Characteristic Evaluation of Geopolymer Concrete for the Development of Road Network: Sustainable Infrastructure

Abstract

A large quantity of the rural roads in the world has been connected with all traditional concrete roads and has a low volume of traffic. The common problem for such kinds of roads is sustainability and durability. Geopolymer concrete (GC) roads offer an alternate to the traditional cement-based concrete roads. An acceleratory pavement track (APT) with six segments has been constructed to evaluate the practical approaches of fly ash-ground granulated blast furnace slag (GGBFS)-based GC in the sustainable development of rural road network. This paper presents the non-destructive testing (NDT) on APT to check the quality of GC. Moreover, the mechanical, microstructural, and durability characteristics have been analyzed on samples prepared at the time of APT construction. In this paper, efforts have been made to elaborate on the corrosion resistance and chloride resistance of GC after 28 days of ambient curing. The highest compressive strength of 56.63 MPa was obtained for mix with 70% FA, 30% GGBFS, and 0.4 S/B ratio sample after 28 days of ambient curing, and this value is strengthened by rebound hammer result, i.e., 55.7 MPa, conducted on APT without load revolution. The increase in the number of load repetitions on APT found a decrease in rebound and ultrasonic pulse velocity values. Geopolymer concrete mix with 30% GGBFS attained superior NDT behavior upon load repetitions on APT, and similar improved characteristics were identified on laboratory-based testing.