Experimental Study on the Structural Response of Reinforced Fly Ash-Based Geopolymer Concrete Members

Geopolymer concrete is concrete made from industrial materials, such as fly ash, GGBS, silica fume, and metakaolin, used as a cement alternative. In this study, geopolymer concrete will be based on fly ash as a binder material, alkaline activators of sodium hydroxide and sodium silicate, GPC beams of dimensions 800 mm × 250 mm × 100 mm, circular columns with diameter 350 mm and depth of 700 mm and GPC slabs of dimensions 500 mm × 500 mm × 100 mm are all cast with fly ash content of 350 kg/m³. The ratio of alkaline solution to fly ash was equal to 0.5 and was kept constant, and the Na2SiO3-to-NaOH ratio was 2.5 and the NaOH molarity was kept constant at 12 M. The beams reinforcement was changed to study the shear and flexural behaviour, and the slabs and columns reinforcement ratio was kept constant. The load capacity, stress–strain behaviour of the GPC and load-deflection behaviours of the members were also examined. The results showed that reinforced geopolymer members can be used as an alternative to reinforced concrete structural members, but they are more expensive than reinforced concrete. Further study is recommended to provide more practical design recommendations for incorporating geopolymer concrete into structural elements in order to accelerate the adoption of this concrete for large-scale field applications in the future.

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