• International Journal of Concrete Structures and Materials
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.35-43
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• 2015

The critical element for sustainable growth in the construction industry is the development of alternative cements. A new technological process called geopolymerization provides an innovative solution, and the presence of aluminum and silicon oxides in fly ash has encouraged its use as a source material. Many previous investigations have involved curing the binder in a heated environment. To reduce energy consumption during the synthesis of geopolymers, the present study investigated the properties of ambient cured geopolymer mortar at early ages. An experimental program was executed to establish a relationship between the activator composition and the properties of geopolymer mortar in fresh and hardened states. Concentrations of sodium hydroxide and sodium silicate were ascertained that are advantageous for constructability and mechanical behavior. Scanning electron microscopy, energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy and X-ray diffraction techniques were also used to characterize the material. Test results indicate that there is potential for the concrete industry to use fly ash based geopolymer as an alternative to portland cement.

• Advances in concrete construction
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• v.8 no.3
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• pp.217-223
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• 2019

This paper presents the mechanical and microstructural properties of the geopolymer paste which was developed by utilizing the industrial by-products, rice husk ash (RHA) and ultra-fine slag. Ultra-fine slag particles with average particle size in the range of 4 to 5 microns. RHA is partially replaced with ultra-fine slag at different levels of 0 to 50%. Sodium silicate to sodium hydroxide ratio of 1.0 and alkaline liquid to binder (AL/B) ratio of 0.60 is taken. Setting time, compressive, flexural strengths were studied up to the age of 90 days with different concentrations of NaOH. The microstructure of the hybrid geopolymer paste was studied by performing the SEM, EDS, and XRD on the broken samples. RHA based geopolymer paste blended with ultrafine slag resulted in high compressive and flexural strengths and increased setting times of the paste. Strength increased with the increase in NaOH concentration at all ages. The ultra-small particles of the slag acted as a micro-filler into the paste and enhanced the properties by improving the CASH, NASH, and CSH. The maximum compressive strength of 70MPa was achieved at 30% slag content with 16M NaOH. The results of XRD, SEM, and EDS at 30% replacement of RHA with ultra-fine slag densified the paste microstructure.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.70 no.6
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• pp.671-681
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• 2019

This paper examines the applicability of artificial neural network (ANN) and multivariate adaptive regression splines (MARS) to predict the compressive strength of bacteria incorporated geopolymer concrete (GPC). The mix is composed of new bacterial strain, manufactured sand, ground granulated blast furnace slag, silica fume, metakaolin and fly ash. The concentration of sodium hydroxide (NaOH) is maintained at 8 Molar, sodium silicate ($Na_2SiO_3$) to NaOH weight ratio is 2.33 and the alkaline liquid to binder ratio of 0.35 and ambient curing temperature ($28^{\circ}C$) is maintained for all the mixtures. In ANN, back-propagation training technique was employed for updating the weights of each layer based on the error in the network output. Levenberg-Marquardt algorithm was used for feed-forward back-propagation. MARS model was developed by establishing a relationship between a set of predictors and dependent variables. MARS is based on a divide and conquers strategy partitioning the training data sets into separate regions; each gets its own regression line. Six models based on ANN and MARS were developed to predict the compressive strength of bacteria incorporated GPC for 1, 3, 7, 28, 56 and 90 days. About 70% of the total 84 data sets obtained from experiments were used for development of the models and remaining 30% data was utilized for testing. From the study, it is observed that the predicted values from the models are found to be in good agreement with the corresponding experimental values and the developed models are robust and reliable.

• Computers and Concrete
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• v.9 no.6
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• pp.427-437
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• 2012

This article presents the effect of replacement fly ash (FA) with diatomite (DE) on the properties of geopolymer mortars. DE was used to partially replace FA at the levels of 0, 60, 80 and 100% by weight of binder. Sodium silicate ($Na_2SiO_3$) and sodium hydroxide (NaOH) solutions were used as the liquid portion in the mixture in order to activate the geopolymerization. The NaOH concentrations of 15M, $Na_2SiO_3$/NaOH ratios of 1.5 by weight, and the alkaline liquid/binder (LB) ratios by weight of 0.40, 0.50, 0.60 and 0.70 were used. The curing at temperature of $75^{\circ}C$ for 24 h was used to accelerate the geopolymerization. The flows of all fresh geopolymer mortars were tested. The compressive strengths and the stress-strain characteristics of the mortar at the age of 7 days, and the unit weights were also tested. The results revealed that the use of DE to replace part of FA as source material in making geopolymer mortars resulted in the increased in the workability, and strain capacity of mortar specimens and in the reductions in the unit weights and compressive strengths. The strain capacity of the mortar increased from 0.0028 to 0.0150 with the increase in the DE replacement levels from 0 to 100%. The mixes with 15M NaOH, $Na_2SiO_3$/NaOH of 1.5, LB ratio of 0.50, and using $75^{\circ}C$ curing temperature showed 7 days compressive strengths 22.0-81.0 MPa which are in the range of normal to high strength mortars.

• International Journal of Concrete Structures and Materials
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• v.8 no.3
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• pp.213-228
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• 2014

Alkali-activated binder (AAB) is recently being considered as a sustainable alternative to portland cement (PC) due to its low carbon dioxide emission and diversion of industrial wastes and by-products such as fly ash and slag from landfills. In order to comprehend the behavior of AAB, detailed knowledge on relations between microstructure and mechanical properties are important. To address the issue, a new approach to characterize hardened pastes of AAB containing fly ash as well as those containing fly ash and slag was adopted using scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and energy dispersive X-ray spectra microanalyses. The volume stoichiometries of the alkali activation reactions were used to estimate the quantities of the sodium aluminosilicate (N-A-S-H) and calcium silicate hydrate (CSH) produced by these reactions. The 3D plots of Si/Al, Na/Al and Ca/Si atom ratios given by the microanalyses were compared with the estimated quantities of CSH(S) to successfully determine the unique chemical compositions of the N-A-S-H and CSH(S) for ten different AAB at three different curing temperatures using a constrained nonlinear least squares optimization formulation by general algebraic modeling system. The results show that the theoretical and experimental quantities of N-A-S-H and CSH(S) were in close agreement with each other. The $R^2$ values were 0.99 for both alkali-activated fly ash and alkali-activated slag binders.

• International Journal of Concrete Structures and Materials
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• v.8 no.4
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• pp.289-299
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• 2014

Alkali-activated slag concretes are being extensively researched because of its potential sustainability-related benefits. For such concretes to be implemented in large scale concrete applications such as infrastructural and building elements, it is essential to understand its early and long-term performance characteristics vis-a'-vis conventional ordinary portland cement (OPC) based concretes. This paper presents a comprehensive study of the property and performance features including early-age isothermal calorimetric response, compressive strength development with time, microstructural features such as the pore volume and representative pore size, and accelerated chloride transport resistance of OPC and alkali-activated binder systems. Slag mixtures activated using sodium silicate solution ($SiO_2$-to-$Na_2O$ ratio or $M_s$ of 1-2) to provide a total alkalinity of 0.05 ($Na_2O$-to-binder ratio) are compared with OPC mixtures with and without partial cement replacement with Class F fly ash (20 % by mass) or silica fume (6 % by mass). Major similarities are noted between these binder systems for: (1) calorimetric response with respect to the presence of features even though the locations and peaks vary based on $M_s$, (2) compressive strength and its development, (3) total porosity and pore size, and (4) rapid chloride permeability and non-steady state migration coefficients. Moreover, electrical impedance based circuit models are used to bring out the microstructural features (resistance of the connected pores, and capacitances of the solid phase and pore-solid interface) that are similar in conventional OPC and alkali-activated slag concretes. This study thus demonstrates that performance-equivalent alkali-activated slag systems that are more sustainable from energy and environmental standpoints can be proportioned.

• Journal of the Korea institute for structural maintenance and inspection
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• v.21 no.5
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• pp.12-20
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• 2017

This report presents the results of an investigation on the fundamental properties of mortars high fluidity high volume slag cement(HVSC) activated with sodium silicate($Na_2SiO_3$). The ordinary Portland cement(OPC) was replaced by ground granulated blast furnace slag(GGBFS) from 40% to 80% and calcium sulfoaluminate(CSA) was 2.5% or 5.0% mass. The $Na_2SiO_3$ was added at 2% and 4% by total binder(OPC+GGBFS+CSA) weight. A constant water-to-binder ratio(w/b)=0.35 was used for all mixtures. The research carried out the mini slump, V-funnel, setting time, compressive strength and drying shrinkage. The experimental results showed that the contents of superplasticizer, V-funnel, setting time and drying shrinkage increased as the contents of CSA and $Na_2SiO_3$ increase. The compressive strength increases with and an increase in CSA and $Na_2SiO_3$. One of the major reason for these results is the accelerated reactivity of GGBFS with CSA and $Na_2SiO_3$. The maximum performance was CSA 5.0% + $Na_2SiO_3$ 4% specimens.

• Resources Recycling
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.39-50
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• 2009

Portland cement production is under critical review due to high amount of $CO_2$ gas released to the atmosphere. Attempts to increase the utilization of fly ash, a by-products from thermal power plant to partially replace the cement in concrete are gathering momentum. But most of fly ash is currently dumped in landfills, thus creating a threat to the environment. Many researches on alkali-activated concrete that does not need the presence of cement as a binder have been carried out recently. Instead, the source of material such as fly ash, that are rich in Silicon(Si) and Aluminium(Al), are activated by alkaline liquids to produce the binder. Hence concrete with no cement is effective in the reduction of $CO_2$ gas. In this study, we investigated the influence of the compressive strength of mortar on alkaline activator and curing condition in order to develop cementless fly ash based alkali-activated concrete. In view of the results, we found out that it was possible for us to make alkali-activated mortar with 70MPa at the age of 28days by using alkaline activator manufactured as 1:1 the mass ratio of 9M NaOH and sodium silicate and applying the atmospheric curing after high temperature at $60^{\circ}C$ for 48hours.

• Journal of the Korea Concrete Institute
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• v.28 no.5
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• pp.593-600
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• 2016

The paper presented investigates the effects of kaolinite on strength properties of alkali-activated multi-component cement. The binders of this study was blended of ground granulated blast furnace slag (GGBFS), fly ash (FA), silica fume (SF) and kaolinite (KA). In this study, the specimens of combination of 20%~70% GGBFS, 10%~60% FA, 10% SF (constant ratio) and 10%~50% KA binder were used for strength properties tests. The water/binder ratio was 0.5. The binders (GGBFS + FA + SF + KA) was activated by sodium hydroxide (NaOH) and sodium silicate ($Na_2SiO_3$) was 10% by total binder weight (10% NaOH + 10% $Na_2SiO_3$). The research carried out is on the compressive strength, water absorption, ultrasonic pulse velocity (UPV) and X-ray diffraction (XRD). The compressive strength decreased as the contents of KA increase. One of the major reason for this is the low reactivity of KA compared with other raw materials used as precursors such as GGBFS or FA. The presence of remaining KA indicates that the initially used quantity has not fully reacted during hydration. Moreover, the results have indicated that increased of KA contents decreased UPV under all experimental conditions. The drying shrinkage and water absorption increased as the content of KA increase. Test result clearly showed that the strength development of multi-component blended cement were significantly dependent on the content of KA and GGBFS.

• Journal of the Korea Concrete Institute
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• v.28 no.3
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• pp.299-308
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• 2016

This paper presents an investigation of the mechanical and microstructural properties on hardened samples that were synthesized using blended binder(fly ash(FA) and blast furnace slag cement(BFSC)), alkali activator and sea water or distilled water. Binders were prepared by mixing the FA and BFSC in different blend weight ratios of 6:4, 7:3 and 8:2. Sodium hydroxide and sodium silicate were used 5 wt% of binder, respectively, as an alkaline activator. The compressive strength and absorption were measured at the age of 3, 7 and 28 days, and the XRD, TGA and MIP tests were performed at the age of 28 days. An increase in the content of BFSC leads to an increase in the quantities of ettringite and C-S-H formed, regardless of the type of mixing water. And it also shows higher strength due to the reduction of pores larger than ~50 nm. All hardened samples in this study have common hydration products of C-S-H, $Ca(OH)_2$ and calcite. Hydrocalumite of all reaction products formed was only present in hardened sample mixed with sea water. For each FA/BFSC mixing ratio, the compressive strength of hardened sample mixed with sea water was similar to that mixed with distilled water. It is proposed that the slight increase of strength of samples mixed with sea water is mainly due to the presence of hydrocalumite phase containing chlorine ion, contributing to the change of total porosity and pore size distribution in samples.