USE OF GEOPOLYMER MORTARS IN STRUCTURAL SYSTEMS FOR EARTHQUAKE RESISTANCE

Abstract

The high concrete consumption in the construction industry contributes significantly to global CO2 emissions and energy consumption. Recently, geopolymer concretes have been studied as an alternative to traditional concrete. Studies have shown that geopolymer concretes can contribute to the formation of a sustainable construction environment by reducing energy consumption and C02 emissions. In this study, the use of geopolymer concrete mortars for both sustainable and earthquake-resistant structures was investigated. It is well established that, the first damaged element under the effect of an earthquake is the infill walls. It is thought that making infill walls more resistant to earthquakes will improve the performance of load-bearing elements such as columns and beams. It is known that connecting infill walls to columns with flexible joints will increase the relative story drift capacity of the structure. In the current study, it is aimed to investigate the effect of using traditional and geopolymer mortars on seismic behavior in infill walls connected to columns and beams with flexible joints. In this context, the effect of geopolymer mortars was investigated in the time and frequency domains with shaking table tests applied to two steel frame models produced in a laboratory environment. It was observed that the use of geopolymer mortars reduced both the peak displacement and peak acceleration values of the frame decreased and the dominant frequency values of the structure increased.