Behaviour of fibre reinforced geopolymer concrete composites

Abstract

Due to growing environmental concerns of the cement industry, alternative cement technologies have become an area of increasing interest. It is now believed that new binders are indispensable for enhanced environmental and durability performance. On the other hand, already huge volumes of fly ash are generated around the world, most of the fly ash is not effectively used, and a large part of it is disposed in landfills. As the need for power increases, the volume of fly ash would increase. Both the above issues are to be addressed. An effort in this regard is the development of geopolymer concrete, synthesized from the materials of geological origin or by product materials such as fly ash, which are rich in silicon and aluminum. So far, the main thrust of research involving geopolymer concrete has been aimed at characterizing the mechanical properties of geopolymer concrete. Majority of these studies are limited to geopolymer concrete cured at elevated temperature. Practical applications of geopolymer concrete are affected by this curing method. This method would prevent the geopolymer concrete to be applied in a cast in situ concrete work. Therefore this research is focused on the utilization of ambient temperature to cure the geopolymer concrete. Also, studies to investigate the effect of addition of fibres on the strength characteristics of geopolymer concrete are limited. Hence, there exists a technical knowledge gap in this area. Hence, an attempt has been made through the present investigation to conduct an experimental programme to study the effect of addition of fibres such as steel, polypropylene and glass on the strength and other engineering properties of geopolymer concrete composites. Despite the engineering characteristics of the geopolymer concrete, the performance of fibre reinforced geopolymer concrete composites under impact loading is not still well known.