Assessment of Study on Geopolymer Concrete Block

Dinesh M. Yedage, Shrikrishna A. Gosavi, Pravin S. Velapurkar

Geopolymer Concrete (GPC),GPC solid block,concrete,GPC hollow block.

The increasing emphasis on energy conservation and environmental protection has led to investigation of alternatives to customary building material. Effort are urgently underway all over the world to develop environment friendly construction materials which makes minimum utility of natural resources and helps to reduce green house gas emission. The contribution of green house gas emission due to ordinary Portland cement production worldwide is approximately 7%. For each ton of Portland cement manufactures, it is estimated that one ton of CO2 is released into the environment. Compared to Portland cement, fly ash based geopolymer concrete can reduce carbon emissions by 80% which has the potential to reduce global emissions by approximately 2.1 billion tons a year. In this connection, Geopolymers are showing great potential and does not need the presence of Portland cement as a binder.

Geopolymer Concrete (GPC) is the name given to concrete where the binder is entirely replaced by an inorganic polymer formed between a strong alkaline solution and an aluminosilicate source. The source material such as fly ash that are rich in silicon (Si) and aluminium (Al) are activated by alkaline liquid to produce the binder. On the other hand the abundant availability of fly ash worldwide creates opportunity to utilise as substitute for OPC to manufacture concrete. This research report presents the study on the development of strength for various grades of geopolymer concrete for different curing conditions (ambient and oven curing). Trial mix was chosen for low calcium fly ash based  The alkaline solution used in the study is a combination of sodium silicate and sodium hydroxide solution with the ratio of 2.5. The effect of change in concentration and curing condition on mechanical property such as compressive strength, tensile strength, flexural strength for GPC solid block and GPC hollow block are studied. Result indicates that heat cured GPC block performed better than specimen cured at room temperature. The result also shows that as the molarity increases the strength of GPC also increases.