Performance Evaluation of Geopolymer Mortar Mixes Using Recycled Fine Aggregate

Abstract

Manufacturing of Ordinary Portland cement (OPC) requires huge quantity of natural newlineresources, energy and it releases large amount of carbon-dioxide to the environment. newlineNumerous research efforts have been made continuously to establish geopolymer as newlinethe most suitable alternative binder material in view of economical and environment newlineconsideration. With the rapid growth in construction activities, high amount of newlineconstruction and demolition waste (CandDW) is generated and large volumes of natural newlineresources are also being consumed by the construction industry. As a result, both the newlinequantities of CandDW to be disposed off and the scarcity of natural resources are newlineincreasing day by day. To promote sustainability in construction industry, the use of newlinerecycled concrete aggregates, resourced from CandDW is very important and provides newlinea useful solution for the production of concrete. Here an attempt is made to use newlineCandDW as recycled fine aggregate (RFA) for the production of fly ash based newlinegeopolymer mortar mixes. Effects of the concentration of sodium hydroxide solution, newlinethe ratio of sodium silicate solution to sodium hydroxide solution, the ratio of alkaline newlineliquid to binder, different curing regimes and RFA content on the properties of mortar newlinemixes produced have been explained based on the observations at laboratory. newlineExperimental results indicate that 20% RFA can be used effectively to obtain better newlineperformances of the mixes. Using the observed results in the laboratories, prediction newlinemodels for water absorption capacity, compressive strength and drying shrinkage of newlinethe produced geopolymer mortar mixes were developed using artificial neural newlinenetworks. newlineKeywords: Construction and demolition waste, recycled fine aggregates, newlinesustainability, mortar, fly ash, geopolymer, compressive strength, drying shrinkage newline