An experimental study on self compacting geo-polymer concrete containing Metakaolin at ambient curing condition

Abstract

The production of cement consumes considerable energy and releases a huge amount of CO2 which is not eco-friendly. One of the possible alternatives is to use alkaline activated binders with the by-products obtained from industries such as fly ash and Ground Granulated Blast Furnace Slag which includes the silicate materials. Accordingly, the worlds suggested innovative concrete; Geopolymer Concrete exhibits mechanical and durability properties against the OPC. Special concretes should possess the ability to flow, pass through small spaces and should be able to fill the narrow gaps of the congested spaces in the structural elements. Self Compacted Concrete is one such special concrete, originally developed in Japan which can handle the workability and durability issues without sacrificing the strength. In the following study, detail investigation of experimental studies is carried out to derive Self Compacting Geopolymer Concrete (SCGPC) with powder content of Fly ash, GGBS and Metakaolin (MK). Superplasticizer is used to improve the workability. Different percentages of GGBS and MK are individually and combinedly added to the constant amount of Fly ash to study the varying results. The Fresh property of concrete are analysed by conducting Slump flow, V Funnel T50 sec, L- box test procedures. Hardened properties are derived by tensile, flexural and compressive strength tests. The study resulted that after the addition of Superplasticizer and presence of Mk shows good workability and the hardened properties improved with increase in percentages of MK and GGBS.