She Hab 2016
She Hab 2016
She Hab 2016
h i g h l i g h t s
a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t
Article history: Concrete is the most widely used building material in the construction of infrastructures such as build-
Received 24 February 2016 ings, bridges, highways, dams, and many other facilities. The increasing of worldwide production of ordi-
Received in revised form 8 August 2016 nary Portland cement (OPC) to meet infrastructure developments indicates that concrete will continue to
Accepted 17 September 2016
be a chosen as the most common material of construction in the future. The production of cement con-
sumes a lot of energy and increase CO2 emission to the atmosphere. Another alternative to make
environment-friendly concrete is the development of geopolymer which is an inorganic alumina-
Keywords:
silicate polymer, synthesized from materials of geological origin or by-product materials such as fly
Geopolymer concrete
Fly ash
ash which is rich in silicon and aluminum. In this paper 18 concrete mixtures were produced to evaluate
Compressive strength the effect of key parameters on the mechanical properties of concrete and its behavior. The study key
Bond strength parameters are; binder material content, cement replacement ratios, and the activator solution ratio as
Flexural strength a fly ash based geopolymer. The test results showed that replacement of fly ash as-based geopolymer
improved the mechanical properties of concrete. Compressive strength, splitting tensile strength, flexural
strength and bond strength are on higher side for 50% replacement as compared to those produced from
0%, 25%, 75% and 100% cement replacement ratio.
Ó 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
1. Introduction cement industry contributes around 2.8 billion tons of the green-
house gas emissions annually, or about 7% of the total man-made
Concrete production and industry increases daily due to the greenhouse gas emissions to the earth’s atmosphere [1].
high demand of infrastructure services [1,2]. The projections for Geopolymer concrete research that has been developed o at
the whole increase in the cement industry will hit the 6 Gt/year Curtin University of Technology was triggered by several studies
[3]. It is well known that CO₂ emissions contribute about 65% of on the geopolymer paste previously conducted by others [10] used
global warming and t is predictable to increase by 100% by 2020 slag to produce geopolymer binders to be used as a supplementary
[4]. The cement industry produces many other environmentally cementing material (SCMs). Geopolymer has been using as an
harmful products like sulfur dioxide (SO3) and nitrogen oxides adhesive in strengthening structural members and showed [11]
(NOx) [5] which contribute to the global warming factors [6–9]. that the compressive strength after 14 days was in the range of
The contamination raised from cement production pushed the con- 5–10 MPa. Production of geopolymer concrete takes into account
crete community to find many alternatives to decrease the CO2 various factors t to be considered and which has a great impact
emission. One of those solutions is the geopolymer concrete. The on the strength; the mixing procedure and the CaO content found
in the fly ash. The higher the content of CaO, the higher strength
⇑ Corresponding author. and lower the porosity. In addition to the aforementioned factors,
E-mail addresses: hshehabeldin@yahoo.com (H.K. Shehab), ahmedeisa@zu.edu. it was found by [12] that the curing temperature and time have a
eg (A.S. Eisa). great influence on the strength as well. To obtain a very high
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.conbuildmat.2016.09.059
0950-0618/Ó 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
H.K. Shehab et al. / Construction and Building Materials 126 (2016) 560–565 561
cement hydration [13] and that will help obtaining an optimum Property Results E.S.S limits⁄
strength at 60 °C for a curing time of 48 h by mixing fly ash, kaolin- Consistency of standard Water content as percentage 26%–33%
ite, sodium silica solution, NaOH, and water. The 60° is the temper- cement paste by weight of cement = 0.5%
ature needed to start the geopolymerization process. Setting time Initial = 1 h, 30 min Min. 45 min
The addition of sucrose and citric acid as an alternative admix- Final = 4 h, 30 min Max. 10 h
Compressive strength 3 days = 250 kg/cm2 Min. 180 kg/cm2
ture in fly ash based geopolymer has portrayed an encouraging 7 days = 340 kg/cm2 Min. 270 kg/cm2
results, particularly in the modification of rheological properties Fineness of cement 3300 cm2/gm Min. 2750 cm2/gm
of geopolymer paste [14]. Sucrose tends to provide a retardation ⁄
E.S.S: Egyptian standard specifications.
effect to the plastic geopolymer paste, while citric acid can be used
to accelerate the stiffening process. Even though improvement on
the compressive strength was not optimized, sucrose-added spec-
imens have a comparable compressive strength to the control
Table 3
specimen. The additional precipitation of dissolved species in the
Physical and chemical properties of Fly Ash.
presence of sucrose has also affected the evaluation of porosity
characteristic. Contrasting to citric acid, sucrose-added specimen Property Measured Value
has an unconventional relationship between porosity and com- Physical properties
pressive strength, where smaller porosity is correlated with lower Color Grey (Blackish)
compressive strength [14]. Nevertheless, these chemical reagents Specific gravity 2.13
2. Experimental program
erties of fly ash are shown in Table 3. The alkali used consisted of a
2.1. Material properties and mix proportions mixture of NaOH, and Na2SiO3 solution. NaOH pellets of 98% purity
were used to make NaOH solution of desired molarity. The Na2SiO3
Table 1 shows the mix proportions used in this study. Ordinary solution had 34.64% SiO, 16.27% Na2O and 49.09% Water. The
Portland cement type (I) with high grade 52.5N and fly Ash (FA) specific gravity of alkali liquid solution with molarity 10 was 1.54.
was used as cementitious materials. The chemical compositions The mixing procedure used for geopolymer concrete is similar
and physical properties of the cementitious materials are listed to that of conventional P-C concrete. Mixing of all the materials
in Table 2. For all test specimens, a constant w/c ratio of 0.5 was has been done in the laboratory at room temperature. The fly ash
used. Sand with grain size smaller than 5.0 mm was used. and the aggregate were mixed together in concrete pan mixture.
Uncrushed natural gravel graded from 4.76 mm to 15.0 mm was The mixing was allowed to continue for about 3 to 4 min. The
used as a coarse aggregate. Fly ash (FA) used in this study in con- alkaline solution was prepared one day before mixing and was
formance with ASTM C-618 [15]. The chemical and physical prop- added with additional water during the mix. The liquid component
Table 1
Mix proportions.
Group Cement (kg/m3) Fly ash (kg/m3) Solution (kg/m3) Water (kg/m3) Sand (kg/m3) Gravel(kg/m3) Gravel(kg/m3)
NaOH LSS 4.76-10 mm 10–15 mm
Group(1) G10 300 0 0 0 150 809.70 607.27 607.27
G125 225 75 11.786 29.46 125.19 795.35 596.51 596.51
G150 150 150 23.57 58.93 100.38 780.99 585.74 585.74
G175 75 225 35.36 88.39 75.57 766.64 574.98 574.98
G1100 0 300 47.14 117.86 50.76 752.29 564.22 564.22
Group(2) G225 225 75 9.64 24.10 129.70 795.73 596.79 596.79
G250 150 150 19.29 48.21 109.40 781.76 586.32 586.32
G275 75 225 28.93 72.32 89.11 767.79 575.85 575.85
G2100 0 300 38.57 96.43 68.81 753.83 565.37 565.37
Group(3) G30 350 0.00 0.00 0.00 175.00 765.85 574.39 574.39
G325 262.5 87.5 13.75 34.38 146.06 749.11 561.83 561.83
G350 175 175 27.5 68.75 117.11 732.36 549.27 549.27
G375 87.5 262.5 41.25 103.13 88.17 715.62 536.71 536.71
G3100 0 350 55 137.50 59.23 698.87 524.15 524.15
Group(4) G425 262.5 87.5 11.25 28.13 151.32 749.56 562.17 562.167
G450 175 175 22.5 56.25 127.64 733.26 549.95 549.95
G475 87.5 262.5 33.75 84.38 103.96 716.97 537.72 537.72
G4100 0 350 45 112.50 80.28 700.67 525.50 525.50
562 H.K. Shehab et al. / Construction and Building Materials 126 (2016) 560–565
was added to the dry material and the mixing was continued for allowed to cure for 28 days. ASTM C78/C78M-16 [17] (Flexural
another 3 to 4 min. The fresh concrete was cast into the molds strength under four point bending) was used to investigate the
immediately after mixing in two layers for prismatic specimens. flexural strength of the proposed mixtures. This test consists of
The compaction of the concrete specimens was performed for mul- loading a small-scale prism at the middle third points, to create a
tiple layers each given 25 to 35 manual strokes using 20 mm rod. constant moment region. The load and deflection were recorded
Concrete specimens were vibrated using vibration table for so the data could be analyzed to give the, and the flexural strength
another 10 to 15 s. Three specimens were tested at 7 days and of the tested specimen. All defections measurements were taken
three at 28-days, for the compressive strength test. Three speci- using LVDTs at the midspan of all beams. The flexural strength
mens were tested at 28-days to investigate the tensile strength was calculated as follows:
test. The samples were left for 24 h and then the samples were
3PL
demolded and placed in the oven under a temperature of F tb ¼ 2
ð1Þ
(100 °C) for 24 h and then taken out of the oven to be air cured 2bd
for 5–6 h at room temperature and after that all specimens were where
stored in the a temperature controlled water (40 °C) till the day
of testing at 28 days of curing as shown in Fig. 1. P = Failure load;
L = Centre to center distance between the support = 400 mm;
2.2. Mechanical properties and the testing procedure b = Average specimen width = 100 mm;
d = Average specimen depth = 100 mm.
2.2.1. Compression test
The compression test was carried – out on cube specimens 2.2.3. Split-tension Test
(100 100 100) mm at 28 days of curing. The calculated values Splitting or indirect tensile test was carried out on cylindrical
of compressive strength represented the average results of three specimens of 100 mm diameter and 200 mm height according to
specimens. Compression tests were performed according to the ASTM C 496-11 [18] at 28 days curing. ASTM C496 indicates that
ASTM C39/C39M-16a [16] standard test method for cubes. The the maximum tensile stress can be calculated based on Eq. (2). In
compressive strength test was performed using a compression this equation, P is the applied load applied r, L and D are the length
machine with 1500 kN capacity and at a loading rate of 140 to and diameter, respectively and Fh is the tensile strength.
300 kPa = s until failure.
F h ¼ 2P=p LD ð2Þ
2.2.2. Flexural strength test
Flexural strength test was conducted on (100 100 500) mm 2.2.4. Bond stress test
prism specimens. The specimens were demolded after 24 h of Pull out test was carried out according to ASTM C900-15 [19]
casting and were transferred to curing tank where they were (100 mm diameter and 200 mm height) cylindrical specimens.
Conventional steel bars with diameter 12 mm was embedded into F h ¼ 2P=p Ld ð3Þ
standard cylinder. The reported values for bond strength represent
where: P: the failure load, L: specimen length, and d: specimen
the average results of three specimens per mixture; the bond
diameter.
strength was calculated as follows:
350
For geopolymer concrete : Fc ð7 daysÞ ¼ 0:89 Fc ð28 daysÞ ð4Þ
300
250 For Normal Weight concrete : Fc ð7 daysÞ ¼ 0:70 Fc ð28 daysÞ ð5Þ
200
150 cement contant 300Kg and soluon rao0.55% 3.2. Flexural strength behavior
cement contant 300Kg and soluon rao0.45%
100 cement contant 350Kg and soluon rao0.55%
50 cement contant 350Kg and soluon rao0.45% Table 5 lists the results of the flexural testing for different
cement replacement ratios. The first-crack flexural is used as an
0
0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100% 120% indicator of the maximum tensile stress for the geopolymer con-
Replacment Rao crete. Fig. 4 shows the effect of replacement ratio on flexure
strength from and it can be seen that the flexural strength
Fig. 2. Compressive strength at different replacement ratios. increases by increasing the replacement ratio up to 50% then no
379
370
362
359
357
345
335
335
330
329
320
317
310
310
309
304
302
302
302
300
291
291
290
281
277
269
266
262
262
260
259
250
Compressive Strenth (kg/cm2)
244
225
212
177
Mixture
Table 5 Table 6
Flexural strength results. Splitting Tensile strength results (splitting test).
Group Mixture Replacement ratios Flexure strength (kg/cm2) Group Mixture Replacement ratios Splitting tensile
strength (kg/cm2)
Group(1) G10 0% 29
G125 25% 33.36 Group(1) G10 0% 32.27
G150 50% 39.46 G125 25% 40.59
G175 75% 38 G150 50% 48.77
G1100 100% 34.8 G175 75% 45.22
G1100 100% 42.22
Group(2) G225 25% 29.66
G250 50% 32.9 Group(2) G225 25% 36.06
G275 75% 31.486 G250 50% 41.01
G2100 100% 29.26 G275 75% 38.28
G2100 100% 35.33
Group(3) G30 0% 33.96
G325 25% 39.4 Group(3) G30 0% 38.94
G350 50% 40.8 G325 25% 46.73
G375 75% 39.5 G350 50% 49.58
G3100 100% 35.2 G375 75% 48.08
G3100 100% 43.91
Group(4) G425 25% 35.9
G450 50% 37.71 Group(4) G425 25% 41.26
G475 75% 34.4 G450 50% 44.13
G4100 100% 33.8 G475 75% 41.83
G4100 100% 41.68
45
40 60
Flexural Strength (Kg/cm2)
60
compressive strength, and the bond strength equal 16.18% from
50 compressive strength.
7. It was observed that the flexural strength reached 40.8 kg/cm2
40
cement contant 300Kg and soluon rao0.55% at a cement replacement ratio of 50%, with binder material con-
30 tent of 350 kg and an activator solution ratio of 0.55%.
cement contant 300Kg and soluon rao0.45%
8. It was observed that splitting tensile strength have large value
20 cement contant 350Kg and soluon rao0.55%
of 49.58 kg/cm2 at replacement ratio equal 50%, bonder mate-
10 cement contant 350Kg and soluon rao0.45% rial content of 350 kg and activator solution ratio of 0.55%.
9. It was observed that bond strength have large value 61.04 kg/
0
0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100% 120% cm2 at replacement ratio equal 50%, bonder material content
Replecement Rao 350 kg and activator solution ratio of 0.55%.