scholarly journals Study on the Compressive Strength of Alkali Activated Fly Ash and Slag under the Different Silicate Structure

Materials ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (9) ◽  
pp. 2227
Author(s):  
Zhipu Wang ◽  
Rezeye Rehemituli ◽  
Xiaolei Zhang

Due to its high activation efficiency, waterglass has been widely used for alkali activations in geopolymer. In this study, the n(SiO2)/n(Na2O) (Ms) of waterglass was selected as the variable to investigate the role of the silicate structure on the mechanical properties of harden pastes. Ms was changed by the addition of NaOH to obtain the different silicate group, structure and experiments were performed by employing the liquid-sate 29Si nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), dynamic light scattering (DLS) and gel permeation chromatography (GPC) techniques. Furthermore, selected dissolution, scanning electron microscope (SEM-EDX), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and FTIR experiments were used to measure the development of the amorphous gel and other materials with different curing condition. Results show that silicate structure of the waterglass was changed via the Si-ONa+ formation and the electric charge effect of Na+. Under the lower Ms waterglass, the Q0, Q1 and QC2 structure reverted to the main structure of the silicate group, which was kind of lower seize, molecule weight, linear or circular chain lower geopolymerization degree silicon structure. It would accelerate the geopolymerization speed of prepolymer formation. In addition, higher activity degree of Q0 and Q1 were useful to increase the formation amount of the gel structure with a low Si/Al ratio and size. Thus, silicate structure of waterglass controls the amorphous gel properties to adjust the compressive strength of alkali-activated materials.

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Teewara SUWAN ◽  
Peerapong Jitsangiam ◽  
Hemwadee THONGCHUA ◽  
Ubolluk RATTANASAK ◽  
Weerachart TANGCHIRAPAT ◽  
...  

Abstract A more sustainable and innovative cementitious material would serve green construction for the future and could yield tremendous leverage to the problem of CO2 emissions. Alkali-activated materials (AAMs) could be an alternative binder for relatively low strength construction and rehabilitation as a cement replacement material. The lower strength requirements, e.g., road construction materials, compared to other applications could ease any difficulties with AAM production. For this study, crushed rock (CR) was used as the prime material of a precursor. A laboratory investigation of mechanical properties was performed in conjunction with XRF, XRD, and SEM techniques. The results showed that CR-based AAM with an optimum mixture of 5 M of NaOH concentration, an SS/SH ratio of 1.0, and a liquid-to-binder (L/B) ratio of 0.5 could be used a part of relatively low strength materials. At this ratio, the paste samples cured at room temperature (25 ⁰C) had an early compressive strength of 3.82 MPa, and the paste samples cured at 60 ⁰C had an early compressive strength of 6.45 MPa. The results passed the target compressive strength of cementitious construction materials such as construction block (3.0 MPa–7.0 MPa) and cement-treated base (CTB) for pavement (2.1 MPa–5.5 MPa).


Materials ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (22) ◽  
pp. 6962
Author(s):  
Bo Fu ◽  
Zhenyun Cheng ◽  
Jingyun Han ◽  
Ning Li

This research investigates the mechanism of metakaolin for mitigating the autogenous and drying shrinkages of alkali-activated slag with regard to the activator parameters, including concentration and modulus. The results indicate that the incorporation of metakaolin can decrease the initial viscosity and setting time. Increasing activator concentration can promote the reaction process and shorten the setting time. An increase in the metakaolin content induces a decrease in compressive strength due to reduced formation of reaction products. However, increasing activator dosage and modulus can improve the compressive strength of alkali-activated slag containing 30% metakaolin. The inclusion of metakaolin can mitigate the autogenous and drying shrinkage of alkali-activated slag by coarsening the pore structure. On the other hand, increases in activator concentration and modulus result in an increase in magnitude of the autogenous and drying shrinkage of alkali-activated slag containing metakaolin. The influence of the activator modulus on the shrinkage behavior of alkali-activated slag-metakaolin binary system should be further investigated.


Materials ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (11) ◽  
pp. 2911
Author(s):  
Margarida Gonçalves ◽  
Inês Silveirinha Vilarinho ◽  
Marinélia Capela ◽  
Ana Caetano ◽  
Rui Miguel Novais ◽  
...  

Ordinary Portland Cement is the most widely used binder in the construction sector; however, a very high carbon footprint is associated with its production process. Consequently, more sustainable alternative construction materials are being investigated, namely, one-part alkali activated materials (AAMs). In this work, waste-based one-part AAMs binders were developed using only a blast furnace slag, as the solid precursor, and sodium metasilicate, as the solid activator. For the first time, mortars in which the commercial sand was replaced by two exhausted sands from biomass boilers (CA and CT) were developed. Firstly, the characterization of the slag and sands (aggregates) was performed. After, the AAMs fresh and hardened state properties were evaluated, being the characterization complemented by FTIR and microstructural analysis. The binder and the mortars prepared with commercial sand presented high compressive strength values after 28 days of curing-56 MPa and 79 MPa, respectively. The mortars developed with exhausted sands exhibit outstanding compressive strength values, 86 and 70 MPa for CT and CA, respectively, and the other material’s properties were not affected. Consequently, this work proved that high compressive strength waste-based one-part AAMs mortars can be produced and that it is feasible to use another waste as aggregate in the mortar’s formulations: the exhausted sands from biomass boilers.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (4) ◽  
pp. 2407
Author(s):  
Guang-Zhu Zhang ◽  
Xiao-Yong Wang ◽  
Tae-Wan Kim ◽  
Jong-Yeon Lim ◽  
Yi Han

This study shows the effect of different types of internal curing liquid on the properties of alkali-activated slag (AAS) mortar. NaOH solution and deionized water were used as the liquid internal curing agents and zeolite sand was the internal curing agent that replaced the standard sand at 15% and 30%, respectively. Experiments on the mechanical properties, hydration kinetics, autogenous shrinkage (AS), internal temperature, internal relative humidity, surface electrical resistivity, ultrasonic pulse velocity (UPV), and setting time were performed. The conclusions are as follows: (1) the setting times of AAS mortars with internal curing by water were longer than those of internal curing by NaOH solution. (2) NaOH solution more effectively reduces the AS of AAS mortars than water when used as an internal curing liquid. (3) The cumulative heat of the AAS mortar when using water for internal curing is substantially reduced compared to the control group. (4) For the AAS mortars with NaOH solution as an internal curing liquid, compared with the control specimen, the compressive strength results are increased. However, a decrease in compressive strength values occurs when water is used as an internal curing liquid in the AAS mortar. (5) The UPV decreases as the content of zeolite sand that replaces the standard sand increases. (6) When internal curing is carried out with water as the internal curing liquid, the surface resistivity values of the AAS mortar are higher than when the alkali solution is used as the internal curing liquid. To sum up, both NaOH and deionized water are effective as internal curing liquids, but the NaOH solution shows a better performance in terms of reducing shrinkage and improving mechanical properties than deionized water.


CivilEng ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 523-540
Author(s):  
Imed Beghoura ◽  
Joao Castro-Gomes

This study focuses on the development of an alkali-activated lightweight foamed material (AA-LFM) with enhanced density. Several mixes of tungsten waste mud (TWM), grounded waste glass (WG), and metakaolin (MK) were produced. Al powder as a foaming agent was added, varying from 0.009 w.% to 0.05 w.% of precursor weight. Expanded granulated cork (EGC) particles were incorporated (10% to 40% of the total volume of precursors). The physical and mechanical properties of the foamed materials obtained, the effects of the amount of the foaming agent and the percentage of cork particles added varying from 10 vol.% to 40% are presented and discussed. Highly porous structures were obtained, Pore size and cork particles distribution are critical parameters in determining the density and strength of the foams. The compressive strength results with different densities of AA-LFM obtained by modifying the foaming agent and cork particles are also presented and discussed. Mechanical properties of the cured structure are adequate for lightweight prefabricated building elements and components.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (11) ◽  
pp. 4754
Author(s):  
Assia Aboubakar Mahamat ◽  
Moussa Mahamat Boukar ◽  
Nurudeen Mahmud Ibrahim ◽  
Tido Tiwa Stanislas ◽  
Numfor Linda Bih ◽  
...  

Earth-based materials have shown promise in the development of ecofriendly and sustainable construction materials. However, their unconventional usage in the construction field makes the estimation of their properties difficult and inaccurate. Often, the determination of their properties is conducted based on a conventional materials procedure. Hence, there is inaccuracy in understanding the properties of the unconventional materials. To obtain more accurate properties, a support vector machine (SVM), artificial neural network (ANN) and linear regression (LR) were used to predict the compressive strength of the alkali-activated termite soil. In this study, factors such as activator concentration, Si/Al, initial curing temperature, water absorption, weight and curing regime were used as input parameters due to their significant effect in the compressive strength. The experimental results depict that SVM outperforms ANN and LR in terms of R2 score and root mean square error (RMSE).


2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 34-49
Author(s):  
Abul Arafat ◽  
Sabrin A. Samad ◽  
Jeremy J. Titman ◽  
Andrew L. Lewis ◽  
Emma R. Barney ◽  
...  

AbstractThis study investigates the role of yttrium in phosphate-based glasses in the system 45(P2O5)–25(CaO)– (30-x)(Na2O)–x(Y2O3) (0≤x≤5) prepared via melt quenching and focuses on their structural characterisation and degradation properties. The structural analyses were performed using a combination of solid-state nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). 31P NMR analysis showed that depolymerisation of the phosphate network occurred which increased with Y2O3 content as metaphosphate units (Q2) decreased with subsequent increase in pyrophosphate species (Q1). The NMR results correlated well with structural changes observed via FTIR and XPS analyses. XRD analysis of crystallised glass samples revealed the presence of calcium pyrophosphate (Ca2P2O7) and sodium metaphosphate (NaPO3) phases for all the glass formulations explored. Yttrium-containing phases were found for the formulations containing 3 and 5 mol% Y2O3. Degradation analyses performed in Phosphate buffer saline (PBS) and Milli-Q water revealed significantly reduced rates with addition of Y2O3 content. This decrease was attributed to the formation of Y-O-P bonds where the octahedral structure of yttrium (YO6) cross-linked phosphate chains, subsequently leading to an increase in chemical durability of the glasses. The ion release studies also showed good correlation with the degradation profiles.


Crystals ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
pp. 360
Author(s):  
Pauls P. Argalis ◽  
Laura Vitola ◽  
Diana Bajare ◽  
Kristine Vegere

A major problem in the field of adsorbents is that binders (kaolin clay, bentonite) introduced to bind zeolites and ensure the needed mechanical strength, are not able to sorb gases like CO2 and N2, and decrease the overall adsorption capacity. To solve this problem, one of the pathways is to introduce a binder able to sorb such gases. Thus, in this study, the physical and mechanical properties of a novel binder based on metakaolin and its composite with zeolite 4A in the granular form were studied. Metakaolin was used as a precursor for alkali-activated binder, which was synthesized using an 8M NaOH activation solution. Raw materials were characterized using granulometry, X-ray diffraction (XRD), and differential thermal analysis (DTA); and final products were characterized using density measurements, a compressive strength test, XRD, Brunauer–Emmett–Teller (BET) analysis, and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Alkali-activated metakaolin was found to be efficient as a binding material when data for morphological properties were analyzed. A relationship was observed—by increasing the liquid-to-solid ratio (L/S), compressive strength decreased. Zeolite granule attrition was higher than expected: 2.42% and 4.55% for ZG-0.8, 3.64% and 5.76% for ZG-1.0, and 2.73% and 4.85% for ZG-1.2, measured at 4 and 5 atmospheres, respectively.


Minerals ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (11) ◽  
pp. 714 ◽  
Author(s):  
Evangelos Petrakis ◽  
Vasiliki Karmali ◽  
Georgios Bartzas ◽  
Konstantinos Komnitsas

This study aims to model grinding of a Polish ferronickel slag and evaluate the particle size distributions (PSDs) of the products obtained after different grinding times. Then, selected products were alkali activated in order to investigate the effect of particle size on the compressive strength of the produced alkali activated materials (AAMs). Other parameters affecting alkali activation, i.e., temperature, curing, and ageing time were also examined. Among the different mathematical models used to simulate the particle size distribution, Rosin–Rammler (RR) was found to be the most suitable. When piecewise regression analysis was applied to experimental data it was found that the particle size distribution of the slag products exhibits multifractal character. In addition, grinding of slag exhibits non-first-order behavior and the reduction rate of each size is time dependent. The grinding rate and consequently the grinding efficiency increases when the particle size increases, but drops sharply near zero after prolonged grinding periods. Regarding alkali activation, it is deduced that among the parameters studied, particle size (and the respective specific surface area) of the raw slag product and curing temperature have the most noticeable impact on the compressive strength of the produced AAMs.


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