Effect of sulphate attack on the flexural fatigue behaviour of fly ash–based geopolymer concrete

Abstract

In this work, the erosion effect of sulphate solution on the flexural fatigue behaviour of fly ash–based geopolymer concrete was investigated. Under cyclic bending loading, the effect of sulphate attack on the fatigue life of geopolymer concrete was analysed using the static flexural strength as the damage index. Results revealed that the fatigue life of geopolymer concrete after sulphate erosion was significantly reduced compared with uncorroded samples under the same fatigue loading condition. And the fatigue life of corroded/uncorroded geopolymer concrete can be approximately described by the two-parameter Weibull distribution model. Since the sulphate attack would increase the actual stress level of corroded geopolymer concrete, a fatigue equation considering the damage index was deduced to predict the fatigue life of geopolymer concrete after sulphate attack.