Design of a novel ternary blended Self-Compacting Ultra-high-performance Geopolymer Concrete

Abstract

In this research study, the Taguchi orthogonal array (TOA) optimisation method was used to design the optimum mixture proportions of ternary blended Self-Compacting Ultra-High-Performance Geopolymer Concrete (SCUHPGC). The SCUHPGC mixtures, cured at ambient conditions, included Ground Granulated Blast Furnace Slag (GGBFS), Fly Ash (FA), and Silica Fume (SF) as aluminosilicate sources and sodium hydroxide solution and sodium silicate solution as alkaline activators. The effects of six factors at three levels on the compressive strength of SCUHPGC were investigated. The considered factors were the binder content, the ratio of fly ash to ground granulated blast furnace slag (FA/GGBFS), the ratio of silica fume to binder content (SF/Binder content), the ratio of alkaline activator to binder content (AAL/Binder content), the ratio of sodium silicate to sodium hydroxide (SS/SH), and the concentration of sodium hydroxide solution. Twenty-seven SCUHPGC mixtures were evaluated. The slump flow diameter of the optimum SCHUPGC was 740 mm, which satisfies the requirements of self-compacting concrete. The maximum 28-day compressive strength of 132.7 MPa was achieved by the optimum SCUHPGC mixture, which contained a binder content of 1050 kg/m3, a FA/GGBFS ratio of 0.3, an SF/Binder content ratio of 0.05, an AAL/Binder content ratio of 0.4, a SS/SH ratio of 4.0, and an SH concentration of 12 M. The 28-day flexural strength and tensile strength of the optimum SCUHPGC mixture were 9.6 MPa and 4.9 MPa, respectively.