Influence of environment conditions on carbon emission of fly ash concrete

Abstract

Adding fly ash in concrete can reduce CO₂ emission and energy consumption. However, the increase of fly ash content always leads to reduction of concrete's compressive strength. Moreover, the contribution of fly ash to the compressive strength is also influenced by many environmental factors, such as curing temperature, humidity and time. In this study, the influences of curing humidity and temperature on the mechanical properties and total CO₂ emission of fly ash concrete were investigated. The ratio of CO₂ emission to the compressive strength of concrete was proposed to evaluate the contribution of fly ash to carbon emission. On this basis, it was found that CO₂ emission of fly ash concrete was influenced by curing temperature and relative humidity greatly. Under different curing temperatures and relative humidities, the ratio of carbon emission to the compressive strength showed an obvious difference.

Keywords:

• Fly ash concrete
• CO₂ emission
• Compressive strength
• Temperature
• Relative humidity