Sustainable Self-Compacting Geopolymer Concrete under Ambient Curing-Durability Properties

Abstract

In this study, industrial by-products like fly ash, Ground Granulated Blast Furnace Slag (GGBFS) and silica fume were used to develop the sustainable Self-Compacting Geopolymer Concrete (SCGC) under ambient curing. The combination of source materials is kept constant such as 50% fly ash, 30% Ground Granulated Blast Furnace Slag (GGBFS) and 20% silica fume, respectively. In the series of experiments, sodium silicate (Na2SiO3) solution of 1.75M is kept constant. The Solution/Binder (SB) ratio has been varied such as 0.65, 0.68 and 0.70. Rapid Chloride Permeability Test (RCPT), water absorption and Ultrasonic Pulse Velocity (UPV) of SCGC are measured at 28 days. The test results indicated that, the durability properties were inimically affected with increase in SB ratio and better properties observed with low content SB ratio. This because of increase in Silica (Si) content in the concrete undergoes slow polymerization process at ambient curing. The optimum mix with 0.65 SB ratio is identified with better results and considered for further studies.