• Journal of the Korea Institute of Building Construction
• /
• v.14 no.3
• /
• pp.252-258
• /
• 2014

With the vision of 'a low carbon green develop' various industrial by-products were used as replacement of cement, in order to reduce $CO_2$ emissions from the manufacturing process of cement. Blast furnace slag is one of the industrial by-products. Due to the similar chemical compositions to ordinary Portland cement, blast furnace slag have been widely used in concrete with minimum side effects. Hence, in recent years, alkali activated slag-based composites are extensively studied by many researchers. However, the alkali activator can cause a number of problems in practice. Therefore, in this study, an alternative way of activating the slag was investigated. To activate the slag without using an alkali activator, calcium sulfate dihydrate was chosen and mixed with natural recycled fine aggregate. Fundamental properties of the slag-based mortar were tested to evaluate the effect of calcium sulfate dihydrate.

• Journal of the Korea Concrete Institute
• /
• v.24 no.3
• /
• pp.315-322
• /
• 2012

Alkali-activated slag (AAS) is the most obvious alternative materials that can replace OPC. But, AAS industrial usage as a structural material should be evaluated for its durability. Carbonation resistance is one of the most important factors in durability evaluation. Test results for 18 slag-based mortars activated by sodium silicate and 6 OPC mortars were obtained in this study to verify the carbonation property. Main variables considered in the study were flow, compressive strength before and after carbonation, and carbonation depth. Mineralogical and micro-structural analysis of OPC and AAS specimens prior to and after carbonation was conducted using XRD, TGA, FTIR FE-SEM. Test results showed that CHS was major hydration products of AAS and, unlike OPC, no other hydration products were found. After carbonation, CSH of hydration product in AAS turned into an amorphous silica gel, and alumina compounds was not detected. From the analysis of the results, it was estimated that the micro-structures of CSH in AAS easily collapsed during carbonation. Also, the results showed that this collapse of chemical chain of CSH lowered the compressive strength of concrete after carbonation. By increasing the dosage of activators, carbonation resistance and compressive strength were effectively improved.

• Journal of the Korean Applied Science and Technology
• /
• v.32 no.2
• /
• pp.188-193
• /
• 2015

Blast Furnace Slag is good for enhancing the qualities of concrete such as reducing hydration heat increasing fluidity, long-term strength and durability, but it has some problems: construction time is increased or the rotation rate of form is decreased due to low development of early strength. In this study, an aqueous alkali solution for alkali activated reaction was obtained by the electrolysis using concentrated water discharged from seawater desalination process. Prepared aqueous alkali solution was applied to produce mortars using blast furnace slag. The results can be summarized as follows : For the mortar, compressive strength was decreased below 2% of NaOH and increased below 6% of NaOH. And compressive strength was increased gradually with increasing NaOCl contents. However, NaCl contents of mortars caused a decrease of 28days strength above early strength.

• Journal of the Korean Recycled Construction Resources Institute
• /
• v.2 no.2
• /
• pp.107-114
• /
• 2014

The objective of this study is to evaluate the strength development of blast furnace slag concrete in response to the use of recycled aggregate as alkali activator. The influence of the amount of recycled aggregate was evaluated depending on different ratios of replacement for each RFA and RCA to NFA and NCA, respectively. The results indicated that as replacement of RFA and RCA increased, their strength exhibited to be increased. This was due to the fact that the latent hydraulic properties of blast furnace slag was activated by the alkali in recycled aggregates. However, in case of 365-days, it showed lower compressive strength than using NA(natural aggregates) which could be explained as the exhaustively use of alkali containing in RA. The specimens using RA showed about 90% of compressive strength comparing with specimens using NA.

• Journal of the Korea Concrete Institute
• /
• v.25 no.6
• /
• pp.593-599
• /
• 2013

The unrestrained shrinkage strain of alkali-activated (AA) slag concrete was examined and compared with design equations specified in code provisions and empirical equations proposed by Yang et al. The main parameters investigated were the water-to-binder ratio (W/B), unit water content and fine aggregate-to-total aggregate ratio (S/a). Test results revealed that shrinkage strain of AA slag concrete is nearly proportional to the W/B ratio, whereas its time function is independent of the W/B ratio. The shrinkage strain of AA slag concrete increased significantly when the unit water content is above $185kg/m^3$, whereas it is marginally affected by the S/a ratio. The design equation of ACI 209 considerably overestimates the shrinkage behavior of AA slag concrete, whereas CEB-FIP equation tends to underestimate the shrinkage at the age more than 28 days. The empirical equation of Yang et al. is in better agreement with test results, showing that values of mean and standard deviation of error coefficients obtained from each specimen are 016 and 0.07, respectively.

• International Journal of Highway Engineering
• /
• v.17 no.2
• /
• pp.99-105
• /
• 2015

PURPOSES: In this study, alkali-activated blast-furnace slag (AABFS) was investigated to determine its capacity to absorb carbon dioxide and to demonstrate the feasibility of its use as an alternative to ordinary Portland cement (OPC). In addition, this study was performed to evaluate the influence of the alkali-activator concentration on the absorption capacity and physicochemical characteristics. METHODS: To determine the characteristics of the AABFS as a function of the activator concentration, blast-furnace slag was activated by using calcium hydroxide at mass ratios ranging from 6 to 24%. The AABFS pastes were used to evaluate the carbon dioxide absorption capacity and rate, while the OPC paste was tested under the same conditions for comparison. The changes in the surface morphology and chemical composition before and after the carbon dioxide absorption were analyzed by using SEM and XRF. RESULTS: At an activator concentration of 24%, the AABFS absorbed approximately 42g of carbon dioxide per mass of paste. Meanwhile, the amount of carbon dioxide absorbed onto the OPC was minimal at the same activator concentration, indicating that the AABFS actively absorbed carbon dioxide as a result of the carbonation reaction on its surface. However, the carbon dioxide absorption capacity and rate decreased as the activator concentration increased, because a high concentration of the activator promoted a hydration reaction and formed a dense internal structure, which was confirmed by SEM analysis. The results of the XRF analyses showed that the CaO ratio increased after the carbon dioxide absorption. CONCLUSIONS : The experimental results confirmed that the AABFS was capable of absorbing large amounts of carbon dioxide, suggesting that it can be used as a dry absorbent for carbon capture and sequestration and as a feasible alternative to OPC. In the formation of AABFS, the activator concentration affected the hydration reaction and changed the surface and internal structure, resulting in changes to the carbon dioxide absorption capacity and rate. Accordingly, the activator ratio should be carefully selected to enhance not only the carbon capture capacity but also the physicochemical characteristics of the geopolymer.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
• /
• v.26 no.10
• /
• pp.521-527
• /
• 2016

Geopolymers have many advantages over Portland cement, including energy efficiency, reduced greenhouse gas emissions, high strength at early age and improved thermal resistance. Alkali activated geopolymers made from waste materials such as fly ash or blast furnace slag are particularly advantageous because of their environmental sustainability and low cost. However, their durability and functionality remain subjects for further study. Geopolymer materials can be used in various applications such as fire and heat resistant fiber composites, sealants, concretes, ceramics, etc., depending on the chemical composition of the source materials and the activators. In this study, we investigated the thermal properties and microstructure of fly ash and blast furnace slag based geopolymers in order to develop eco-friendly construction materials with excellent energy efficiency, sound insulation properties and good heat resistance. With different curing times, specimens of various compositions were investigated in terms of compressive strength, X-ray diffraction, thermal property and microstructure. In addition, we investigated changes in X-ray diffraction and microstructure for geopolymers exposed to $1,000^{\circ}C$ heat.

• Magazine of RCR
• /
• v.12 no.4
• /
• pp.40-46
• /
• 2017

• Magazine of the Korea Concrete Institute
• /
• v.28 no.6
• /
• pp.47-52
• /
• 2016

• Journal of the Korea Concrete Institute
• /
• v.27 no.2
• /
• pp.95-102
• /
• 2015

In this paper, the effects of sodium hydroxide (NaOH) and aluminum potassium sulfate ($AlK(SO_4)_2{\cdot}12H_2O$) dosage on strength properties were investigated. For evaluating the property related to the dosage of alkali activator, sodium hydroxide (NaOH) of 4% (N1 series) and 8% (N2 series) was added to 1~5% (K1~K5) dosage of aluminum potassium sulfate ($AlK(SO_4)_2{\cdot}12H_2O$) and 1% (C1) and 2% (C2) dosage of calcium oxide (CaO). W/B ratio was 0.5 and binder/ fine aggregate ratio was 0.5, respectively. Test result clearly showed that the compressive strength development of alkali-activated slag cement (AASC) mortars were significantly dependent on the dosage of NaOH and $AlK(SO_4)_2{\cdot}12H_2O$. The result of XRD analysis indicated that the main hydration product of $NaOH+AlK (SO_4)_2{\cdot}12H_2O$ activated slag was ettringite and CSH. But at early ages, ettringite and sulfate coated the surface of unhydrated slag grains and inhibited the hydration reaction of slag in high dosage of $NaOH+AlK(SO_4)_2{\cdot}12H_2O$. The $SO_4{^{-2}}$ ions from $AlK(SO_4)_2{\cdot}12H_2O$ reacts with CaO in blast furnace slag or added CaO to form gypsum ($CaSO_4{\cdot}2H_2O$), which reacts with CaO and $Al_2O_3$ to from ettringite in $NaOH+AlK(SO_4)_2{\cdot}12H_2O$ activated slag cement system. Therefore, blast furnace slag can be activated by $NaOH+AlK(SO_4)_2{\cdot}12H_2O$.