Exploration of mechanical and durability characteristics of fly ash-GGBFS based green geopolymer concrete

Abstract

In this paper, the use and effect of Ground Granulated Blast Furnace Slag (GGBFS) addition to fly ash (FA) on the performance of Geopolymer Concrete was presented. A reference of Ordinary Portland cement concrete (OPC) mix was used to compare with geopolymer concrete. The effect of different proportions of GGBFS addition, ambient curing, and curing age on the properties of geopolymer concrete was reported. The concentration of sodium hydroxide solution with 8 M and solution to binder ratio as 0.4 were taken for all the mixes of geopolymer concrete. This paper reported an investigation data on the mechanical and durability characteristics of fly ash-GGBFS based geopolymer concrete and that data was compared with the control mix (OPC). SEM analysis was done on selected samples to estimate the microstructural characteristics. The results concluded that a geopolymer concrete mix containing 60% GGBFS and 40% fly ash at 28 days of ambient temperature achieved maximum compressive strength (55.63 MPa) and further performed durable under severe environmental conditions.