• Steel and Composite Structures
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• 제46권5호
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• pp.689-707
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• 2023

Geopolymer concrete production is interesting as it is an alternative to portland cement concrete. However, workability, setting time and strength expectations limit the sustainable application of geopolymer concrete in practice. This study aims to improve the production of geopolymer concrete to mitigate these drawbacks. The improvement in the workability and setting time were achieved with the additional use of NaOH solution whereas an increase in the strength was gained with the addition of recycled steel fibers from waste tires. In addition, the use of 25% basalt powder instead of fly ash and the addition of recycled steel fibers from waste tires improved its environmental feature. The samples with steel fiber ratios ranging between 0.5% and 5% and basalt powder of 25%, 50% and 75% were tested under both compressive and flexure forces. The compressive and flexural capacities were significantly enhanced by utilizing recycled steel fibers from waste tires. However, decreases in these capacities were detected as the basalt powder ratio increased. In general, as the waste wire ratio increased, the compressive strength gradually increased. While the compressive strength of the reference sample was 26 MPa, when the wire ratio was 5%, the compressive strength increased up to 53 MPa. With the addition of 75% basalt powder, the compressive strength decreases by 60%, but when the 3% wire ratio is reached, the compressive strength is obtained as in the reference sample. In the sample group to which 25% basalt powder was added, the flexural strength increased by 97% when the waste wire addition rate was 5%. In addition, while the energy absorption capacity was 0.66 kN in the reference sample, it increased to 12.33 kN with the addition of 5% wire. The production phase revealed that basalt powder and waste steel wire had a significant impact on the workability and setting time. Furthermore, SEM analyses were performed.

• Advances in concrete construction
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• 제11권3호
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• pp.219-229
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• 2021

In recent years, geopolymer cements, have gained significant attention as an environmental-friendly type of cement. In this experimental research, effects of different alkaline activator solutions and variations of associated parameters, including time of addition, concentration, and weight ratio, on the mechanical strengths of Granulated Ground Blast Furnace Slag (GGBFS)-based Geopolymer Concrete (GPC) were investigated. Investigation of the effects of simultaneous usage of KOH and NaOH solutions on the tensile and flexural strengths of GGBFS-based GPC, and the influence of NaOH solution addition time delay on the mechanical strengths is among the novel aspects investigated in this research. four series of mix designs and corresponding specimen testing is conducted to study different parameters of the active alkali solutions on GPC mechanical strengths. The results showed that addition of NaOH to the mix after 3 min of mixing KOH and Na2SiO3 with dry components (1/3 of the total mixing duration) resulted in the highest compressive, tensile and flexural strengths amongst other cases. Moreover, increasing the KOH concentration up to 12 M resulted in the highest compressive strength, while weight ratio of 1.5 for Na2SiO3/KOH was the optimum value to achieve highest compressive strengths.

• Advances in concrete construction
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• 제8권1호
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• pp.33-37
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• 2019

The present investigation is mainly focused on studying the flexural behavior of reinforced geopolymer concrete (RGPC) beams under pure bending. In this study, copper slag (CS) was used as a partial replacement of fine aggregate. Sand and CS were blended in different proportions (100:0, 80:20, 60:40 and 40:60) (sand:CS) by weight. Fly ash and ground granulated blast furnace slag (GGBS) were used as binders and combination of sodium hydroxide (8M) and sodium silicate solution were used for activating the binders. The reinforcement of RGPC beam was designed as per guidelines given in the IS 456-2000 and tested under pure bending (two-point loading) after 28 days of ambient curing. After conducting two point load test the flexural parameters viz., moment carrying capacity, ultimate load, service load, cracking moment, cracking load, crack pattern and ultimate deflection were studied. From the results, it is concluded that RGPC beams have shown better performance up to 60% of CS replacement.

• Advances in concrete construction
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• 제7권4호
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• pp.231-239
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• 2019

The present study deals with the development of metakaolin-based geopolymer concrete (GPC) and thereafter studying the effects of adding ultra-fine slag on its mechanical and permeability characteristics. The mechanical characteristics including compressive, split tensile, flexural strengths and elastic modulus were studied. In addition, permeability characteristics including water absorption, porosity, sorptivity and chloride permeability were studied up to 90 days. The results showed the effective utilization of metakaolin for the development of elevated temperature cured geopolymer concrete having high 3-day compressive strength of 42.6 MPa. The addition of ultra-fine slag up to 15%, as partial replacement of metakaolin resulted in an increase in strength characteristics. Similar improvement in durability properties was also observed with the inclusion of ultra-fine slag up to 15%. Beyond this optimum content of 15%, further increase in ultra-fine slag content affected the mechanical as well as permeability parameters in a negative way. In addition, the relationship between various properties of GPC was also derived.

• Computers and Concrete
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• 제27권4호
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• pp.319-332
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• 2021

The performance of gene expression programming (GEP) in predicting the compressive strength of bacteria-incorporated geopolymer concrete (GPC) was examined in this study. Ground-granulated blast-furnace slag (GGBS), new bacterial strains, fly ash (FA), silica fume (SF), metakaolin (MK), and manufactured sand were used as ingredients in the concrete mixture. For the geopolymer preparation, an 8 M sodium hydroxide (NaOH) solution was used, and the ambient curing temperature (28℃) was maintained for all mixtures. The ratio of sodium silicate (Na2SiO3) to NaOH was 2.33, and the ratio of alkaline liquid to binder was 0.35. Based on experimental data collected from the literature, an evolutionary-based algorithm (GEP) was proposed to develop new predictive models for estimating the compressive strength of GPC containing bacteria. Data were classified into training and testing sets to obtain a closed-form solution using GEP. Independent variables for the model were the constituent materials of GPC, such as FA, MK, SF, and Bacillus bacteria. A total of six GEP formulations were developed for predicting the compressive strength of bacteria-incorporated GPC obtained at 1, 3, 7, 28, 56, and 90 days of curing. 80% and 20% of the data were used for training and testing the models, respectively. R2 values in the range of 0.9747 and 0.9950 (including train and test dataset) were obtained for the concrete samples, which showed that GEP can be used to predict the compressive strength of GPC containing bacteria with minimal error. Moreover, the GEP models were in good agreement with the experimental datasets and were robust and reliable. The models developed could serve as a tool for concrete constructors using geopolymers within the framework of this research.

• Advances in concrete construction
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• 제5권4호
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• pp.313-330
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• 2017

Geopolymer is a sustainable concrete, replaces traditional cement concrete using alternative sustainable construction materials as binders and alkaline solution as alkaline activator. This paper presents the strength characteristics of geopolymer concrete (GPC) developed with fly ash and GGBS as binders, combined Sodium silicate ($Na_2SiO_3$) and Sodium Hydroxide (NaOH) solution as alkaline activators. The parameters considered in this research work are proportions of fly ash and GGBS (70-30 and 50-50), curing conditions (Outdoor curing and oven curing at $600^{\circ}C$ for 24 hours), two grades of concrete (GPC20 and GPC50). The mechanical properties such as compressive strength, split tensile strength and flexural strength along with durability characteristics were determined. For studying the durability characteristics of geopolymer concrete 5% $H_2SO_4$ solutions was used and the specimens were immersed up to an exposure period of 56 days. The main parameters considered in this study were Acid Mass Loss Factor (AMLF), Acid Strength Loss Factor (ASLF) and products of degradation. The results conclude that GPC with sufficient strength can be developed even under Outdoor curing using fly ash and GGBS combination i.e., without the need for any heat curing.

• Advances in concrete construction
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• 제11권1호
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• pp.73-80
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• 2021

Rice Husk Ash (RHA) geopolymer paste activated by sodium aluminate were characterized by X-ray diffractogram (XRD), scanning electron microscope (SEM), energy dispersion X-Ray analysis (EDAX)and fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR). Five series of RHA geopolymer specimens were prepared by varying the Si/Al ratio as 1.5, 2.0, 2.5, 3.0 and 3.5. The paper focuses on the correlation of microstructure with hardened state parameters like bulk density, apparent porosity, sorptivity, water absorption and compressive strength. XRD analysis peaks indicates quartz, cristobalite and gibbsite for raw RHA and new peaks corresponding to Zeolite A in geopolymer specimens. In general, SEM micrographs show interconnected pores and loosely packed geopolymer matrix except for specimens made with Si/Al of 2.0 which exhibited comparatively better matrix. Incorporation of Al from sodium aluminate were confirmed with the stretching and bending vibration of Si-O-Si and O-Si-O observations from the FTIR analysis of geopolymer specimen. The dense microstructure of SA2.0 correlate into better performance in terms of 28 days maximum compressive strength of 16.96 MPa and minimum for porosity, absorption and sorptivity among the specimens. However, due to the higher water demand to make the paste workable, the value of porosity, absorption and sorptivity were reportedly higher as compared with other geopolymer systems. Correlation regression equations were proposed to validate the interrelation between physical parameters and mechanical strength. RHA geopolymer shows comparatively lower compressive strength as compared to Fly ash geopolymer.

• 한국건축시공학회:학술대회논문집
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• 한국건축시공학회 2014년도 춘계 학술논문 발표대회
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• pp.276-277
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• 2014

Recently, carbon dioxide emissions have increased in succession according to the development of industry. also, cement of construction materials is being increased carbon dioxide during the manufacturing process. it is predicted that amount of carbon dioxide will be produced about 10 % in the world. as a way of solve this problem, it is used to reduce the amount of cement and to replace cement using industrial by-products such as blast furnace slag, fly ash, and red-mud. but, these are not advanced in our country. Thus, the purpose of this study is to analyze the strength property of binary blended geopolymer concrete. So, this study carries out the basic performance test of concrete such as, slump, air content and compressive strength.

• Advances in concrete construction
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• 제6권4호
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• pp.323-344
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• 2018

The study herein reports the impact of Steel Fiber (SF) and Ground Granulated Blast Furnaces slag (GGBFS) content on the fresh and hardened properties of fly ash (FA) based Self-Compacting Geopolymer Concrete (SCGC). Two series of self-compacting geopolymer concrete (SCGC) were formulated with a constant binder content of $450kg/m^3$ and at an alkaline-to-binder (a/b) ratio of 0.50. Fly ash (FA) was substituted with GGBFS with the replacement levels being 0%, 25%, 50%, 75%, and 100% by weight in each SCGC series. Steel fiber (SF) wasn't employed in the assembly of the initial concrete series whereas, within the second concrete series, an SF combination was achieved by a constant additional level of 1% by volume. Fresh properties of mixtures were through an experiment investigated in terms of slump flow diameter, T50 slump flow time, V-funnel flow time, and L-box height ratio. Moreover, the mechanical performance of the SCGCs was evaluated in terms of compressive strength, splitting tensile strength, and fracture toughness. Furthermore, a statistical analysis was applied in order to judge the importance of the experimental parameters, like GGBFS and SF contents. The experimental results indicated that the incorporation of SF had no vital impact on the fresh characteristics of the SCGC mixtures whereas GGBFS aggravated them. However, the incorporation of GGBFS was considerably improved the mechanical properties of SCGCs. Moreover, the incorporation of SF with the total different quantity of GGBFS replacement has considerably increased the mechanical properties of SCGCs, by close to (65%) for the splitting strength and (200%) for compressive strength.

• International Journal of Concrete Structures and Materials
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• 제7권3호
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• pp.193-202
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• 2013

Geopolymer mortar compressed blocks were prepared using fly ash, ground granulated blast furnace slag, silica fume and metakaolin as binders and sand/quarry dust/pond ash as fine aggregate. Alkaline solution was used to activate the source materials for synthesizing the geopolymer mortar. Fresh mortar was used to obtain the compressed blocks. The strength development with reference to different parameters was studied. The different parameters considered were fineness of fly ash, binder components, type of fine aggregate, molarity of alkaline solution, age of specimen, fluid-to-binder ratio, binder-to-aggregate ratio, degree of saturation, etc. The compressed blocks were tested for compression at different ages. It was observed that some of the blocks attained considerable strength within 24 h under ambient conditions. The cardinal aim was to analyze the experimental data generated to formulate a phenomenological model to arrive at the combinations of the ingredients to produce geopolymer blocks to meet the strength development desired at the specified age. The strength data was analyzed within the framework of generalized Abrams' law. It was interesting to note that the law was applicable to the analysis of strength development of partially saturated compressed blocks when the degree of saturation was maintained constant. The validity of phenomenological model was examined with an independent set of experimental data. The blocks can replace the traditional masonry blocks with many advantages.