Development of Geopolymer Lightweight Concrete using Industrial By-products

Abstract: An attempt has been made in this research work to develop the geopolymer concrete composite using the industrial by-products such as fly ash class-C, GGBFS, PS sand and sintered fly ash aggregates to achieve the required strength. The different combination of fly ash and GGBFS as binding materials were studied in this work. The ambient cured geopolymer concrete was developed to mitigate the carbon footprint in building construction. The density of concrete was in the range of 1740Kg/m3 to 1840Kg/m3 . The higher the GGBFS content higher the density. The strength developed in geopolymer concrete after 28 days of curing is in the range of 25 Mpa to 45 Mpa. Hence this Light Weight Geopolymer concrete can be used as structural concrete for buildings.

Keywords: Geopolymer, Class – C Fly ash, GGBFS, PS Sand, Sintered Fly ash Aggregates.

INTRODUCTION

In the modern world, the challenges faced by the Civil Engineering Industry, is to develop high performance construction material at reasonable cost with the lowest possible environmental impact. India has become the second largest country in both production and consumption of cement next only to China. Manufacturing of Ordinary Portland Cement – OPC is highly energy consuming process and also requires huge quantity of natural resources. The production of OPC releases large amount of CO2 in to the atmosphere, i.e., with all the modern technology of cement manufacturing process available, for every ton of Portland cement production, about 0.8 ton of CO2 is released to atmosphere. The decade (2014 – 2024) is known as international decade for sustainability. It envisages adoption of industrial by-products such as fly ash, GGBFS composites in civil engineering applications. Geopolymer is one in which cement is completely replaced (100%) by many suitable cementitious materials. Geopolymer binders have emerged as an environmental friendly, possible alternative to OPC binders due to their reported high early strength and durability [1] – [6]. The strength development in Geopolymer relies on alumina-silicate rather than calcium silicate hydrate bonds as in OPC concrete.
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