Fast Setting Steel Fibre Geopolymer Mortar Cured Under Ambient Temperature

Abstract

Cement and cementitious materials are being used worldwide as the most popular multipurpose construction materials but the greenhouse gas such as carbon dioxide (CO₂) produced during its manufacturing process creating a huge environmental hazard, thus efforts have been made for alternative binders. Geopolymer binder is new age binder alternative to ordinary Portland cement in infrastructure projects because it is produced from eco-friendly and industrial waste materials. This study was aimed to produce fast setting with ground-granulated blast-furnace slag (GGBS) in fly ash-based geopolymer mortar incorporated with steel fibres cured under ambient temperature. In this research, alkaline to binder ratio was varied from 0.5 to 0.8, crimped steel fibre are varied from 0.5 to 1.5% by total volume of binder and combination of fly ash (FA) and GGBS (100%:0%, 90%:10%, 80%:20%, 70%:30%, 60%:40% and 50%:50%) as binder were used for preparation of fibre geopolymer mortar. The tests conducted include stetting time and flowability of geopolymer mortar, compressive strength and microstructural characterisation of steel fibre geopolymer mortar. The tests for compressive strength were carried out on standard size of mortar samples at curing period of 3, 7 and 28 days. It is noted from the test results that increase in GGBS content setting times were decreased; however, the compressive strength of fly ash-based geopolymer mortar increased. The highest compressive strength at 28 days of curing period was found to be 69.5 MPa, which is obtained with content of 1% of steel fibres and alkaline to binder ratio of 0.6 with 50%:50% binder’s proportions. Further, it is observed that the incorporation of steel fibres in plain geopolymer mortar have enhanced the compressive strength and optimum dosage of fibres was found to be 1%.