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Effect of Aggregate Skeleton and Admixtures on Fresh and Hardened Properties of High-Strength Geopolymer Mortars

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International RILEM Conference on Synergising Expertise towards Sustainability and Robustness of Cement-based Materials and Concrete Structures (SynerCrete 2023)

Abstract

On account of growing environmental and economic concerns, decarbonization of the concrete industry has become a priority with the development of environmentally friendly building materials to attract both research community and industry. A class of advanced environmentally friendly building materials is geopolymer mortars. Their production incorporates mostly industrial by-products in lieu of cement which has a double benefit in terms of sustainability: recycling industrial wastes instead of harmful disposal and reducing carbon footprint by eliminating cement. Although geopolymer mortars have similar or enhanced performance compared to conventional mortars, their development and optimization techniques are vastly different. This study explores two optimization techniques widely used in the development of high-strength and high-performance mortars, namely the use of chemical admixtures and particle packing theory. More specifically ten different admixtures and six different sand contents based on packing density were investigated along with their effect on fresh and hardened state properties such as workability, setting time, and compressive strength, respectively. Higher sand contents improved the compressive strength, while slightly compromising the workability. Finally, it is observed that chemical admixtures developed for OPC concretes are not ideal for geopolymer concretes and interventions such as reducing the temperature of the mixing components could be an effective method to manipulate fresh state properties without compromising the mechanical strength.

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Correspondence to Zoi G. Ralli .

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Ralli, Z., Pantazopoulou, S.J. (2023). Effect of Aggregate Skeleton and Admixtures on Fresh and Hardened Properties of High-Strength Geopolymer Mortars. In: Jędrzejewska, A., Kanavaris, F., Azenha, M., Benboudjema, F., Schlicke, D. (eds) International RILEM Conference on Synergising Expertise towards Sustainability and Robustness of Cement-based Materials and Concrete Structures. SynerCrete 2023. RILEM Bookseries, vol 44. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-33187-9_39

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-33187-9_39

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-031-33186-2

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-031-33187-9

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