• Journal of the Korean Ceramic Society
• /
• v.53 no.1
• /
• pp.18-23
• /
• 2016

The development of a binder system with a lower carbon footprint as an alternative to Portland cement has been intensely researched. In the present study, alkali-activated fly ash exposed to carbon dioxide at an early age was characterized in compressive strength tests and by MIP, XRD and FT-IR analyses. The compressive strength of carbonated specimens experienced a dramatic increase in comparison to uncarbonated specimens. The microstructural densification of the carbonated specimens was evidenced by MIP. The XRD pattern showed peaks assigned to nahcolite, indicating that the pH was lower in the carbonated specimens. Under the carbon dioxide-rich environment, the aluminosilicate gel reached a more Si-rich state, which improved the mechanical properties of the alkali-activated fly ash.

• Resources Recycling
• /
• v.20 no.3
• /
• pp.40-47
• /
• 2011

In this study, we investigated the strength, shrinkage and durability of alkali-activated mortar using blast furnace slag only, and admixed with blast-furnace slag and fly ash as cementious materials in oder to develop cementless alkali-activated concrete. In order to compare with the alkali-activated mortar, the normal mortar using ordinary portland cement was also test. In view of the results, we found out that strength development, the resistance to shrinkage and freezing-thawing of the cementless alkali-activated mortar have better than the mortar using ordinary portland cement. Especially, using the combined with blast furnace slag and fly ash develop high strength of above 60 MPa, reduce shrinkage of about 40% and improve freezing-thawing durability of approximately 20%, but promote the velocity of carbonation of 2~3 times.

• Journal of the Korean GEO-environmental Society
• /
• v.23 no.4
• /
• pp.21-27
• /
• 2022

Recently, numerous studies are being performed to examine alkali-activated cement which uses industrial by-products, such as GGBS and fly ash, as well as alkali activators. Alkali-activated cement is a type of binder that exerts the same strength as cement without using cement by mixing industrial by-products with alkali activators. Alkali activators, which are used mainly for carbon-reducing technologies and alkali activation, are expensive and difficult to apply in the field due to risks related to strong alkalinity. Therefore, this study intends to explore methods to use red mud as a substitute for an alkali activator. To that end, this study has evaluated engineering properties, such as flow and strength, of CLSM that uses red mud and paper sludge ash as binders and its possibility to cause soil pollution. This study also aims to present the appropriate mixing ratios of red mud and paper sludge ash to produce CLSM.

• International Journal of Concrete Structures and Materials
• /
• v.8 no.3
• /
• pp.213-228
• /
• 2014

Alkali-activated binder (AAB) is recently being considered as a sustainable alternative to portland cement (PC) due to its low carbon dioxide emission and diversion of industrial wastes and by-products such as fly ash and slag from landfills. In order to comprehend the behavior of AAB, detailed knowledge on relations between microstructure and mechanical properties are important. To address the issue, a new approach to characterize hardened pastes of AAB containing fly ash as well as those containing fly ash and slag was adopted using scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and energy dispersive X-ray spectra microanalyses. The volume stoichiometries of the alkali activation reactions were used to estimate the quantities of the sodium aluminosilicate (N-A-S-H) and calcium silicate hydrate (CSH) produced by these reactions. The 3D plots of Si/Al, Na/Al and Ca/Si atom ratios given by the microanalyses were compared with the estimated quantities of CSH(S) to successfully determine the unique chemical compositions of the N-A-S-H and CSH(S) for ten different AAB at three different curing temperatures using a constrained nonlinear least squares optimization formulation by general algebraic modeling system. The results show that the theoretical and experimental quantities of N-A-S-H and CSH(S) were in close agreement with each other. The $R^2$ values were 0.99 for both alkali-activated fly ash and alkali-activated slag binders.

• Journal of the Korea Institute of Building Construction
• /
• v.17 no.1
• /
• pp.47-54
• /
• 2017

Cement industry is typical carbon-emission industry. If the industrial by-products(granulated blast-furnace slag (GGBFS), fly ash, etc.) are used a large amount, it might be able to reduce cement consumption and mitigate carbon emissions. In this case, however, decrease of early strength is relatively large. Therefore, there is a limitation in increase of the amount of substitute. Considering these circumstances, it would be a good solution to reduce carbon emissions in cement industry to improve the performances of mixed cement through proper alkali-activation in Portland blended cement using GGBFS or fly ash. Therefore, this study prepared concrete in ready-mixed concrete manufacturing facilities with an addition of a binder which used 2.0% modified alkali sulfate activator after mixing Portland cement, GGBFS and fly ash in the ratio of 4:4:2 and assessed its basic properties. The results found the followings: The use of modified alkali-sulfate activator slightly reduced slump and shortened setting time. As a result, bleeding capacity decreased while early strength improved. In addition, there is no big difference in carbonation resistance. It appears that there should be continued experiments and analyses on the related long-term aged specimens.

• International Journal of Highway Engineering
• /
• v.15 no.3
• /
• pp.1-8
• /
• 2013

PURPOSES : This study is to evaluate the feasibility of using the alkali activated cement concrete for application of partial-depth repair in pavement. METHODS : This study analyzes the compressive strength of alkali activated cement mortar based on the changes in the amount/type/composition of binder(portland cement, fly ash, slag) and activator(NaOH, $Na_2SiO_3$, $Na_2CO_3$, $Na_2SO_4$). The mixture design is divided in case I of adding one kind-activator and case II of adding two kind-activators. RESULTS : The results of case I show that $Na_2SO_4$ based mixture has superior the long-term strength when compared to other mixtures, and that $Na_2CO_3$ based mixture has superior the early strength when compared to other mixtures. But the mixtures of case I is difficult to apply in the material for early-opening-to-traffic, because the strength of all mixtures isn't meet the criterion of traffic-opening. The results of case II show that NaOH-$Na_2SiO_3$ based mixtures has superior the early/long-term strength when compared to NaOH-$Na_2SiO_3$ based mixtures. In particular, the NaOH-$Na_2SiO_3$ based some mixtures turned out to pass the reference strength(1-day) of 21MPa as required for traffic-opening. CONCLUSIONS : With these results, it could be concluded that NaOH-$Na_2SiO_3$ based mixtures can be used as the material of pavement repair.

• Journal of the Korea Institute of Building Construction
• /
• v.16 no.4
• /
• pp.321-329
• /
• 2016

The use of ternary blended cement consisting of Portland cement, granulated blast-furnace slag (GGBFS) and fly ash has been on the rise to improve marine concrete structure's resistance to chloride attack. Therefore, this study attempted to investigate changes in chloride attack resistibility of concrete through NT Build 492-based chloride migration experiments and test of concrete's ability to resist chloride ion penetration under ASTM C 1202(KS F 2271) when 1.5-2.0% of alkali-sulfate activator (modified alkali sulfate type) was added to the ternary blended cement mixtures (40% ordinary Portland cement + 40% GGBFS + 20% fly ash). Then, the results found the followings: Even though the slump for the plain concrete slightly declined depending on the use of the alkali-sulfate activator, compressive strength from day 2 to day 7 improved by 17-42%. In addition, the coefficient from non-steady-state migration experiments for the plain concrete measured at day 28 decreased by 36-56% depending on the use of alkali-sulfate. Furthermore, total charge passed according to the test for electrical indication of concrete's ability to resist chloride ion penetration decreased by 33-62% at day 7 and by 31-48% at day 28. As confirmed in previous studies, reactivity in the GGBFS and fly ash improved because of alkali activation. As a result, concrete strength increased due to reduced total porosity.

• Proceedings of the Korea Concrete Institute Conference
• /
• 2009.05a
• /
• pp.319-320
• /
• 2009

The alkali activation products of slag, fly ash C and fly ash F were investigated using compressive strength test and synchrotron x-ray diffraction. We propose that the predominantly amorphous geopolymer formed under ambient conditions is a disordered form of one of the ABC-6 group of zeolites, which includes poly-types such as hydroxycancrinite, hydroxysodalite, chabazite, levyne or fransinite.

• Journal of the Korea Concrete Institute
• /
• v.18 no.4 s.94
• /
• pp.449-458
• /
• 2006

The discharge of fly ash that is produced by coal-fired electric power plants is rapidly increasing in Korea. The utilization of fly ash in the raw materials would contribute to the elimination of an environmental problem and to the development of new high-performance materials. So it is needed to study the binder obtained by chemically activation of pozzolanic materials by means of a substitute for the cement. Fly ash consists of a glass phase. As it is produced from high temperature, it is a chemically stable material. Fly ash mostly consists of $SiO_2\;and\;Al_2O_3$, and it assumes the form of an oxide in the inside of fly ash. Because this reaction has not broken out by itself, it is need to supply it with additional $OH^-$ through alkali activators. Alkali activators were used for supplying it with additional $OH^-$. This paper concentrated on the strength development according to the kind of chemical activators, the curing temperature, the heat curing time. Also, according to scanning electron microscopy and X-Ray diffraction, the main reaction product in the alkali activated fly ash mortar is Zeolite of $Na_6-(AlO_2)_6-(SiO_2)_{10}-12H_2O$ type.

• Journal of the Korean Recycled Construction Resources Institute
• /
• v.3 no.1
• /
• pp.50-57
• /
• 2015

Portland cement production is under critical review due to high amount of $CO_2$ gas released to the atmosphere. Attempts to increase the utilization of a by-products such as fly ash and ground granulated blast-furnace slag to partially replace the cement in concrete are gathering momentum. Many researchs on alkali-activated concrete that does not need the presence of cement as a binder have been carried out recently. Instead, the sources of material such as fly ash, that are rich in Silicon(Si) and Aluminium(Al), are activated by alkaline liquids to produce the binder. Hence concrete with no cement is effect reduction of $CO_2$ gas. In this study, we investigated the influence of the fluidity, air content and compressive strength of mortar on alkaline activator in order to develop cementless fly ash and ground granulated blast-furnace slag based alkali-activated mortar with superplasticizer. In view of the results, we found out that Pn of fluidity and compressive strength is the best in four type of superplasticizer, and PNS of powder type of fluidity is better than that of liquid type in the case of AA.