• Journal of Ceramic Processing Research
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• v.19 no.5
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• pp.419-423
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• 2018

A newly conceived geopolymer composite was fabricated by a combination of the geopolymer and polyurethane sponge. The density and porosity of hardened geopolymer composite, corresponded to different pore sizes of polyurethane sponge, exhibited no significant differences from each other. However, the mechanical behavior, the compressive strength and flexural strength, showed slight differences accordingly. Fracture of the geopolymer composite exposed to high compressive load was not observed from all specimens containing polyurethane sponge. The toughness enhancement of the geopolymer composite, due to spontaneous elasticity of polyurethane sponge, crack spread, and crack diffraction, was identified through the stress-strain curve and microstructure of fracture surface. The newly designed geopolymer composite having a 3-dimensional sponge skeleton showed relatively higher flexural strength of 8.0 MPa than other conventional geopolymer composites.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.34 no.3
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• pp.175-183
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• 2024

Geopolymer, also known as alkali aluminum silicate, is used as a substitute for Portland cement, and it is also used as a binder because of its good adhesive properties and heat resistance. Since Davidovits developed Geopolymer matrix composites (GMCs) based on the binder properties of geopolymer, they have been utilized as flame exhaust ducts and aircraft fire protection materials. Geopolymer structures are formed through hydrolysis and dehydration reactions, and their physical properties can be influenced by reaction conditions such as concentration, reaction time, and temperature. The aim of this study is to examine the effects of silica size and aging time on the mechanical properties of composites. Commercial water glass and kaolin were used to synthesize geopolymers, and two types of silica powder were added to increase the silicon content. Using carbon fiber mats, a fiber-reinforced composite material was fabricated using the hand lay-up method. Spectroscopy was used to confirm polymerization, aging effects, and heat treatment, and composite materials were used to measure flexural strength. As a result, it was confirmed that the longer time aging and use of nano-sized silica particles were helpful in improving the mechanical properties of the geopolymer matrix composite.

• Computers and Concrete
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• v.15 no.3
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• pp.437-459
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• 2015

An experimental investigation on the behaviour of geopolymer composite concrete beams reinforced with conventional steel bars and various types of fibres namely steel, polypropylene and glass in different volume fractions under flexural loading is presented in this paper. The cross sectional dimensions and the span of the beams were same for all the beams. The first crack load, ultimate load and the loaddeflection response at various stages of loading were evaluated experimentally. The details of the finite element analysis using "ANSYS 10.0" program to predict the load-deflection behavior of geopolymer composite reinforced concrete beams on significant stages of loading are also presented. Nonlinear finite element analysis has been performed and a comparison between the results obtained from finite element analysis (FEA) and experiments were made. Analytical results obtained using ANSYS were also compared with the calculations based on theory and presented.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.89 no.1
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• pp.47-59
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• 2024

In this study, a new sustainable material was proposed to prepare precast tunnel lining segments (TLS), which were produced using a fiber-reinforced slag-based geopolymer composite. Slag was used as the geopolymer binder. In addition, polypropylene and carbon fibers were added to reinforce TLSs. TLSs were examined in terms of flexural performance, load-deflection response, ductility, toughness, crack characteristics, and tunnel boring machine (TBM) thrust force. Simultaneously, numerical simulation was performed using finite element analysis. The mechanical characteristics of the geopolymer composite with a fiber content of 1% were used. The results demonstrated that the flexural performance and load-deflection response of the precast TLSs were satisfactory. Furthermore, the numerical results were capable of predicting and realistically capturing the structural behavior of precast TLSs. Therefore, fiber-reinforced slag-based geopolymer composites can be applied as precast TLSs.

• Advances in materials Research
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• v.3 no.3
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• pp.151-161
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• 2014

Geopolymer composites reinforced with different layers of woven flax fabric are fabricated using lay- up technique. Mechanical properties, such as flexural strength, flexural modulus and fracture toughness of geopolymer composites reinforced with 2.4, 3 and 4.1 wt% flax fibres are studied. The fracture surfaces of the composites are also examined using scanning electron microscopy. The results show that all the mechanical properties of the composites are improved by increasing the flax fibre contents. It is also found that the mechanical properties of flax fabric reinforced geopolymer composites are superior to pure geopolymer matrix. Micro-structural analysis of fracture surface of the composites indicated evidence of various toughening mechanisms by flax fabrics in the composites.

• 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.

• Advances in nano research
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• v.4 no.3
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• pp.181-195
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• 2016

Addition of nano-$SiO_2$ (NS) to geopolymer composites has been studied through measurement of compressive strengths, FTIR and XRD analysis. Alumino-silicate materials are coarse aggregate included waste concrete and demolished walls with its cementing binder, cement kiln dust (CKD) used and can possess a pronouncing activation for the geopolymer reaction resulting from the high alkali contents within. Materials prepared at water/binder ratios in a range of 0.30: 0.40 under curing of $40^{\circ}C$ and 100% Relative Humidity (R.H.), while the used activator is sodium hydroxide in the ratio of 2 wt. %. First, CKD is added in the ratio from 10 up to 50 wt., %, and the demolished walls was varied depending on the used CKD content, while using constant ratio of waste concrete (40 wt., %). Second step, depending on the optimum CKD ratio resulted from the first one (40 wt. %), so the control geopolymer mix composed of cement kiln dust, demolished walls and waste concrete in the ratio (40:20:40, wt %). Nano-silica partially replaced waste concrete by 1 up to 8%. Results indicated that, compressive strengths of geopolymer mixes incorporating nano-silica were obviously higher than those control one, especially at early ages and specially with 3%NS.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Building Construction Conference
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• 2019.11a
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• pp.19-20
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• 2019

This study investigated the possibility of strength development by incorporating the slighly coarser soda-lime glass powder (GP) with 0-100 wt.% of Ground Granulated Blast Furnace Slag (GGBS) to synthesis GGBS based geopolymer. Compressive strength, water absorption & apparent porosity, were experimentally determined. To determine the homogeneity of mix, the microstructure & elemental composition of samples were studied using SEM-EDS. Study reveals the improvement in strength and reduction in porosity for the samples containing up to 30% GP. Furthermore, the microstructure analyses confirmed the development of denser and compact structure with the incorporation of glass powder up to 30%.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.45 no.6
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• pp.877-894
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• 2022

Geopolymer concrete (GPC) has emerged as a feasible choice for construction materials as a result of the environmental issues associated with the production of cement. The findings of this study contribute to the development of machine learning methods for estimating the properties of eco-friendly concrete to help reduce CO₂ emissions in the construction industry. The compressive strength (f_c) of GPC is predicted using artificial intelligence approaches in the present study when ground granulated blast-furnace slag (GGBS) is substituted with natural zeolite (NZ), silica fume (SF), and varying NaOH concentrations. For this purpose, two machine learning methods multi-layer perceptron (MLP) and radial basis function (RBF) were considered and hybridized with arithmetic optimization algorithm (AOA), and grey wolf optimization algorithm (GWO). According to the results, all methods performed very well in predicting the f_c of GPC. The proposed AOA - MLP might be identified as the outperformed framework, although other methodologies (AOA - RBF, GWO - RBF, and GWO - MLP) were also reliable in the fc of GPC forecasting process.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.51 no.5
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• pp.529-543
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• 2024

The bonding efficacy of steel I-section embedded in metakaolin-fly ash-based geopolymer concrete (MK-FA-GC) was investigated in this study. Push-out tests were conducted on nine column specimens to evaluate the influence of compressive strength of concrete, embedded length of steel I-section, thickness of concrete cover, and stirrup ratio on the bond performance. Failure patterns, load-slip relationships, bond strength, and distribution of bond stress among the specimens were analyzed. The characteristic bond strength of geopolymer concrete (GC) increased with higher compressive strength, longer embedded steel section length, thicker concrete cover, and larger stirrup ratio. Empirical formulas for bond strength at the loading end were derived based on experimental data and a bond-slip constructive model for steel-reinforced MK-FA-GC was proposed. The calculated bond-slip curves showed good agreement with experimental results. Furthermore, numerical simulations using ABAQUS software were performed on column specimens by incorporating the suggested bond-slip relationship into connector elements to simulate the interface behavior between MK-FA-GC and the steel section. The simulation results showed a good correlation with the experimental findings.