Experimental Study on Strength Development of Geopolymer Concrete at Elevated Temperature

Abstract

Production of Portland cement (PC) is resulting in two major environmental issues that are needed to be considered before it’s too late to find out the solution. Firstly, manufacturing of PC is emitting 5% of the global Co2 into the atmosphere causing global warming. Secondly, manufacture of PC requires limestone and clay that are depleting day by day. To produce 1 ton of PC, 1.6 tons of raw materials are needed to be extracted from the earth. To overcome the above problem a new concrete is used called Geopolymer. Geopolymer is a type of amorphous aluminosilicate product that exhibits the ideal properties of rock-forming elements. In the present study the strength development of geo polymer concrete is determined by varying temperature. To prepare geopolymer concrete the
material used is Ground Granulated Blast Furnace Slag, sodium hydroxide activator and hydrated sodium silicate binder. The sodium hydroxide is varied in two molarities, 8 and 10 respectively. The sodium silicate had 30% water content in it. The curing was done in the oven with varying temperatures of 60, 80 and 100 degrees. The compressive, split tensile and flexural strength showed higher strength at 8 molars and curing temperature being 100 degrees.