Author : Sipalin Nayak, Siba Prasad Mishra and Sagarika Pa

Red mud is an undisposed industrial waste in Bayer’s process during extraction of alumina from Bauxite. Accumulation of undisposed dry/wet red mud wastes of variant mineralogy pollutes air, soil, surface/ ground water and vegetation. Deterioration of the environment and its ecology has caused concern to the environment of the surroundings of Alumina industry. Efficacy of use of the red mud by partial replacement of cement and coarse aggregates in construction industry has brought revolution in research and development for last ten years. Engineers and scientists have conducted tests to ascertain the properties and the mechanical strengths by blending cement with red mud, fly ash and other admixtures at various proportions. Present research envisages the study of properties of self-compacting concrete and determining their mechanical strengths (Compressive, tensile and flexural) by replacing cement with red mud in the laboratory by using Digital Compression Testing Machine and the Universal Testing Machine (UTM) at various mixed proportions. The properties and strengths of blended concrete were found optimum and within safe limits when cement was blended with 20% neutralized red mud which can save the coming generation from catastrophe of the wastes of bauxites.

Keywords: Blending, Concrete, compressive strength, Flexural strength, red mud, UTM

Article published in International Journal of Current Engineering and Technology, Vol.7, No.2 (April-2017)