Experimental Study of Hollow Beam Using Concrete Geopolymer Concrete

The demand of concrete is increasing day by day for satisfying the need of development of infrastructure facilities. It is well established fact that the production of OPC not only consumes significant amount of natural resources and energy but also releases substantial quantity of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere. Therefore, it is essential to find alternatives to make the concrete environment friendly. Geo polymer is an inorganic alumino-silicate compound, synthesized from fly ash. The fly ash, one of the source materials for geo polymer binders, is available abundantly in India. Hence it is essential to make the efforts to utilize this by-product in concrete manufacturing. This investigation describes the experimental work conducted by casting 20 geo polymer concrete mixes to evaluate the effect of various parameters affecting the compressive cube size100 mm x 100mm x 100mm, Beam size100mm×150mm×1000strength in order to enhance its overall performance. The test results show that compressive strength increases with increase in the curing time, curing temperature, rest period, concentration of sodium hydroxide solution and decreases with increase in the ratio of water to geopolymer solids by mass & admixture dosage, respectively. The addition of naphthalene based superplasticizer improves the workability of fresh geopolymer concrete. It was further observed that the water content in the geopolymer concrete mix plays significant role in achieving the desired compressive strength. Geopolymer Concretes (GPCs) are a new class of concrete based on an inorganic alumino-silicate possessing the advantages of rapid strength gain, elimination of water curing, good mechanical and durability properties and sustainable alternative to Ordinary Portland Cement (OPC). This paper describes experimental investigation on behaviour of reinforced GPC beams subjected to monotonic static loading. The overall dimensions of the GPC beams. The specimens were produced from a mix incorporating Fly ash and GGBS, which was designed for a compressive strength of 40MPa at 28 days.