskis, O.; Sapata, A.; Bumanis, G.; Sinka, M.; Zhou, X.; Bajare, D. The Potential of Wood Ash to Be Used as a Supplementary Cementitious Material in Cement Mortars. Buildings 2025, 15, 1507. https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings15091507
Lescinskis O, Sapata A, Bumanis G, Sinka M, Zhou X, Bajare D. The Potential of Wood Ash to Be Used as a Supplementary Cementitious Material in Cement Mortars. Buildings. 2025; 15(9):1507. https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings15091507
Chicago/Turabian StyleLescinskis, Oskars, Alise Sapata, Girts Bumanis, Maris Sinka, Xiangming Zhou, and Diana Bajare. 2025. "The Potential of Wood Ash to Be Used as a Supplementary Cementitious Material in Cement Mortars" Buildings 15, no. 9: 1507. https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings15091507
APA StyleLescinskis, O., Sapata, A., Bumanis, G., Sinka, M., Zhou, X., & Bajare, D. (2025). The Potential of Wood Ash to Be Used as a Supplementary Cementitious Material in Cement Mortars. Buildings, 15(9), 1507. https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings15091507