GEOPOLYMER CONCRETE

PRESENTED BY:
LIZ MARIA DAMIYAN (192CM029)
PRAVEEN KUMAR GARG (192CM041) COURSE INSTRUCTOR:
TARUN MAURYA (192CM056) DR. C. RAJASEKARAN
  Introduction

 Why Geopolymer concrete?

 Constituents

 Mechanism

 Mix Design

 Types of Geopolymer

 Properties

 Testing's

 Development in Geopolymer Concrete

 Advantages and Disadvantages of Geopolymer Concrete

 Discussion on Future Development

 Conclusion

 References

GEOPOLYMER CONCRETE DEPARTMENT OF CIVIL ENGINEERING, NITK 2

  The term ‘geopolymer’ was first introduced by Davidovits in
1978 to describe a family of mineral binders.
 Geopolymers are inorganic materials rich in silicon (Si) and
Aluminum (Al) that react with alkaline activators to become
cementitious material.
 The geopolymers depend on thermally activated natural
materials like Meta kaolinite or industrial by products like fly
ash or slag to provide a source of silicon (Si) and aluminum (Al).
 These Silicon and Aluminum is dissolved in an alkaline
activating solution and subsequently polymerizes into
molecular chains and become the binder.

GEOPOLYMER CONCRETE DEPARTMENT OF CIVIL ENGINEERING, NITK 3

  Ranking of mankind’s use :
1. Water
2. OPC
 In 2019, Global cement Production was 6.7 billion tonnes.
 India ranks second in cement production.
 OPC consumes considerable amount of virgin materials
resources and energy about 5% of worldwide industrial energy
consumption.
 OPC contributes 5-8% of global CO2 emissions.
 1 tonne of OPC results in emission of approximately 1 tonne of
CO2.
 This is creating a challenging situation in the world of
concrete.

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  Geopolymer concrete has the potential to
substantially curb CO2 emissions.
 80% less CO2 generation than OPC.
 Produce a more durable infrastructure capable of
design life measured in hundreds of years
 Conserve hundreds of thousands of acres
currently used for disposal of coal combustion
products
 Protect aquifers and surface bodies of fresh water
via the elimination of fly ash disposal sites.

Hence it Qualifies as Green

GEOPOLYMER CONCRETE DEPARTMENT OF CIVIL ENGINEERING, NITK 5

 OPC Vs Geopolymer Concrete

 Greater Corrosion resistance

 Greater Sulphate resistance

 Sulphuric acid resistance: high resistance compared to OPC

 Substantially higher fire resistance (up to 2400° F)

 High compressive and tensile strengths

 Rapid strength gain, and lower shrinkage

 Greenhouse gas reduction potential as much as 90 percent

when compared with OPC

GEOPOLYMER CONCRETE DEPARTMENT OF CIVIL ENGINEERING, NITK 6

  Coarse aggregate

 Fine aggregate - sand or bottom ash can be used

 In-Organic Material (Fly Ash, GGBS & Silica Fume)

 Admixture – superplasticizers (naphthalene based or naphthalene sulfonate based)

 Alkaline Solution (Activators)

 Alkaline activation is a process of mixing powdery aluminosilicate with an alkaline activator.

 It produce a paste which sets and hardens within short duration.

 Alkaline Solution are sodium or potassium based and they are prepared by mixing of the
sodium/potassium hydroxide and sodium/potassium silicate at room temperature.
 Sodium-based solutions were chosen because they were cheaper than Potassium-based
solutions.

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  Sodium hydroxides are available in solid state in the form of pellets and flakes.

 Its main process is to activate the sodium silicate.

 Sodium hydroxide is dissolved in water to form a semi-solid paste.

 It makes crystalline product which is stable in aggressive environment

 Sodium silicate also known as water glass or liquid glass.

 It is available in aqueous solution and in solid form and is used in cements, passive fire protection
etc.
 Sodium silicate is used for the making of geopolymer mortar.

Sodium Hydroxide Pellets Sodium Silicate

GEOPOLYMER CONCRETE DEPARTMENT OF CIVIL ENGINEERING, NITK 8

 Fly Ash
 Fly ash is an inorganic, non-combustible by-product of coal - burning
power plants.
 Fly ash is a pozzolanic material possesses no cementitious value but which
will, in finely divided form and in the presence of moisture, chemically
react with calcium hydroxide at ordinary temperature to form compounds
possessing cementitious properties.
 Two classes of Fly ash are defined by ASTM C618: Class F and Class C

 Fly ash used in concrete to increase life cycle expectancy

 It helps in increasing durability.

Fly Ash
 It improves permeability by lowering water-cement ratio.

 Spherical shape of fly ash improves consolidation of concrete.

GEOPOLYMER CONCRETE DEPARTMENT OF CIVIL ENGINEERING, NITK 9

GGBS
 Ground-granulated blast-furnace slag (GGBS or GGBFS) is obtained by
quenching molten iron slag (a by-product of iron and steel-making) from
a blast furnace in water or steam, to produce a glassy, granular product
that is then dried and ground into a fine powder.
 GGBS is a mineral admixture of silicates and aluminates of Ca and other
bases
 It has same main chemical constituents as OPC but in different
proportions
 It improves compressive strength of GPC

Silica Fume
 Silica Fume is also called as micro silica or condensed silica fume.

 It is produced during manufacture of silicon by electric arc furnace.

Silica Fume
 It is another artificial pozzolan.

GEOPOLYMER CONCRETE DEPARTMENT OF CIVIL ENGINEERING, NITK 10

 Dissolution-During initial mixing the alkaline solution dissolves silicon and aluminium ions from
the amorphous phases of the binder like fly ash or GGBS.
 Condensation- In this solution, neighbouring silicon or aluminium hydroxide molecules undergo a
condensation reaction where adjacent hydroxyl ions from these nearest molecules condense to
form an oxygen bond connecting these molecules, and a free molecule of water.
 Polymerisation-Monomers and other silicon and aluminium hydroxide molecules condense to form
rigid chains or nets of oxygen bonded tetrahedral with application of mild temperatures or even at
ambient temperatures. All the three process of geopolymerisation.

Geopolymerisation Process on Fly Ash as Binder

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GEOPOLYMER CONCRETE 12
 1. Selection of fly ash to the compressive ratio.

2. Selection of alkaline liquid ratio

3. Sodium hydroxide to sodium silicate ratio

accordance to compressive Strength

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 4. After fixing ratio of Sodium Silicate Solution and Sodium Hydroxide Solution . The solid mass of
NaOH (Pellets) required is evaluated by fixing the required concentration of NaOH solution.
5. Extra water content is required to be added to mix to maintain workability.
 Max water content to be added extra = 0.06 x Fly Ash content.

 Min water content to be added extra = 0.02 x Fly Ash Content.

The is because flyash is arrived from various plants which have different properties in absorption of
water.
6. Estimation of Air content on the basis of Nominal Size of aggregate.
7. Estimation of Coarse and Fine Aggregate.

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  Slag based geopolymer

 It is a transparent by-product material formed in the processing of melting iron ore.

 OPC replacement with slag improve workability and reduce lifecycle costs.

 It also increase its compressive strength.

 Corex slag, steel slag, iron blast furnace slag are examples.

 Components: Metakaolin + blast furnace slag + alkali silicate (user-friendly).

 Rock based geopolymer

 Metakaolin in the slag based geopolymer replaced by natural rock forming minerals forms
this geopolymer.
 It yields product with better properties and less CO2 emission than the simple slag-based
geopolymer cement.
 Feldspar and quartz are natural rock forming minerals.

GEOPOLYMER CONCRETE DEPARTMENT OF CIVIL ENGINEERING, NITK 15

  Fly ash-based geopolymer

 It improves workability and increase compressive strength

 It reduces cost of OPC along with CO2 emission

 It reduces drying shrinkage

 Class F fly ash is used commonly

 Ferro-silicate based geopolymer

 Water glass-based geopolymer

 Calcium-based geopolymer

 Silica-based geopolymer

 Phosphate-based geopolymer

 Organic-mineral geopolymer

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  Workability

 It increases with increase in NaOH.

 The Sodium silicate solution reduces the flow of mortar.

 Superplasticizer or extra water can be added to increase workability.

 Compressive strength

 Compressive strength of geopolymer concrete have been found up to 70 MPa

(N/mm2).
 The concrete gains its compressive strength rapidly and faster than ordinary Portland
cement concrete.
 It depends on curing time and temperature.

 It increases with fly ash content.

 It increases with fineness of fly ash.

GEOPOLYMER CONCRETE DEPARTMENT OF CIVIL ENGINEERING, NITK 17

Resistance to Chemical Attack
 The exposure of the geopolymers materials to the NaCl solution resulted in the
consistent increase in the compressive strength during the whole period of
measurement (720 days) and the values were as high as 70 Mpa.
 Almost no corrosion products could be found on the surface of the geopolymer.

Geopolymer Sample vs OPC Sample after the 1.5-year exposure to the solutions of NaCl

GEOPOLYMER CONCRETE DEPARTMENT OF CIVIL ENGINEERING, NITK 18

 The drying shrinkage of is much less compared to cement concrete. This makes it well
suited for thick and heavily restrained concrete structural members.
 It has low heat of hydration in comparison with cement concrete.

 It is non toxic, bleed free.

 It has long working life before stiffening

 The fire resistance is considerably better than OPC based concrete.

 This concrete has chloride permeability rating of ‘low’ to ‘very low’ as per ASTM 1202C. It
offers better protection to reinforcement steel from corrosion as compared to traditional
cement concrete.
 This concrete are found to possess very high acid resistance when tested under exposure to
2% and 10% sulphuric acids.

GEOPOLYMER CONCRETE DEPARTMENT OF CIVIL ENGINEERING, NITK 19

 CREEP TEST

 Three 150x300 mm cylinders are prepared.

 They are placed on creep testing frame with hydraulic loading system.

 Before loading; 7th day compressive strength is determined and load

corresponding to 40% of mean compressive strength applied.
 Strain values are measured and recorded.

 Test is conducted at 23ο C and at relative humidity 40-60%.

General Results:
 Creep of GPC is smaller than that of OPC

 Smaller creep is due to block polymerisation concept in GPC.

 Presence of micro-aggregates increase creep resisting function in GPC.

 In OPC creep is caused by cement paste.

GEOPOLYMER CONCRETE DEPARTMENT OF CIVIL ENGINEERING, NITK 20

 DRYING SHRINKAGE TEST

 75x75x285 mm prisms with gauge studs used for this test.

 Specimens are kept in a controlled temperature environment.

 Test is conducted at 23ο C and at relative humidity 40-60%.

 Shrinkage strain measurements are taken on third day of casting the

concrete.
 Specimen is demolded and 1st measurement is taken; horizontal length
comparator is used for measurement.
 Next measurement taken on 4th day and further measurements are taken
till one year.
 Drying shrinkage of GPC is very less.

 Ambient temperature cured GPC shows more shrinkage than heat cured
GPC as excess water evaporates during heat curing reducing dry shrinkage.
 Drying shrinkage of GPC at ambient temperature is same as that of OPC

 GPC undergoes shrinkage of 100 micro strains after one year whereas 500-
800 micro strains are experienced by OPC.

GEOPOLYMER CONCRETE DEPARTMENT OF CIVIL ENGINEERING, NITK 21

 The applications is same as cement concrete. However, this material has not yet been
popularly used for various applications.

Applications of Geopolymer
Concrete

Structural
Pavements Retaining Wall Concrete Pipes
Elements

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 • PAVEMENTS
 Light pavements can be casted using GPC

 No bleed water rise to the surface

 Aliphatic alcohol based spray used to provide protection against drying

 Existing Application: The U.S military is using Geopolymer pavement coatings

designed to resist the heat generated by vertical take off and landing aircrafts.

GEOPOLYMER CONCRETE DEPARTMENT OF CIVIL ENGINEERING, NITK 23

  Wellcamp Airport (Queensland, Austrailia)

 It is the greenest airport in the world.

 More than 30,000 cubic metres of worlds lowest carbon, cement-free geopolymer
concrete and saves more than 6600 tonnes of emissions in the construction of the
airport.

GEOPOLYMER CONCRETE DEPARTMENT OF CIVIL ENGINEERING, NITK 24

  PRECAST BEAM (Queensland University GCI Building, Australia)

 GPC beams formed three suspended floor levels of GCI building.

 These beams had arched curved soffit.

 Water pipes were placed inside them for temperature controlled.

 Hydronic heating of building spaces above and below.

GEOPOLYMER CONCRETE DEPARTMENT OF CIVIL ENGINEERING, NITK 25

  RETAINING WALL

 GPC was used for the construction of Retaining Wall.

 40MPa precast panels were used to build a retaining wall

 These panels were cured under ambient condition

 WATER TANKS

 Two water tanks were constructed, one with 32MPa concrete with blended cement and
other with GPC
 Autogenous healing occurred in OPC due to calcium hydroxide deposition

 In GPC tank there is little calcium hydroxide

GEOPOLYMER CONCRETE DEPARTMENT OF CIVIL ENGINEERING, NITK 26

  Cutting the world’s carbon as the CO2 production is low during its manufacture.
 The price of fly ash is low, as it a by-product.
 Makes use of By-Products like Flyash and silica fume and thus saves effort required for their
disposal.
 Better compressive strength.
 Fire proof
 Low permeability.
 Eco-friendly.
 Excellent properties within both acid and salt environments.
 High tensile strength
 Low creep
 Low drying shrinkage
 Resistant to heat and cold
 Chemically resistant
 Highly durable

GEOPOLYMER CONCRETE DEPARTMENT OF CIVIL ENGINEERING, NITK 27

  Bringing the base material fly ash to the required location

 High cost for the alkaline solution

 Safety risk associated with the high alkalinity of the activating solution.

 Practical difficulties in applying high temperature curing process

 Soluble Silicates have contaminants and their use is restricted due to industry
regulations.
 Lack of awareness of Geopolymer concrete as it is a new product.

 Special care is needed for handling of its constituents.

 Chemicals like sodium hydroxide are harmful to humans

 It is sold only as pre-mix or pre-caste material

 Geopolymerisation process is sensitive and it lacks uniformity

GEOPOLYMER CONCRETE DEPARTMENT OF CIVIL ENGINEERING, NITK 28

  More studies and wide scale acceptance for using GPC in precast concrete products

 The government can make necessary steps to extract sodium hydroxide and sodium silicate
solution from the waste materials of chemical industries, so that the cost of alkaline solutions
required for the geopolymer concrete shall be reduced.
 Producing more cost effective geopolymer

 Since there is demand for natural sand, the fine aggregate shall be replaced partially by quarry
dust. Quarry dust is having high content of Silica, which may increase the compressive
strength of Geopolymer Concrete by partial replacement of quarry dust.
 Different curing methods shall be studied like Hot air curing, Steam curing, Sun curing and
ambient curing and their effect on the strength of geopolymer concrete shall be evaluated.
 Studies on fiber reinforced geopolymer concrete for improving flexural strength.

GEOPOLYMER CONCRETE DEPARTMENT OF CIVIL ENGINEERING, NITK 29

  The reduced CO2 emissions of Geopolymer cements make them a good alternative to Ordinary
Portland Cement.
 Produces a substance that is comparable to or better than traditional cements with respect to
most properties.
 User-friendly geopolymer concrete can be used under conditions similar to those suitable for
ordinary portland cement concrete. These constituents of Geopolymer Concrete shall be capable
of being mixed with a relatively low-alkali activating solution and must be curable in a
reasonable time under ambient conditions. The production of versatile, cost-effective geopolymer
concrete can be mixed and hardened essentially like portland cement. Geopolymer Concrete
shall be used in repairs and rehabilitation works.
 Geopolymer concrete has excellent properties within both acid and salt environments
 Low-calcium fly ash-based geopolymer concrete has excellent compressive strength and is
suitable for Structural applications.
 Wide spread applications in precast industries due to
 its high production in short duration
 less breakage during transportation
 Enhanced research along with acceptance required to make it great advantage to the industry.

GEOPOLYMER CONCRETE DEPARTMENT OF CIVIL ENGINEERING, NITK 30

  Patankar SV, Jamkar SS, Ghugal YM (2012) Effect of sodium hydroxide on flow and strength of
fly ash based geopolymer mortar. J Structural Engg. 39(1):7–12
 Shankar H Sanni (2012); Performance of Geopolymer Concrete under severe environmental
conditions, International Journal on Civil and Structural Engineering
 Lloyd et al (2010);Geopolymer concrete: A review of development and opportunities
 Bakharev, T., (2005(a)), Resistance of geopolymer materials to acid attack, Cement and Concrete
Research, 35, pp 658-670.
 https://www.slideshare.net/VibhanshuSingh5/geopolymer-concrete-ppt-
70043653?qid=8ef6bb19-ec60-4bcf-a07e-872332dfc125&v=&b=&from_search=3.
 GEOPOLYMER CONCRETE - A REVIEW, ISSN: 2231 – 6604, Volume 1, Issue 2, PP: 118-122
©IJESET.
 Study on Geopolymer Concrete using GGBS, Volume: 04 Issue: 02, IRJET.
 Images: Google Images.

GEOPOLYMER CONCRETE DEPARTMENT OF CIVIL ENGINEERING, NITK 31

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