Durability studies on Geopolymer Mortar Cubes and their Impact Strength characteristics of Geopolymer Ferrocement Panels

Abstract

Ferrocement, a thin element, is cast-off as a structural construction as well as a repair material. In this investigation, geopolymer ferrocement panels was made by using ingredients such as fine aggregate, fly ash, water, and the binder solution. The binder solution consists of a combination of Sodium hydroxide and Sodium silicate solution in the ratio of 1:2.5. In this experiment setup, the size of the ferrocement panel adopted was 250mm x 250mm x 30mm. The optimum water/ binder ratio of 0.416 was selected in this experiment. The water/binder ratio is the ratio of solution (NaOH, Na2SiO and water) to fly ash. Two techniques of curing such as heat curing and ambient curing were adopted for this study. The slabs were cast with different types of meshes with single layer, double layers, and triple layers. The different meshes used were square woven, square welded and expanded metal mesh. The impact of different type of meshes and number of layers, preliminary energy absorption, ultimate energy absorption and ductility index were studied. The purpose of the present study is to examine the performance of fly ash based geopolymer ferrocement panels under impact loading and durability tests are conducted out in geopolymer cubes and this study concludes that ferrocement will certainly be one of the best structural alternatives for RCC in the future.