A study on influence of control parameters on strength, durability and microstructure of fly ash-ground granulated blast furnace slag based geopolymer mortar and concrete

Abstract

Ordinary Portland cement (OPC) has been extensively used as the primary binding material in the preparation of concrete. However, over last few decades, Portland cement manufacturing industry has become one of the major contributors of emission of large volume of CO2 during the manufacturing process. On the other hand, the management of industrial waste in limited landfill space creates a massive challenge for the developing countries. To mitigate these issues, since last few decades, extensive research work has been undertaken to explore new alternate and more sustainable construction materials. In this line, there is a widespread use of industrial wastes in the production of concrete. Geopolymer concrete (GPC) has gained popularity as a potential alternative of Portland cement concrete due to its better mechanical properties and environmental benefits. The major challenges associated with the geopolymer composites are the variations in the physicochemical properties of precursor materials depending upon their sources, requirement of heat curing for the development of geopolymer composites with low calcium bearing precursor materials, limited availability of efficient and systematic mix design methodologies etc. Furthermore, the limited research works on durability performance of geopolymer composites in various aggressive environment is hindering the practical application of this material.