Monitoring Hydration Process of Concrete Made With Refuse-Derived Fuel Ash Using EMI Method

This research investigated the monitoring of very early-age hydration process (VEAHP) of concrete containing refuse-derived fuel (RDF) ash, a waste product from waste incineration plants. The experiment was conducted on concrete cube specimens made with 30% RDF ash and 70% cement. The lead zirconate titanate (PZT) patch in embedded form known as embedded piezo sensor (EPS) is placed inside the concrete specimen to monitor the changes during the hydration process for up to 8 h using the electromechanical impedance (EMI) technique. The changes in resonance frequency and amplitude during the VEAHP were determined to qualitatively analyze the EMI signatures. Further, the root-mean square deviation (RMSD) is determined to quantify the changes. Results revealed that the variation in resonance peak and amplitude of the conductance signature during VEAHP is effectively captured by the EPS. The trend of the growing RMSD index values of RDF–based concrete followed a similar trend to the conventional concrete. Hence, the proposed method for monitoring and assessing the VEAHP of concrete made with RDF ash offers several advantages of reliability, quantitative precision, robustness, and real-time capability. This work provides an approach to balance enhanced concrete performance with environmental safety when using RDF ash.