Effects of alkaline solution concentration on the performance of ambient cured geopolymer concrete blended with supplementary cementitious materials

Abstract

The growing infrastructure demand and worldwide population have newlineexponentially increased the production as well as consumption of concrete. newlineIn conventional practice, the Ordinary Portland Cement (OPC) is used to newlinemanufacture the concrete in order to fulfill the infrastructure development. newlineCement production is responsible for around 5-8 % of carbon dioxide emissions, newlineand it also has a considerable impact on environmental pollution and exhaustion newlineof natural resources. Additionally, the developing countries like India generate newlineenormous quantity of by-products as waste materials such as Fly Ash (FA), newlineCopper Slag, Bagasse Ash, Ground Granulated Blast furnace Slag (GGBS), newlinebottom ash, Palm fuel ash, Silica fume etc., due to industrialization. The dumping newlineof these waste materials puts the environment at the risk of contamination, and it newlinealso poses a severe health hazard to human beings. The major amount of waste is generated from the thermal power stations and steel production industries. In this regard, it is estimated that the steel manufacturing industries produce approximately 300 to 360 million tons of GGBS annually on a global scale. About 250 million tons of fly ash is generated from thermal power plants in India alone every year, according to the Government of India (Central Electricity Authority, 2020). In comparison to their production, the top waste generating countries like China and India are consuming less waste. In these countries, only half of the fly ash production is actually consumed. The synthesis of fly ash and GGBS emits around 55 75% lesser greenhouse gases when compared with the cement production. Therefore, more research is required to enhance the consumption of these waste in the construction industry. As well, the unused industrial waste must be appropriately disposed off without harming human beings and the environment. The consumption of these waste materials which reduce the burden on safe disposal and also it diminishes the emission of greenhouse gases which is produced from the production of