Shear-Bond Behaviour of Profiled Composite Slab Incorporated with Self-Compacted Geopolymer Concrete

Abstract

Composite slab systems have become increasingly popular over the last few decades because of the advantages of merging the two building materials, profiled steel sheets and concrete. The profiled composite slab’s performance depends on the composite interaction at the longitudinal direction of the concrete–steel interface. Geopolymer concrete has emerged over the last few years as a potential sustainable construction material, with 80% less carbon dioxide emissions than cementitious concrete. Recently, self-compacted geopolymer concrete (SCGC) has been developed, synthesised from a fly ash/slag ratio equal to 60/40, micro fly ash (5%), anhydrous sodium metasilicate solid powder as the alkali-activator and a water/solid content ratio equal to 0.45. The production of SCGC eliminates the need for an elevated temperature during curing and high corrosive alkali-activator solutions, as in traditional geopolymer concrete. The bond characteristics of the profiled composite slab system incorporated with the SCGC mix have not yet been thoroughly investigated. The cost-effectiveness of small-scale tests has popularised its usage by many researchers as an alternative technique to large-scale testing for assessing composite slab load shear capacity. In this paper, small-scale push tests were conducted to investigate the load slip behaviour of the SCGC composite slab compared to the normal concrete (NC) composite slab, with targeted compressive strengths of 40 and 60 MPa. The results indicate that SCGC has better chemical adhesion with profiled steel sheets than NC. Additionally, the profiled composite slab incorporated with SCGC possesses higher ultimate strength and toughness than the normal concrete composite slab.