• Computers and Concrete
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• v.20 no.1
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• pp.77-84
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• 2017

Shirasu, a pyroclastic flow deposit, showed considerable performance as aluminosilicate source in geopolymer, based on past research. However, the polymerization reactivity was somewhat lower compared to the traditional fly ash based geopolymer even though the long-term strength was fairly good. The present study concentrates on the development of higher initial strength performance of Shirasu based geopolymer by utilizing ground granulated blast furnace slag as an admixture. Mortars with various mix proportions were adopted to study the effect of parametric changes on strength development along with the addition of slag in different percentages. A combination of sodium hydroxide and sodium silicate was used as alkaline activators considering parameters like molar ratios of alkali to geopolymer water and silica to alkali molar ratio. The mortars were cured at elevated temperatures under different curing conditions to analyze the effect on strength development. Compressive strength test, mercury intrusion porosimetry and X-ray powder diffraction were carried out to assess the strength performance and microstructure of slag-Shirasu based geopolymer. Based on the experimental study, it was observed that the initial and long-term strength development of Slag-Shirasu geopolymer were improved by the addition of slag.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.50 no.4
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• pp.443-458
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• 2024

The construction industry, one of the biggest producers of greenhouse emissions, is under a lot of pressure as a result of growing worries about how climate change may affect local communities. Geopolymer concrete (GPC) has emerged as a feasible choice for construction materials as a result of the environmental issues connected to the manufacture of cement. The findings of this study contribute to the development of machine learning methods for estimating the properties of eco-friendly concrete, which might be used in lieu of traditional concrete to reduce CO₂ emissions in the building industry. In the present work, the compressive strength (f_c) of GPC is calculated using random forests regression (RFR) methodology where natural zeolite (NZ) and silica fume (SF) replace ground granulated blast-furnace slag (GGBFS). From the literature, a thorough set of experimental experiments on GPC samples were compiled, totaling 254 data rows. The considered RFR integrated with artificial hummingbird optimization (AHA), black widow optimization algorithm (BWOA), and chimp optimization algorithm (ChOA), abbreviated as ARFR, BRFR, and CRFR. The outcomes obtained for RFR models demonstrated satisfactory performance across all evaluation metrics in the prediction procedure. For R² metric, the CRFR model gained 0.9988 and 0.9981 in the train and test data set higher than those for BRFR (0.9982 and 0.9969), followed by ARFR (0.9971 and 0.9956). Some other error and distribution metrics depicted a roughly 50% improvement for CRFR respect to ARFR.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Building Construction Conference
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• 2017.11a
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• pp.35-36
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• 2017

This study used Geopolymer to study tile waterproofing adhesives. The materials used in this study were polymer and acrylic resin, and were evaluated based on adhesion and water resistance. In particular, the adhesion was evaluated under various conditions, and the substrate was comparatively evaluated on the concrete and tile surface conditions.

• Journal of the Korea Concrete Institute
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• v.27 no.4
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• pp.443-450
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• 2015

This paper presents an investigation of the mechanical and microstructural properties of Class F fly ash based geopolymer containing sodium sulfate as an additive. Sodium sulfate was used as an chemical additive at the dosage levels of 0, 2, 4, and 6wt% of fly ash. Sodium hydroxide and sodium silicate solutions were used to activate fly ash. The compressive strengths of geopolymer pastes were measured at the age of 28 days. The microstructures of the geopolymer pastes were examined using XRD, MIP and SEM tests. The additions of 2wt% and 4wt% sodium sulfate produced geopolymers with high strength, while increasing the dosage of levels to 6% resulted in almost no changes in strength, comparing with the control geopolymer. The optimum increase in strength was obtained with the addition of 4wt% sodium sulfate. As the amount of sodium sulfate is increased, no additional crystalline phase was detected and no change of amorphous phase indicated despite the change in the strength development. The increase in the strength was due to the change of pore size distribution in samples. As addition of sodium sulfate altered the morphologies of reactive productions and Si/Al ratios of the reaction products, the strengths were thus affected. It was found that the strengths of geopolymer were larger for lower Si/Al ratios of reaction products formed in samples. The optimal amount of sodium sulfate in the fly ash based geopolymer helps to improve mechanical properties of the geopolymer, on the other hand, the high percentage of sodium sulfate could exist as an impurity in the geopolymer and hinder the geopolymer reaction.

• Computers and Concrete
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• v.29 no.5
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• pp.335-346
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• 2022

Geopolymers are an important alternative material supporting recycling, sustainability, and waste management. Durability properties are among the most critical parameters to be investigated; in this study, the durability of manufactured geopolymer samples under the attack of 10% magnesium sulfate and 10% sodium sulfate solution was investigated. 180 cycles of freezing and thawing were also tested. The experimentally obtained results investigate the durability of geopolymer mortar prepared with fly ash (class F) and alkali activator. Three different quarry dust wastes replaced the river sand aggregate: limestone, marble, and basalt powder as fine filler aggregate in three different replacement ratios of 25%, 50%, and 75% to produce ten series of geopolymer composites. The geopolymer samples' visual appearance, weight changes, UPV, and strength properties were studied for up to 12 months at different time intervals of exposure to sulfate solutions to investigate sulfate resistance. In addition, Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), EDS, and XRD were used to study the microstructure of the samples. It was beneficial to include quarry waste as a filler aggregate in durability and mechanical properties. The compact matrix was demonstrated by microstructural analysis of the manufactured specimens. The geopolymer mortars immersed in sodium sulfate showed less strength reduction and deterioration than magnesium sulfate, indicating that magnesium sulfate is more aggressive than sodium sulfate. Therefore, it is concluded that using waste dust interrogation with partial replacement of river sand with fly ash-based geopolymers has satisfactory results in terms of durability properties of freeze-thaw and sulfate resistance.

• Journal of the Korea Institute of Building Construction
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• v.22 no.6
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• pp.663-672
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• 2022

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the magnesium sulfate resistance of a geopolymer mixed with rice husk powder. General concrete, silica fume mixed concrete, and binary blended geopolymer were selected as comparison targets to confirm the magnesium sulfate resistance, and sulfate deterioration was calculated using the compressive strengths with ages. In addition, the weight change rate and the relative dynamic coefficient of the geopolymer were comparatively analyzed, and the degree of etteringite formation was confirmed using X-ray diffraction analysis. the experiment, the geopolymer mixed with 10% rice husk powder showed 10.8% higher compressive strength than concrete with silica fume when submerged for 56 days. Also, the geopolymer mixed with rice husk powder showed a small weight change rate of 0.9 to 1.45%. composition after immersion in magnesium sulfate through X-ray diffraction analysis, it was observed that a small amount of ettringite was dispersed in the geopolymer containing rice husk powder. Thus, there is a high correlation with the corrosion resistance of magnesium sulfate

• Advances in concrete construction
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• v.5 no.1
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• pp.75-86
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• 2017

An experimental work was carried out to study the effect of hybrid fiber on the tension stiffening and cracking characteristics of geopolymer concrete (GPC). A total of 24 concentrically reinforced concrete specimens were cast and tested under uniaxial tension. The grade of concrete considered was M40. The variables mainly consist of the volume fraction of crimped steel fibers (0.5 and 1.0%) and basalt fibers (0.1, 0.2 and 0.3%). The load deformation response was recorded using LVDT's. At all the stages of loading after the first cracking, crack width and crack spacing were measured. The addition of fibers in hybrid form significantly improved the tension stiffening effect. In this study, the combination of 0.5% steel fiber and 0.2% basalt fiber gave a better comparison than the other combinations.

• Journal of the Korean Recycled Construction Resources Institute
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• v.4 no.2
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• pp.101-111
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• 2016

It is possible that aggregates add on to geopolymer based fly ash to mix mortar and concrete like cement. This is necessary to evaluate mineral composition, particle shape, surface, size distribution, density and absorption ratio for fine aggregates due to few detailed research to examine influence of fine aggregates properties on unhardened geopolymer concrete. In this research, used two different fine aggregates, Jumunjin sand(having quartz, mica, feldspar, pyroxene in mineral composition, more than 96% of total size between -0.60 and +0.30mm, angular shape and rough surface) and ISO sand(having almost all quartz in mineral composition, more than 51% size between -1.40 and +0.60mm, simultaneously varied size distribution, spherical shape and smooth surface). After an experimental result of the varied ratio of Si/Al=1.0-4.1 geopolymer paste, mix proportion respectively applied Si/Al=1.5 having the highest compressive strength to mortar and Si/Al=3.5 having the highest consistency to concrete. Geopolymer mortar by mixing with Jumunjin and ISO sand in varied range of 20-50wt.% showed flow size increase between 69.5 and 112.0mm, between 70.5 and 126.0mm respectively. Geopolymer concrete at an addition of 77wt.% of total aggregates ratio showed that average compressive strength was 32MPa and the consistency was favorable to molding. Since ISO sand observing varied size distribution, spherical shape, smooth surface, low absorption ratio resulted in advantageous properties on consistency of geopolymer, geopolymer concrete can be suitable for using the fine aggregates similar to ISO sand.

• Journal of the Korea Concrete Institute
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• v.26 no.4
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• pp.449-456
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• 2014

Material properties of geopolymer, whose the reaction is very complicated, have been influenced by chemical compositions and particle size distributions of fly ash, concentrations and types of alkali-activators and curing conditions such as temperatures and time. In this research, experiments with several variables such as curing temperatures, preset prior to the high temperature curing and high temperatures have been conducted in order to evaluate to investigate effects on the compressive strengths of geopolymer caused by curing condition. Experiment results were evaluated with compressive strengths and micro-structures such as SEM and MIP of geopolymer pastes. As a result, as higher curing temperature or longer preset time were applied to the pastes, higher compressive strengths were observed. However, compressive strengths of geopolymer pastes declined due to increases in macropores (>50 nm) under high temperatures elapsed after 24 hours. In this sense, it can be considered that strengths and microstructures of geopolymers depends on curing temperature and time.

• Advances in concrete construction
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.251-267
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• 2023

In this paper, an experimental investigation is carried out to assess the inherent self-compacting properties of geopolymer mortar and its impact on flexural strength of thin-walled ferro-geopolymer box beam. The inherent self-compacting properties of the optimal mix of normal geopolymer mortar was studied and compared with self-compacting cement mortar. To assess the flexural strength of box beams, a total of 3 box beams of size 1500 mm × 200 mm × 150 mm consisting of one ferro-cement box beam having a wall thickness of 40 mm utilizing self-compacting cement mortar and two ferro-geopolymer box beams with geopolymer mortar by varying the wall thickness between 40 mm and 50 mm were moulded. The ferro-cement box beam was cured in water and ferro-geopolymer box beams were cured in heat chamber at 75℃ - 80℃ for 24 hours. After curing, the specimens are subjected to flexural testing by applying load at one-third points. The result shows that the ultimate load carrying capacity of ferro-geopolymer and ferro-cement box beams are almost equal. In addition, the stiffness of the ferro-geoploymer box beam is reduced by 18.50% when compared to ferro-cement box beam. Simultaneously, the ductility index and energy absorption capacity are increased by 88.24% and 30.15%, respectively. It is also observed that the load carrying capacity and stiffness of ferro-geopolymer box beams decreases when the wall thickness is increased. At the same time, the ductility and energy absorption capacity increased by 17.50% and 8.25%, respectively. Moreover, all of the examined beams displayed a shear failure pattern.