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Utilization of sweet sorghum fiber to reinforce fly ash-based geopolymer

Journal of Materials Science volume 49, pages 2548–2558 (2014)Cite this article

Abstract

Geopolymer has been of great research interest as a material for sustainable development. As ordinary Portland cement, however, geopolymer exhibits brittle behavior with low tensile strength, ductility, and fracture toughness. This paper investigates the reinforcement of fly ash-based geopolymer with alkali-pretreated sweet sorghum fiber. The sweet sorghum fiber comes from the bagasse (residue), a waste after the juice is extracted from sweet sorghum stalks for ethanol production. Specifically, the unit weight of fly ash-based geopolymer specimens containing different contents of sweet sorghum fibers was measured. Unconfined compression, splitting tensile, and flexural tests were conducted to investigate the effect of incorporated sweet sorghum fiber on the mechanical properties of fly ash-based geopolymer. Scanning electron microscopy imaging was also performed to study the microstructure of the sweet sorghum fiber–geopolymer composite. The results indicate that the unit weight of the sweet sorghum fiber–geopolymer composite decreases with higher fiber content. Although the inclusion of sweet sorghum fiber slightly decreases the unconfined compressive strength, the splitting tensile, and flexural strengths as well as the post-peak toughness increase with the fiber content up to 2 % and then start to decrease. The splitting tensile tests also clearly show the transition from the brittle failure of the plain geopolymer specimen to the “ductile” failure of the geopolymer specimen containing sweet sorghum fiber.

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Acknowledgements

The sweet sorghum bagasse was provided by the Campus Agriculture Center (CAC), University of Arizona.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Civil Engineering and Engineering Mechanics, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, 85721, USA

    Rui Chen, Saeed Ahmari & Lianyang Zhang

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  1. Rui Chen
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  2. Saeed Ahmari
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  3. Lianyang Zhang
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Correspondence to Lianyang Zhang.

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Chen, R., Ahmari, S. & Zhang, L. Utilization of sweet sorghum fiber to reinforce fly ash-based geopolymer. J Mater Sci 49, 2548–2558 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10853-013-7950-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10853-013-7950-0

Keywords

  • Bagasse
  • Flexural Strength
  • Geopolymer
  • Unconfined Compressive Strength
  • Fiber Content