Usage of sugarcane bagasse as concrete retarder

Concrete is the most common material used in building construction nowadays. The production process of concrete also includes additional ingredients other than aggregates, cement and water. This additional ingredient was known as concrete admixture. One of the most frequent concrete admixtures used is retarder. Retarding admixture is one of the famous admixture used because it can retard the hydration process of the concrete thus, prolong the setting time especially in hot weather concreting. This condition will offer extra time for transportation and also for concrete placement. Other than that, for multiple batch of concrete placement, the extension of setting time will avoid cold joints from happening. However, the high demand of admixture causes the price in the market increased. Therefore, the use of sugarcane bagasse as a natural admixture for concrete is suggested. The concrete produced by adding sugarcane bagasse was tested in terms of setting time by using the standard penetration test for concrete. For hardened concrete, the concrete was also tested in terms of mechanical properties which include compressive strength test, tensile strength test and flexural strength test. The results show that the concrete added with sugarcane bagasse has longer setting time up to four hours instead of only two hours for normal concrete. The strength of hardened concrete also increased when added with sugarcane bagasse. Therefore, as the conclusion, sugarcane bagasse can be used as a natural concrete retarder based on the results obtained.