Life cycle costing for the analysis of cost-effectiveness of alternative concretes and masonry blocks

In India, there is an ever rising demand for the production of construction materials like cement, which in turn depletes Earth’s natural resources and liberates harmful greenhouse gases. This brings the need for implementing sustainable practices in the construction industry in India by using supplementary materials for producing concrete. In the present study, fly ash, rice husk ash (RHA), ground-granulated blast-furnace slag (GGBFS), and manufactured sand (M-sand) are used to produce alternative concretes, and laterite, concrete, and stabilized mud blocks are used for masonry purpose. This study mainly focuses on cost-effectiveness of alternative concretes using life cycle costing (LCC) considering initial costs, maintenance costs, energy usage costs, and residual costs of both controls and alternative concretes. An eight-storeyed residential building model is developed using STAAD Pro to determine the best combination of alternative concrete and masonry block. The design mixes show adequate compression, flexural, and split tensile strengths for both control as well as alternative concretes tested after 28 days curing period. While SCC being the highest in compression (55.06 MPa) and split tension (8.66 MPa), concrete with 30% GGBFS replacement to cement gives the highest flexural strength (5.41 MPa). Further, the LCC model results show that the concrete with 50% fly ash replacement to cement is the most cost-effective out of all other concrete types. The results from STAAD Pro model recommends to use concrete with 50% fly ash replacement to cement and concrete block as the best combination for cost-effectiveness.