MICROSTRUCTURE STUDY AND STRENGTH BEHAVIOR OF CEMENT MORTAR INCORPORATING POND ASH

This paper explains experimental studies carried out to investigate strength behavior of cement mortar incorporating pond ash replaced with cement and sand in the mortar formations. It is studied through mechanical, structural, surface morphological and composition properties. The microstructure properties are studied by x-ray diffraction techniques and SEM. Results shows that crystalline nature for the mortar sample with replacement of sand increases as compared to the mortar sample replaced with cement. XRD studies suggest that the grain size is less when pond ash replaced with sand while grain size found to be more when pond ash replaced with cement. Compressive strength of cement mortar block incorporating pond ash in sand replacement observed to be more due to finer grain size. While in cement replacement it is found to be less due to larger grain size.