| description abstract | In this study, an attempt was made to use pond ash (PA), which is an industrial waste generated in power plants, as a replacement for fine aggregates (FA) in concrete. An experimental program was conducted on the mechanical properties (compressive strength, split-tensile strength, and flexural strength) of pond ash concrete. Five concrete mixes with varying proportions of pond ash replacing fine aggregates were designed to cast a total of 450 concrete samples. Thirty-two [two-parameter (2P), three-parameter (3P), and four-parameter (4P)] probability distributions were taken into consideration, and the statistical goodness-of-fit (GOF) tests Kolmogorov-Smirnov (KS), Kolmogorov-Smirnov-Lilliefors (KSL), Anderson Darling (AD), and chi-squared (CS) were carried out. The peak values for compressive strength, split-tensile strength, and flexural strength were observed at 20% replacement of FA by the PA. Based on the GOF test ranks, the most suitable probability distribution for modeling variations in compressive strength was the Cauchy distribution (2P). Similarly, Johnson-SB (4P), and Gumbel-Min (2P) were found to be the best distribution for the split-tensile strength and flexural strength, respectively. With an increase of pond ash substitution from 0% to 20%, there is a decrease in the probability of failure, and a further increase in FA substitution causes a decrease in concrete strength, which led to an increase in the probability of failure as shown by the fragility analysis. | |
