Heat and mass transfer in different concrete structures: a study of self-compacting concrete and geopolymer concrete

Abstract

Thermal characteristics of concrete are one of the main topics in concrete technology researches. They were extensively studied since the 1980s to predict the behavior of the concrete in fire and the performance of massive concrete. However, this topic was raised again after 2010 as a part of sustainable, energy effective and ecofriendly buildings studies. The aim of this research is to present a comparison between the thermal characteristics of self-compacted concrete (SCC) and the geopolymer concrete (GPC) using collected previous researches. More than fifty references were collected, sorted and analyzed in the last forty years. The results showed that (GPC) has better thermal characteristics, such as thermal conductivity, heat capacity, fire resistance, while (SCC) has better mechanical properties, such as compressive strength, early strength and elastic modulus. Besides that, from ecological point of view, partially replacing of ordinary Portland cement (OPC) with microencapsulated phase change materials (MPCM), such as fly ash, silica fume, slag and metakaolin, remarkably decreases the CO2 footprint of construction industry.