• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.46 no.5
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• pp.689-707
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• 2023

Geopolymer concrete production is interesting as it is an alternative to portland cement concrete. However, workability, setting time and strength expectations limit the sustainable application of geopolymer concrete in practice. This study aims to improve the production of geopolymer concrete to mitigate these drawbacks. The improvement in the workability and setting time were achieved with the additional use of NaOH solution whereas an increase in the strength was gained with the addition of recycled steel fibers from waste tires. In addition, the use of 25% basalt powder instead of fly ash and the addition of recycled steel fibers from waste tires improved its environmental feature. The samples with steel fiber ratios ranging between 0.5% and 5% and basalt powder of 25%, 50% and 75% were tested under both compressive and flexure forces. The compressive and flexural capacities were significantly enhanced by utilizing recycled steel fibers from waste tires. However, decreases in these capacities were detected as the basalt powder ratio increased. In general, as the waste wire ratio increased, the compressive strength gradually increased. While the compressive strength of the reference sample was 26 MPa, when the wire ratio was 5%, the compressive strength increased up to 53 MPa. With the addition of 75% basalt powder, the compressive strength decreases by 60%, but when the 3% wire ratio is reached, the compressive strength is obtained as in the reference sample. In the sample group to which 25% basalt powder was added, the flexural strength increased by 97% when the waste wire addition rate was 5%. In addition, while the energy absorption capacity was 0.66 kN in the reference sample, it increased to 12.33 kN with the addition of 5% wire. The production phase revealed that basalt powder and waste steel wire had a significant impact on the workability and setting time. Furthermore, SEM analyses were performed.

• 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.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.29 no.2
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• pp.201-218
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• 2018

In this study, the effects of magnesium sulfate on the mechanical performance and the durability of confined and unconfined geopolymer concrete (GPC) specimens were investigated. The carbon and basalt fiber reinforced polymer (FRP) fabrics with 1-layer and 3-layers were used to evaluate the performances of the specimens under static and cyclic loading in the ambient and magnesium sulfate environments. In addition, the use of FRP materials as a rehabilitation technique was also studied. For the geopolymerization process of GPC specimens, the alkaline activator has selected a mixture of sodium silicate solution ($Na_2SiO_3$) and sodium hydroxide solution (NaOH) with a ratio ($Na_2SiO_3/NaOH$) of 2.5. In addition to GPC specimens, an ordinary concrete (NC) specimens were also produced as a reference specimens and some of the GPC and NC specimens were immersed in 5% magnesium sulfate solutions. The mechanical performance and the durability of the specimens were evaluated by visual appearance, weight change, static and cyclic loading, and failure modes of the specimens under magnesium sulfate and ambient environments. In addition, the microscopic changes of the specimens due to sulfate attack were also assessed by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) to understand the macroscale behavior of the specimens. Results indicated that geopolymer specimens produced with nano-silica and fly ash showed superior performance than the NC specimens in the sulfate environment. In addition, confined specimens with FRP fabrics significantly improved the compressive strength, ductility and durability resistance of the specimens and the improvement was found higher with the increased number of FRP layers. Specimens wrapped with carbon FRP fabrics showed better mechanical performance and durability properties than the specimens wrapped with basalt FRP fabrics. Both FRP materials can be used as a rehabilitation material in the sulfate environment.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.51 no.6
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• pp.661-678
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• 2024

The utilization of geopolymer recycled aggregate concrete (GRAC) as the infilled core of the concrete-filled steel tubular (CFST) columns provides superior economic and environmental benefits. However, limited research exists within the field of geopolymer recycled aggregate concrete considered a green and sustainable material, in addition to the limitation of the design guidelines to predict the behavior of such an innovative new material combination. Moreover, the behavior of high-strength concrete is different from the normal-strength one, especially when there is another material of high-strength properties, such as the steel tube. This paper aims to investigate the behavior of the axially loaded square high-strength GRACFST columns through the nonlinear finite element analysis (NLFEA). A total of thirty-two specimens were simulated using ABAQUS/Standard software with three main variables: recycled aggregate replacement ratio (0, 30, and 50) %, width-to-thickness ratios (52.0, 32.0, 23.4, and 18.7), and length-to-width ratio (3, 5, 9, and 12). During the analysis, the response in terms of the axial load versus the longitudinal strain was recorded and plotted. In addition, various mechanical properties were calculated and analyzed. In view of the results, it has been demonstrated that the mechanical properties of high-strength GRACFST columns such as ultimate load-bearing capacity, compressive stiffness, energy absorption capacity, and ductility increase with the increase of the steel tube thickness owing to the improvement of the confinement effect of the steel tube. In contrast, the incorporation of the recycled aggregate adversely affected the mentioned properties except the ductility, while the increase of the recycled aggregate replacement ratio improved the column's ductility. Moreover, it has been found that the increase in the length-to-width ratio significantly reduced both the failure strain and the energy absorption capacity. Finally, the obtained NLFEA results of the ultimate load-bearing capacity were compared with the corresponding predicted capacities by numerous codes. It has been concluded that AISC, ACI, and EC give conservative predictions for the ultimate load-bearing capacity since the confinement effect was not considered by these codes.

• Advances in materials Research
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• v.5 no.1
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• pp.55-66
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• 2016

This paper describes a study on the effects of $Mg_2Si_{(p)}$ addition on the microstructure, porosity, and mechanical properties namely hardness and tensile properties of AA332 composite. Each composite respectively contains 5, 10, 15, and 20 wt% reinforcement particles developed by a stir-casting. The molten composite was stirred at 600 rpm and melted at $900^{\circ}C{\pm}5^{\circ}C$. The $Mg_2Si$ particles were wrapped in an aluminum foil to keep them from burning when melting. The findings revealed that the microstructure of $Mg_2Si_{(p)}/AA332$ consists of ${\alpha}$-Al, binary eutectic ($Al+Mg_2Si$), $Mg_2Si$ particles, and intermetallic compound. The intermetallic compound was identified as Fe-rich and Cu-rich, formed as polygonal or blocky, Chinese script, needle-like, and polyhendrons or "skeleton like". The porosity of $Mg_2Si_{(p)}/AA332$ composite increased from 8-10% and the density decreased from 9-12% from as-cast. Mechanical properties such as hardness increased for over 42% from as-cast and the highest UTS, elongation, and maximum Q.I were achieved in the sample of 10% $Mg_2Si$. The study concludes that combined with AA332, the amount of 10 wt% of$Mg_2Si$ is a suitable reinforcement quantity with the combination ofAA332.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Building Construction Conference
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• 2020.11a
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• pp.77-78
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• 2020

An alkaline activator was synthesized by dissolving waste glass powder (WGP) in NaOH-4M solution to explore its effects on the Class-C fly ash (FA) and ground granulated blast furnace slag (GGBS) based alkali-activated material (AAM). The compressive strength and porosity were measured, and (SEM-EDX) were used to study the hydration mechanism and microstructure. Results indicated that the composition of alkali solutions was significant in enhancing the properties of the obtained AAM. As the amount of dissolved WGP increased in alkaline solution, the silicon concentration increased, causing the accelerated reactivity of FA/GGBS to develop Ca-based hydrate gel as the main reaction product in the system, thereby increasing the strength. Further increase in WGP dissolution led to strength loss, which were believed to be due to the excessive water demand of FA/GGBS composites to achieve optimum mixing consistency. Increasing the GGBS proportion in a composite also appeared to improve the strength which contributed to develop C-S-H-type hydration.

• Composites Research
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• v.35 no.3
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• pp.201-215
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• 2022

This paper presents the development of thin and lightweight ultra-high temperature radar-absorbing ceramic composites composed of an aluminosilicate ceramic matrix-based geopolymer reinforced ceramic fiber and sendust magnetic nanoparticles in X-band frequency range (8.2~12.4 GHz). The dielectric properties with regard to complex permittivity of ceramic/sendust-aluminosilicate composites were proportional to the size of sendust magnetic nanoparticle with high magnetic characteristic properties as flake shape and its concentrations in the target frequency range. The characteristic microstructures, element composition, phase identification, and thermal stability were examined by SEM, EDS, VSM and TGA, respectively. The fabricated total thicknesses of the proposed single slab ultra-high temperature radar absorber correspond to 1.585 mm, respectively, exhibiting their excellent EM absorption performance. The behavior of ultra-high temperature EM wave absorption properties was verified to the developed free-space measurement system linked with high temperature furnace for X-band from 25℃ to 1,000℃.