Role of Sugarcane Juice as a Natural Admixture on Setting Time and Hardened Properties of Cementitious Materials

Admixtures are an integral part of modern cementitious materials, as they significantly enhance the rheological, mechanical, and durability properties of the material. Though manufactured admixtures are mainly used in concrete production, they are expensive. Therefore, this research investigated the effect of sugarcane juice (SCJ), as a natural admixture, on the properties of concrete. Various percentages of SCJs were used to investigate the initial and final setting time, workability, compressive strength, and splitting tensile strength of concrete. Furthermore, the effect of different cement-sand ratios (c/s) and water-cement ratios (w/c) on the setting time of different cement mortar mixes was studied. Experimental results have shown that the setting time measured by the Vicat’s apparatus reduces significantly, up to a certain percentage of SCJ in the mortar mixes. Setting time is also reduced as the c/s and w/c ratios are reduced in the mortar mix. From the results, it was found that, based on the c/s ratio, with the addition of 20% SCJ in the mix, the initial setting time of mortar can be reduced to 10% from 79%. In the case of mechanical strength, compared to the control mix (0% SCJ), more than 29% higher compressive strength in concrete was achieved by adding 10% SCJ to the mix. For the splitting strength, this increment was more than 4%. The ANOVA analysis also proved that the higher percentages of SCJ produced a compressive strength that was not statistically different from the control concrete mix. Finally, the research outcome showed that the dosages of SCJ can greatly alter the setting time and mechanical strength of cementitious materials.

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