Dynamic modulus of elasticity of geopolymer lightweight aggregate concrete

Abstract

The production processes of ordinary Portland cement (OPC), accompanying with bad environment influences such as, huge energy consumption, greenhouse gases emissions and natural resource exploitation; but fly ash-based geopolymer concrete is produced without (OPC), yet that has many sustainable environment benefits. In this study locally artificial lightweight aggregate was used to produce lightweight fly ash geopolymer concrete. The dynamic modulus of elasticity for geopolymer lightweight concrete produced by using locally artificial aggregate was investigated. Reference lightweight geopolymer concrete containing natural normal weight fine aggregate without fiber, lightweight geopolymer concrete reinforced with two volume fractions of steel fibers (0.25 and 0.5); in addition to four concrete mixtures containing artificial coarse lightweight aggregate and artificial lightweight fine aggregate with 25, 50, 75 and 100% volumetric replacement to natural normal weight fine aggregate (sand) were prepared. The dynamic modulus of elasticity was tested at 28day age for all specimens using resonance frequency method. The results demonstrate that the incorporation of artificial fine lightweight aggregate as a volumetric replacement to natural fine aggregate in concrete geopolymer lightweight concrete reduces the dynamic modulus of elasticity gradually with the increase of artificial lightweight aggregate content.