Strength Characteristics of Red Mud

and Silica Fume Based Concrete

Chava Venkatesh, Madduru Sri Rama Chand, Nerella Ruben,

and Chereddy Sonali Sri Durga

Abstract Red mud is a residue of alumina refinery plant; it has high alkaline
nature which leads to contamination of nearby lands, water bodies, and air. One ton
of alumina produces more than one ton of red mud. The disposal of red mud can be
reduced by using it as a replacement to cement in concrete. Also, silica fume used
as a ternary mineral in red mud based concrete. The proportion of silica fume as a
replacement to cement is kept constant at 5% by weight of cement, and red mud is
used as a replacement to cement from 0 to 25% with an interval of 5%. All concrete
mixes are tested against flexural, split tensile, and compressive strengths to know
the mechanical properties, and also rapid chloride penetration test is conducted to
know the durability property. Results showed that the 20% replacement of red mud
had shown greater strength values in mechanical properties. Increase in percentage
of red mud offered more resistance against chloride ions movement in concrete.

Keywords Silica fume · Red mud · Compressive strength · Chloride ions

penetration test · Ternary mineral

1 Introduction

Red mud is a massive amount of alkaline slurry, which is disposed of alumina indus-
tries [1–4]. Production of alumina throughout the world is more than 120 MT per
year; one ton of alumina produces more than one ton of red mud [5, 6]. Disposal of
red mud is highly expensive and difficult to handle. In general, using red mud as a
construction material can minimize pollution due to the disposal of red mud. 2% of
cement replaced by red mud has increased the strength of concrete, whereas, beyond

C. Venkatesh (B) · N. Ruben · C. Sonali Sri Durga

Department of Civil Engineering, Vignan’s Foundation for Science Research & Technology
(Deemed to be University), Guntur, Andhra Pradesh, India
e-mail: chvenky288@gmail.com
M. Sri Rama Chand
Department of Civil Engineering, Sree Chaitanya College of Engineering, Karimnagar,
Telangana, India

© Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2021 387

S. K. Shukla et al. (eds.), Smart Technologies for Sustainable Development,
Lecture Notes in Civil Engineering 78,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-5001-0_33