Abstract
To increase the use of fly ash (FA) as a pozzolanic material in concrete, a composite was
formed with an interaction of FA with β-cyclodextrin (β-CD). Further research was carried
out in this article to study the effects of replacing cement with FA (30% and 50% by mass),
β-CD (0.025%, 0.05% and 0.1%) and FA-β-CD composite on the workability and strength of
concrete. Workability was assessed by means of the slump test and strengths were assessed
using the compressive and split tensile strength tests. Higher combined contents of FA and β-
CD resulted in increased workability of concrete of up to approximately 550 %. Furthermore,
the inclusion of β-CD generally increased both the compressive and tensile strengths of the
concretes not containing FA by up to 10 %. When combined with FA, the β-CD resulted in
increased compressive strengths of up to 63 % and tensile strengths of up to 28 %, compared
to the relevant pozzolanic concretes which did not include β-CD. The study contributed to the
knowledge of FA performance using cyclodextrin and promoted the continued inclusion of
FA in concrete, which in turn should reduce the environmental pollution resulting from FA.