STUDY OF MECHANICAL PROPERTIES OF GEOPOLYMERS SELF COMPACTING CONCRETE: A review

Abstract

There is a need to find environmentally acceptable alternatives to Ordinary Portland Cement (OPC) due to its high energy demand and carbon emissions during production. One viable substitute that makes use of waste materials is geopolymers. Geopolymer concrete is a unique kind of concrete that does not use Portland cement in its preparation greatly reduces CO2 emissions and is also resilient to most durability issues. Geopolymer concrete is an environmentally friendly concrete as it relies on minor treated natural materials or industrial wastes like (Fly ash, GGBS and silica fumes, etc) which have high alumina and silica content, to significantly reduce the carbon footprints. Since the dumping of such industrial wastes pollutes land, the problem of how to dispose of them can also be mostly resolved. These cementitious binders are activated using an alkaline solution, which is created by combining potassium silicate (K2SiO3) and potassium hydroxide (KOH) or sodium silicate (Na2SiO3) and sodium hydroxide (NaOH). Self-compacting geopolymer concrete (SCGC) was created as a solution to solve inadequate compaction-related failures. An enhanced variety of concrete known as SCGC compacts naturally without the need for additional compaction. The impact of several factors, including fibers, molarity, superplasticizer, binding materials, and curing temperature, on the mechanical characteristics and workability of SCGC is reviewed critically in this research, along with any gaps that need to be filled and potential future directions. The literature currently in publication encourages the use of SCGC rather than traditional concrete because of the latter's greater resource and waste management, as well as its lower environmental effects.[2]