Abstract
Ambient-cured heavyweight geopolymer concrete (HWGC) is a new type of concrete that combines the benefits of both heavyweight concrete (HWC) and geopolymer concrete (GC). HWGC provides proper protection from the sources that emit harmful radiations in medical and nuclear industries. Furthermore, HWGC may also be used in offshore structures for pipeline ballasting and similar underwater structures. In this study, heavyweight aggregates (magnetite) have been used and replaced by normal-weight coarse aggregates in GC at volume ratios of 50, 75, and 100% to attain heavyweight classification according to British standards. This study investigates the impacts of high temperatures on standard ambient-cured geopolymer concrete and ambient-cured HWGC through its residual properties regarding compressive and tensile strengths, mass loss, spalling intensity, and flexural strength. The residual properties were examined by heating 100 × 200 mm cylinder specimens to 100, 300, 600, and 900 °C. The results indicated that the maximum compressive strengths of 40.1 and 39.0 MPa were achieved by HWGC at 300 and 100 °C, respectively. The overall result shows that the strength of HWGC increases by increasing magnetite aggregate proportion, while the mass loss, intensity of spalling, and loss of strengths is proportional to temperature after a certain point. Minor spalling with holes and cracking was observed only at 900 °C in HWGC.
Highlights
Portland cement has been around for almost 200 years; the Romans and Egyptians were using cement-like materials centuries before Joseph Aspdin would patent Portland cement [1].Nowadays, ordinary Portland cement (OPC) is the second most consumed product on Earth, second only to water, and is expected to increase from 2.55 billion tonnes in 2006 to 3.7–4.4 billion tonnes by 2050 [2]
This research may serve as a supporting article for developing geopolymer concrete (GC) and heavyweight geopolymer concrete (HWGC) using normalweight coarse and magnetite aggregates, respectively
This research may serve as a supporting article for developing GC and HWGC using normal-weight coarse and magnetite aggregates, respectively
Summary
Ordinary Portland cement (OPC) is the second most consumed product on Earth, second only to water, and is expected to increase from 2.55 billion tonnes in 2006 to 3.7–4.4 billion tonnes by 2050 [2]. This gives rise to an increasing need to find an environmentally friendly alternative to Portland cement in order to reduce carbon dioxide emissions and promote green concrete technology by utilizing various by-product materials such as fly ash and blast furnace slag. Many studies have indicated the potential benefits of fly-ash-based geopolymer concrete over the OPC concrete in the last few years [3]. Geopolymer concrete has shown the potential to replace OPC by reducing the amount of carbon emissions up to 80%, while still maintaining high strengths comparable to that of OPC [4].
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