AN EXPERIMENTAL STUDY ON TERNARY BLEND BASED STEEL FIBRE REINFORCED GEO POLYMER CONCRETE

Abstract

Cement is the second most consumed product and as per the year 2010 status the quantity assessed was 3.3 billion tons at global level. Cement industry accounts for 5% to 8% of world’s carbon dioxide emissions. It is also well-known fact that cement production consumes large amount of natural resources such as limestone, chalk, clay, etc. which are extracted from the quarry by blasting. On the other hand, Thermal Power Plants generates huge quantities of Fly ash while utilizing the coal for their process. As assessed by Central Electricity Authority, the total quantity of Fly Ash generated during 2015-2016 in India was 83.64 million MT. As per the Report of Indian Minerals year book 2014 issued by Ministry of Mines, Government of India, around 10 million tons of Blast Furnace slag is generated in India from iron & steel industry. Substantial quantity of this fly ash and GGBFS are used for landfills only. Both fly ash and GGBFS exhibits Cementitious as well as pozzolana characteristics. So, fly ash and GGBFS can be effectively utilized for production of concrete. One of the current research trends in Civil Engineering is to find an alternate material for Cement concrete. Geo Polymer Concrete is one such alternate for Cement Concrete. But, steam/ heat curing is required for producing Geo Polymer Concrete which makes it difficult for using the same for in situ applications. This project aims at finding the viable solutions for producing cast-in-situ geopolymer concrete without compromising on mechanical and durability properties of geopolymer concrete by using locally available industrial wastes such as Fly Ash & GGBS. The compression and flexural strength along with durability properties of Geopolymer concrete were investigated in this work. This study consisted of casting cubes and prisms and curing was done at ambient temperature to suit the cast-in-situ conditions. The specimens were tested for 7 & 28 days strength. Durability studies were carried out after the age of 28 days. It can be concluded that Geopolymer concrete can be produced cast-in-situ without any special curing requirement such as steam/ heat curing, and without compromising on mechanical and durability properties