The use of geopolymer-based concrete has many advantages over conventional cement concrete. Geopolymer, which derives its basic ingredients from industrial waste, has considerable opportunity to dump the industrial waste and reduce the carbon dioxide emissions that could be emitted during cement manufacturing. Geopolymer concrete is potentially suitable for structural engineering applications; however, its unskilled manufacturing leads to several deficits such as cracking, weak mechanical characteristics, and reduced serviceability of the geopolymer structures. Nanomaterials are now being applied and developed in the realm of materials, where they have shown strong filling effects on composite materials that significantly enhance the integrity of composite materials. Research into how nanomaterials might enhance the performance of geopolymer concrete (GPC) in engineering applications is gaining a lot of attention. The past literature revealed that the GPC characteristics can be enhance
Basalt rock waste is a major industrial waste generated as a result of quarrying rocks and artificial sand manufacture for construction projects, and its disposal can lead to several landfill hazards. However, it shows potential to be used as a source material for the manufacture of geopolymers. This paper presents the triaxial stress-strain characteristics of a novel geopolymer developed from basalt rock waste considering partial replacement with ground granulated blast furnace slag (GGBFS) up to 30%. A detailed mix design investigation revealed the optimum molarity (M) of the sodium hydroxide solution to be 8M and the optimum ratio (R) of sodium silicate to sodium hydroxide solution to be 0.75. The axial stress-strain relationships were developed after a series of triaxial laboratory tests for low confining pressures (0 to 800 kPa) and Hoek cell tests for high confining pressures (1 to 5 MPa). A constitutive model predicting the complete stress-strain behavior is proposed. The geopol
The utilization of industrial waste as an aluminosilicate precursor (AP) for alkali-activated material (AAM) production can provide an outlet for the growing waste stream and relief to landfill. However, to achieve the transformation of extremely varied waste into normalized APs with stable performance on an industrial scale, a universal testing method and criteria for quantifying the geopolymerization reactivity (GR) of APs are crucial. To facilitate the establishment of a more consistent method for determining the GR of APs, this paper reviewed and compared four mainstream methods for GR quantification: quantitative X-ray diffraction (QXRD)–based methods, energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS)–based methods, selective dissolution, and leaching tests. QXRD-based and EDS-based methods, as conventional and robust methods for material characterization, have gained excellent agreement with each other on the determination of inherent amorphous phases of APs, which have been proven