The Geopolymer Group at Curtin University of Technology, Australia, Prof. Vijay Rangan, has released his Research Report for free download, available in the Library. It is paper # 17.
The title is:
DEVELOPMENT AND PROPERTIES OF LOW-CALCIUM FLY ASH-BASED GEOPOLYMER CONCRETE
by Djwantoro Hardjito and B.Vijaya Rangan
Research Report GC 1 (103 pages) (dec. 2005)
Faculty of Engineering, Curtin University of Technology Perth, Australia
From 2001, we have conducted some important research on the development, manufacture, behaviour, and applications of Low-Calcium Fly Ash-Based Geopolymer Concrete. This concrete uses no Portland cement; instead, we use the low-calcium fly ash from a local coal burning power station as a source material to make the binder necessary to manufacture concrete. Concrete usage around the globe is second only to water. An important ingredient in the conventional concrete is the Portland cement. The production of one ton of cement emits approximately one ton of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere. Moreover, cement production is not only highly energy-intensive, next to steel and aluminium, but also consumes significant amount of natural resources. In order to meet infrastructure developments, the usage of concrete is on the increase. Do we build additional cement plants to meet this increase in demand for concrete, or find alternative binders to make concrete?
In this work, low-calcium (ASTM Class F) fly ash-based geopolymer is used as the binder, instead of Portland or other hydraulic cement paste, to produce concrete. The fly ash-based geopolymer paste binds the loose coarse aggregates, fine aggregates and other unreacted materials together to form the geopolymer concrete, with or without the presence of admixtures. The manufacture of geopolymer concrete is carried out using the usual concrete technology methods. As in the case of OPC concrete, the aggregates occupy about 75-80 % by mass, in geopolymer concrete. The silicon and the aluminium in the low-calcium (ASTM Class F) fly ash react with an alkaline liquid that is a combination of sodium silicate and sodium hydroxide solutions to form the geopolymer paste that binds the aggregates and other unreacted materials.
