Ambient cured geopolymer concrete products

Abstract

The most commonly used building material in the construction industry is concrete. Portland cement is an important ingredient to manufacture concrete. Due to the rapid growth of urbanisation, the need of cement is inevitable. The manufacturing of Portland cement releases approximately an equal amount of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. In this regard, it is mandatory to find out a solution to avoid the usage of cement in the construction industry. It is proved that the geopolymer technology is an alternative method to create a binder instead of cement. In this study, geopolymer concrete is made with fly ash, ground granulated blast furnace slag, alkaline solution to bind the river sand, and granite coarse aggregate. The geopolymer concrete specimens are cured in ambient temperature. Geopolymer concrete beams, railway sleepers are cast and tested for flexure. The test results are compared with conventional cement concrete specimens and it is found that the geopolymer specimens are performing better than cement concrete specimens. The ferrocement roofing channels and domes are cast with cement mortar and geopolymer mortar. Both of the specimens are tested and found that the ferrogeopolymer elements are showing better results than conventional ferrocement elements.