Performance Evaluation of Metakaolin Based Geopolymer Containing Parawood Ash and Oil Palm Ash Blends

Abstract

Experimental tests were used to identify the optimum mix of metakaolin (MK) geopolymer mortars needed to achieve high early compressive strength. These tests investigated compressive strength, drying shrinkage, and sodium sulfate expansion of binary and ternary MK-based geopolymer mortar samples containing Parawood ash (PWA) and oil palm ash (OPA) in different replacement levels. The following amounts of PWA and OPA were used: 10 %, 20 %, 30 % and 5 %, 10 %, 15 % by weight of MK, respectively. Sodium hydroxide, sodium silicate and a curing temperature of 80 °C for 2 h were used as parameters to activate the geopolymerization of mortars. Thirteen geopolymer mortar formulations containing PWA and OPA were prepared, and the compressive strengths at 2 h, 6 h, 24 h, 7 days and 28 days were determined. The highest compressive strength of 62 MPa, after 2 h at 80 °C and 2 h at ambient temperature, was obtained with 5 % OPA. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5755/j01.ms.20.3.4543