Industrial Waste and Their Influence on Mechanical Properties of Self-compacting Geopolymer Concrete

Ordinary Portland cement (OPC) has a predominant role as a binding material in the field of construction. Its production liberates enormous quantities of carbon dioxide (CO2) into the atmosphere which tends to increment in levels of greenhouse gases and hence contributes to global warming. Further, the rapid growth of industries to meet the necessities has a major impact on the generation of quantities of waste byproducts. In order to decline these environmental footprints, many researchers employed waste byproducts as an alternative material to cement and other natural/raw materials. Many studies employed different waste byproducts lonely in the production of geopolymer concrete (GPC) and reported different success rates. However, a combination of different waste byproducts may offer better results and their relative studies are comparatively less. To address the same, the current study evaluates the performance of self-compacting GPC made from fly ash (FA), ground granulated blast furnace slag (GGBFS), and alkali activators. The test results revealed that the strength characteristics tend to decline with the increase in FA contents. The maximum compressive and split tensile strength of 55.1 and 5 MPa, respectively, were obtained at optimum contents of 10 M NaOH, 50% FA, and GGBFS with a curing period of 28 days. Hence the measured values are a little lower than the OPC values, and this optimum content can be employed as a replacement for conventional concrete in general construction activities. Such kinds of studies are in need of hours to comprehend the better utility of multiple waste byproducts in the production of effective GPC mixes.