Performance of fly ash geopolymer concrete incorporating bamboo ash at elevated temperature

Abstract

This paper presents the experimental results on the behavior of fly ash geopolymer concrete incorporating bamboo ash on the desired temperature (200 °C to 800 °C). Different amounts of bamboo ash were investigated and fly ash geopolymer concrete was considered as the control sample. The geopolymer was synthesized with sodium hydroxide and sodium silicate solutions. Ultrasonic pulse velocity, weight loss, and residual compressive strength were determined, and all samples were tested with two different cooling approaches i.e., an air-cooling (AC) and watercooling (WC) regime. Results from these tests show that with the addition of 5% bamboo ash in fly ash, geopolymer exhibited a 5 MPa (53%) and 5.65 MPa (66%) improvement in residual strength, as well as 940 m/s (76%) and 727 m/s (53%) greater ultrasonic pulse velocity in AC and WC, respectively, at 800 °C when compared with control samples. Thus, bamboo ash can be one of the alternatives to geopolymer concrete when it faces exposure to high temperatures.