Studies on fly ash and slag blended geopolymer concrete

Abstract

Geopolymer concrete is an alternate to Portland cement concrete that can be produced from industrial wastes. Materials such as fly ash, iron slag, biomass silica, redmud, silica fume, metakaolin, rice husk ash etc. can be used for geopolymerization. In the present study class F fly ash and ground granulated blast furnace slag has been used as source material to produce geopolymer concrete. Initial studies have been conducted on mortar samples. Blending of ground granulated blast furnace slag with class F fly ash reduced the concentration of chemicals required for geopolymerization and eliminated the need for high temperature curing. Geopolymer concrete mixes with 3, 5 & 8 Molar concentration of sodium hydroxide attained average compressive strength of 36.5, 52.1 and 58.6 MPa with ambient air curing at 28 days with a constant Silicate to Hydroxide ratio. Other Mechanical and durability properties of the geopolymer concrete mixes developed have been reported.