Strength, shrinkage and early age characteristics of one-part alkali-activated binders with high-calcium industrial wastes, solid reagents and fibers

Abstract

Alkali-activated binders (AABs) are developed using a dry mixing method under ambient curing incorporating powder-form reagents/activators and industrial waste-based supplementary cementitious materials (SCMs) as precursors. The effects of binary and ternary combinations/proportions of SCMs, two types of powder-form reagents, fundamental chemical ratios (SiO2/Al2O3, Na2O/SiO2, CaO/SiO2, and Na2O/Al2O3), and incorporation of polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) fibers on fresh state and hardened characteristics of 16 AABs were investigated to assess their performance for finding suitable mix compositions. The mix composed of ternary SCM combination (25% fly-ash class C, 35% fly-ash class F, and 40% ground granulated blast furnace slag) with multicomponent reagent combination (calcium hydroxide and sodium metasilicate = 1:2.5) was found to be the most optimum binder considering all properties with a 56 day compressive strength of 54 MPa. The addition of 2% v/v PVA fibers to binder compositions did not significantly impact the compressive strengths. However, it facilitated mitigating shrinkage/expansion strains through microconfinement in both binary and ternary binders. This research bolsters the feasibility of producing ambient cured powder-based cement-free binders and fiber-reinforced, strain-hardening composites incorporating binary/ternary combinations of SCMs with desired fresh and hardened properties.