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Fly ash-based geopolymer with self-heating capacity for accelerated curing

Jingming Cai, Xiaopeng Li, Jiawei Tan, Brecht Vandevyvere

PII: S0959-6526(20)31166-5
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2020.121119
Reference: JCLP 121119

To appear in: Journal of Cleaner Production

Received Date: 01 December 2019

Accepted Date: 13 March 2020

Please cite this article as: Jingming Cai, Xiaopeng Li, Jiawei Tan, Brecht Vandevyvere, Fly ash-
based geopolymer with self-heating capacity for accelerated curing, Journal of Cleaner Production
(2020), https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2020.121119

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© 2019 Published by Elsevier.

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Fly ash-based geopolymer with self-heating capacity for

accelerated curing

Jingming Cai a,b, Xiaopeng Lia,c*, Jiawei Tanb*, Brecht Vandevyvereb

a Key Laboratory of Concrete and Prestressed Concrete Structures of Ministry of

Education, Southeast University, Nanjing, China

b Department of Civil Engineering, KU Leuven, Bruges, Belgium

c Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of California, Irvine,

USA

Abstract:
Geopolymers has gained increasing attentions in recent decades because of its

potential for CO2 emission reductions. In order to further increase the curing efficiency

and save energy, the self-electrical heating fly ash based geopolymer was developed in

this paper. In this work, carbon black and steel fibers were added into the fly ash based

geopolymer to increase its electrical property. The feasibility of curing fly ash based

geopolymer by using self-electrical heating was investigated. Calorimetry

measurements were performed to quantify the effect of curing temperature on

geopolymerization process of fly ash-base geopolymer. The three-point bending tests

were conducted to investigate the influences of electric-heating on the flexural

behaviours of geopolymer specimens. The results showed that the maximum surface

temperature of geopolymer specimens under electric-heating reached 67 ℃, which

proved the feasibility of making conductive geopolymer with self-electrical behaviors.

The three-point bending test results showed that the flexural strength for specimen

significantly increased after self-electrical heating. With the proper addition of carbon

black and steel fiber, the fly ash based geopolymer specimen cured after electrical

heating possesses a denser micro-structure and therefore exhibits higher strength and
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better ductility. Besides, self-electrical heating method can significantly increase the

eco-efficiency of geopolymer.

Key words: geopolymer, curing, electrical heating, calorimetry, three-point

bending test

Highlights

 The feasibility of developing self-electrical heating fly ash based geopolymer was

discussed.

 The surface temperature of geopolymer specimens under electric-heating were

tested.

 The three-point bending test for geopolymer specimens after electric-heating were
conducted.

1. Introduction

The production of ordinary Portland cement (OPC) has been estimated to

contribute about 5% to 7% of worldwide greenhouse gas emission (Benhelal et al.,

2013). As such, sustainable alternatives need fewer natural resources and emit less

carbon dioxide (Kajaste and Hurme, 2016) has gained increasing attentions during the

near decades. One feasible approach is to replace OPC with geopolymers made of

industrial by-product materials such as granulated blast furnace slag (GBFS) (Crossin,

2015), fly ash (Nuaklong et al., 2016) and construction and demolition waste (CDW)

(Albitar et al., 2015).

Even though geopolymer has been proved to be more environmentally friendly

than normal cement, its industry applications are significantly restricted by its curing

conditions (Puertas et al., 2000). Firstly, curing temperature would dramatically affect

the properties of geopolymers. The evaluated temperature is required to surpass the

activation barrier during the geopolymerization process (Bakharev, 2005). Fly ash

based geopolymer cured at 60 ºC could achieve a compressive strength of 70 MPa (Al

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Bakria et al., 2011) while the compressive strength growth for those cured at ambient

temperature (about 20 ºC) is negligible. Low curing temperature would lead to the low

chemical activity of fly ash and thus result in a slow geopolymerization processes (Assi

et al., 2016). Secondly, it may be very difficult to cure fly ash-based geopolymer by

using ovens at the construction site due to the size of the geopolymer elements. As a

result, precast technology which is capable of providing thermal curing seems to be the

only solution, which, to some degree, restrict the development of geopolymer. Thirdly,

conventional electrical oven curing is energy-consuming and inefficient. When cured

in electrical oven, the heating process for geopolymer specimen initiates from the

exterior to the interior, which leads to a non-uniform temperature distribution inside the

specimens with numerous temperature cracks formed. It is feasible to develop high

strength geopolymer cured at ambient temperature by introducing calcium-rich

powders (e.g. slag) into the matrix (Cheah and Samsudin, 2017). However, the setting

time and workability geopolymer would rapidly decrease with the addition of slag

(Nath and Sarker, 2014). Moreover, and fast hardening or flash setting would occur

during the mixing procedure.

In the present work, an experimental investigation was conducted to study the

feasibility of developing self-electrical heating fly ash based geopolymer composite

with the addition of steel fiber and carbon black. The addition of steel fiber and carbon

black could increase the conductivity of geopolymer, then the geopolymer specimen

would be capable of generating heat from interior to exterior while being energized.

The generated heat could evenly heat the geopolymer specimen, which enables the

specimen to be cured by itself rather than the heating equipment. Meanwhile, the steel

fiber added into the matrix can positively increase the ductility of geopolymer specimen

because of the fiber bridging-effect.

Totally fourteen fly ash based geopolymer beam specimens with different dosages

of steel fiber and carbon black were casted. The effects of curing temperature on the

geopolymerization process of fly ash-based geopolymer were quantified with

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calorimetry tests. The electric-heating and mechanical behaviors as well as the

microstructure of geopolymer specimens were investigated. Besides, the environmental

impact of geopolymer cured by self-electrical heating was conducted by considering

the CO2 emissions.

2. Experimental procedure

2.1. Materials and Specimen Preparation

Low calcium (Class F) fly ash, steel fiber and carbon black were used as raw

materials in this paper. The chemical composition of fly ash described in Table 1 shows

that the content of calcium is as low as 3.71%, indicating that an extra high temperature

curing for geopolymer samples is essential. The specific surface area of the fly ash used

in this paper is about 350 m2/kg. For fly ash based geopolymer, the content of calcium

can significantly affect its geopolymerization processes as the calcium ions are capable

of facilitating the formation of geopolymer gel (Puligilla, 2013). The macro

morphology of carbon black (Shanghai Kajet Chemical Technology co. LTD) is shown

in Fig.1(a). The electric resistance of carbon black is lower than 1 Ω·m. Steel fibers

used in this experiment is 25.4 mm long and the macro morphology of steel fiber is

shown in Fig.1(b). Detailed physical properties of steel fiber are shown in Table 2.

A combination of Na2SiO3 (14.7% of Na2O, 29.4% of SiO2 and 55.9% of water)

and KOH activator solutions was applied to prepare the alkali activator. The KOH

solution, with the alkali concentration of 12 mol/L, was prepared by dissolving KOH

flakes (98% of purity) in water. Both Na2SiO3 and KOH activator solutions were mixed

together for 24 hours prior to being mixed with solid mixture. A constant liquid to

binder ratio of 0.5 and the Na2SiO3/KOH ratio of 1.5 were adopted in this paper. A high

range water reducing super-plasticiser (naphthalene sulphonatebased) with the amount

of 1.5% by weight was used in the mixing of geopolymer to maintain good flowability.

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(a) Carbon black (b) Steel fiber (c) Fly ash

Fig.1 The macro morphology of (a) Carbon black (b)steel fiber

Table 1 Chemical composition of fly ash (wt %)

Composition CaO SiO2 Al2O3 Fe2O3 MgO K2O SO3 Na2O

Fly ash 3.71 50.86 28.16 6.24 1.28 0.67 0.85 1.27

Table 2 Physical properties of steel fiber

Length(mm) Density (kg/m3) Yong’s Modulus (GPa) Tensile strength (MPa)

25.4 7.8 210 532

Seven mixtures were designed for geopolymer specimens, as shown in Table 3.

All the specimens have the same matrix but different dosages of carbon black and steel

fiber. The nomenclature of each specimen can indicate its composition. For example,

specimen G-4-2 indicates the dosage for carbon black and steel fiber are 4% and 2% by

volume, respectively.

Two geopolymer specimens were casted for each mixture, one was applied in the

electric heating test while another one was cured under ambient conditions (20 ± 5ºC,

with humidity of 50% ± 10%). The dimension of geopolymer specimens was designed

as 400 × 70 × 16 mm. The process of preparing geopolymer samples is shown in Fig.2.

The binder materials, including fly ash, carbon black and steel fiber were firstly mixed

for 1 minute before being blended with alkaline activator and water-reducer for about

5 minutes. After the mixing procedure, the fresh geopolymer was poured into the plastic
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molds and all specimens were cured in the molds for 24 hours in the natural atmosphere

before being demolded.

Table 3 Dosage of different combinations

Groups Volume fraction (%)

Carbon Black Steel Fiber

G-0-0 0 0

G-0-2 0 2

G-2-0 2 0

G-4-0 4 0

G-6-0 6 0

G-4-2 4 2

G-6-2 6 2

Fig.2 Specimen preparation process

2.2. Testing Methods

In order to investigate the influence of curing temperature on the

geopolymerization process of fly ash based geopolymer, the calorimetry test with

different the curing temperature (15℃, 25℃, 50℃ and 70℃) was conducted for

specimen G-0-0. The eight channel TAM Air isothermal calorimeter with the operating

temperature ranging from 5 °C to 90 °C was applied in this experiment. The

preweighted fly ash and alkaline activator were firstly stored in the glass ampoule and

plastic injector, respectively. The glass ampoule and plastic injector were then placed

in the calorimeter for 6 hours. After achieving the thermal equilibrium condition, the

alkaline activator was injected into the glass ampoule and the mini stirrer for a 5-minute

mixing. During the geopolymerization processes, the heat flow was automatically
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recorded by data loggers.

The test set-up for electric-heating experiment is shown in Fig.3. The copper

sheets were pasted on the both ends of electric-heating specimen, and then connected

to a power supply (Gaaten Electronic Technology co. LTD, China) with the voltage of

110V. The silver paste was glued between copper sheets and geopolymer specimen to

increase the electric conductivity. In order to measure the electric current during the

test, a multimeter (F8808A, Fluke Cooperation, China) was connected with the copper

sheets. As can be seen in Fig.4, the temperature sensor was attached on the surface of

the specimen to record the temperature variation during the experiments. After

electrification, the specimen was uniformly heated. It is hypothesized that the local

temperature variation of the temperature sensor could reflect the temperature change of

the geopolymer specimen.

After the electric-heating experiment, the electric-heated geopolymer specimens

as well as the control geopolymer specimens were cured under ambient curing

conditions for another 7 days. The electro-hydraulic servo testing machine with a

capacity of 100 kN was applied to conduct the three-point bending test and the

displacement rate was set as 0.001 mm/s. After the bending test, the microstructures of

the typical specimens were examined by using a scanning electron microscope.

Fig.3 Experimental set-up

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(a) (b)

Fig.4 Electric-heating specimen (a) Diagrammatic view (b) Photograph

3. Experimental Results and Discussions

3.1 Effects of curing temperature on thermal behaviors

The calorimetry test has been proven to be an effective way to reflect the

geopolymerization process degree of geopolymer cured under different conditions (Sun

and Vollpracht, 2018; Zhang et al., 2014), since the geopolymerization process was

accompanied with exothermic changes. The heat release rate and cumulative heat of fly

ash based geopolymer at different curing temperature are shown in Fig.5. It can be seen

that both heat flow peak and cumulative heat increased with the curing temperature,

indicating the geopolymerization process was accelerated and more geopolymer gel

was formed while being cured at a higher curing temperature. For instance, the heat

flow peak was about 7.3 mW/g at the curing temperature of 70℃, while the heat flow

peak was about only 1.8 mW/g when the temperature was 50℃. While when the curing

temperature was 25℃ or 15℃, the corresponding heat flow peak was kept lower than

0.5 mW/g. Similar results can be observed from the cumulative heat shown in Fig.5(b).

Clearly, fly ash based geopolymer released more heat when cured at higher temperature.

For example, the cumulative released heat for geopolymer at 70℃ was about 11.7 J/g

after 12 hours, while the value for geopolymer at 15℃ was about 0.8 J/g. This seems to

reveal that ambient curing conditions leads to a slower geopolymerization process.

Based on the calorimeter test results, the curing temperature can be concluded to

have a significant effect on the geopolymerization process of fly ash based geopolymer.

An initial high temperature curing is very essential for fly ash based geopolymer. The

geopolymerization process for fly ash based geopolymer is very complex and can be

simplified as three steps (Komnitsas et al., 2007). As shown in Fig.6, the first step is
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the dissolution process of amorphous alumina and silica in alkaline solution, as

expressed in Eq.1. The second step is the formation of aluminosilicate tetrahedra, as

shown in Eq.2. After the polycondensation process shown in Eq.3, the hydrated

products as well as geopolymer gel will be formed in the matrix (Provis, 2014). It is

hypothesized that there is no calcium involved in the geopolymerization process since

the calcium content is very low, as shown in Table 1. The first step in the

geopolymerization process is the most critical step, in which high temperature curing

is conducive to the dissolve of alumina and silica in alkaline solution (Palomo, 2015).

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12

Cumulative heat(J/g)
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Heat flow (mW/g)

10
6
5 8
70℃
4 50℃ 6
3 25℃
15℃ 4
2
2
1
0 0
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
Time (h) Time (h)

(a) Heat release rate (b) Cumulative heat

Fig. 5. Effects of temperatures on the geopolymerization process of fly ash based

geopolymer

Fig. 6. Three steps of geopolymerization process

3.2 The surface temperature after electricity

According to the calorimeter test, the elevated temperature curing was found to be

essential for fly ash based geopolymer. With the proper addition of conductive materials,

the geopolymer specimen would be self-heating after electrification due to the thermal
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effect of electric current. In this case, the geopolymer specimen itself can be regarded

as an electric heater. All the geopolymer specimens were electric-heated for two hours

and the surface temperature were recorded automatically by the temperature sensors.

During the electric-heating stage, the surface temperature for different geopolymer

specimens are shown in Fig.7(a).

For specimen G-0-0, the surface temperature was constant as 25℃ during the

electric-heating stage. It can be inferred that the electrical resistivity for specimen G-

0-0 was too high, since there is no conductive materials, i.e., steel fiber and carbon

black, in the geopolymer matrix. Even though it has been reported that the electrical

resistivity of geopolymer is much lower than that of normal cement (Payakaniti et al.,

2017), the conductivity of geopolymer needs to be further improved.

For geopolymer specimens G-2-0, G-4-0 and G-6-0 with different pure carbon

black dosages, the surface temperature increased with the increase of carbon black

dosage, showing that carbon black can effectively increase the electrical conductivity

of geopolymer. For cementitious materials, it has also been reported that the electrical

resistance will decrease dramatically with the addition of carbon black (Monteiro et al.,

2017a; Monteiro et al., 2017b). However, as can be seen in Fig.7(a), the maximum

surface temperature for specimen G-6-0 was only 33 ℃. According to the calorimeter

test shown in Fig.4, a curing temperature of 33 ℃ may be not high enough in terms of

facilitating the geopolymerization process. It was also noticed that the surface

temperature began to decrease with the prolong of electric-heating period, indicating

the electrical resistance became higher due to the electric polarization effects (Wen and

Chung, 2001).Similarly, for geopolymer specimen G-0-2 which contains 2% pure steel

fiber by volume, the maximum surface temperature was about only 28 ℃, indicating

the single addition of steel fiber was not feasible to make geopolymer conductive

enough to be self-curing .

Based on the multidimensional percolation theory (Bentz, 2008; Garboczi and

Bentz, 1999), both carbon black and steel fiber were added in geopolymer matrix
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(specimen G-6-2 and specimen G-4-2) in this study. As can be seen in Fig.7(a), the

surface temperature for specimen G-6-2rapidly increased during the first 30 minutes

and it reached 67 ℃ after 30-min heating. Calorimeter tests infer that the

geopolymerization process for fly ash based geopolymer could be significantly

accelerated with a curing temperature of 67℃. Additionally, compared with

conventional oven curing method, the geopolymer specimen was much more uniformly

cured from. The steel fiber as well as carbon black particles can be regarded as electrical

heaters embedded in the geopolymer matrix, which will generate heat and thus further

increase the geopolymerization process. After reaching its peak value, the surface

temperature for specimen G-6-2 gradually decreased due to the electric polarization

effect, but it maintained higher than 50℃ at the end of electric-heating stage.

The electric powers of different specimens are shown in Fig.7(b). The voltage kept

constant as 110V during the experiment and the electric current was automatically

recorded by the multimeter. It can be seen that the electric power for all geopolymer

specimens decreased with the prolong of electric-heating period, once again

demonstrates that the electrical resistance increased due to the polarization effects. As

can be seen in Fig.7(b), for those geopolymer specimens with single addition of steel

fiber or carbon black, the electric power is much lower than geopolymer specimens

containing both steel fiber and carbon black. For example, the electric power for

specimen G-6-2 is as high as 62 W during the initial stage, which is about 2 times higher

than specimen G-6-0. It can be concluded that the combined addition of fly ash and

steel fiber is more effective in terms of improving the conductive behavior of fly ash

based geopolymer.

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70 60

Electric power (watt)

60 50
Temperature(℃ )

40
50
G-0-0 G-0-2 30
40 G-2-0 G-4-0 G-0-0 G-0-2
G-6-0 G-4-2 20 G-2-0 G-4-0
G-6-2 G-6-0 G-4-2
30 10 G-6-2

20 0
0 30 60 90 120 0 30 60 90 120
Time(minute) Time(minute)

(a) Surface temperature (b) Electric power

Fig. 7. The electric-heating results

The possible reasons for this phenomenon are illustrated in Fig.8. For geopolymer

matrix with the single addition of carbon black shown in Fig.8(a), the carbon black

particles can be regarded as zero-dimension conductive materials as the negligible

contact length for each carbon black particle hinders the conductive network formation.

Thus, the electric conductivity of the system is very low due to the very fact that no

conductive network existing in the matrix. For those geopolymer matrixes with the

single addition of steel fiber, as shown in Fig.8(b), the steel fiber can be regarded as

one-dimension conductive material with considerable contact length. However, the

conductive network is hard to be constructed due to the poor dispersibility of steel fiber.

The electrical resistance would dramatically increase while steel fibers disconnecting

with each other. In this experiment, the maximum content of steel fiber was set as 2%

by volume for the convenience of mixing procedure. By contrast, for geopolymer

mixtures containing both carbon black and steel fiber, as can be seen in Fig.8(c), the

zero and one-dimension conductive material have an effective synergistic effect, which

facilitate the formation of conductive network in this matrix. Thus, the electrical

resistance would dramatically decrease with the addition of both carbon black and steel

fiber.

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(a) (b) (c)

Fig.8. The schematic diagram for (a) carbon black geopolymer (b) steel fiber

reinforced geopolymer (c) carbon black and steel fiber reinforced geopolymer

3.3 Flexural strength

The electrical-heated geopolymer specimens as well as the control group (with no

electric-heating) were cured in the natural atmosphere for another 7 days after the

electric-heating test. Then, the thee-point bending tests were conducted for all

geopolymer specimens. The test setup and specimen installation are shown in Fig.9.The

load-displacement curves for all specimens are shown in Fig.10, where the suffix “H”

in each specimen indicates the electrical-heated specimen. The flexural strength results

for different specimens are shown in Fig.11.

(a) Photograph (b) Diagrammatic view

Fig.9. Test set-up

2000
1000 800 G-0-0
1800
G-0-0-H G-0-0
G-0-0 1600 G-0-0-H
G-4-2
800 G-2-0
600 G-2-0-H 1400 G-4-2-H
G-6-2
G-2-0-H
Load(N)
Load(N)

1200
Load(N)

G-6-2-H
600 G-0-0 G-4-0
G-4-0-H 1000
G-0-0-H 400 G-6-0
G-0-2 800
400 G-6-0-H
G-0-2-H 600
200 400
200
200

0 0 0
0.0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.00 0.05 0.10 0.15 0.20 0.25 0.0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6
Displacement(mm) Displacement(mm) Displacement(mm)

(a) (b) (c)

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Fig. 10. Load-displacement curves for geopolymer specimens containing (a)steel

fiber (b) carbon black (c) both steel fiber and carbon black

2000
Ambient curing
Electric-heating curing 1729

Flexural strength(N)
1500 1439

1000 936
875
780 823 781 808
721
663 702 707
610 576
500

0
G-0-0 G-0-2 G-2-0 G-4-0 G-6-0 G-4-2 G-6-2

Sample ID

Fig.11. The flexural strength for different specimens

The flexural behaviors of pure geopolymer paste (G-0-0) as well as geopolymer

mixture containing single steel fiber (G-0-2) are shown in Fig.10(a). The load-

displacement curve for specimen G-0-0 was very similar with those curves for normal

cement or concrete. With electrical heating, however, the specimen G-0-0-H showed

identical flexural behavior with specimen G-0-0, which can be attributed to the over-

high electrical resistance for specimen G-0-0. With the addition of steel fiber, the

specimen G-0-2 exhibits both higher peak load and ductility during the post-peak stage,

indicating the addition of steel fiber is an effective way to reduce the brittleness of

geopolymer (Mucsi., 2018). With being heated for 2 hours, the specimen G-0-2-H

achieved similar flexural strength with specimen G-0-2, once again demonstrates that

the geopolymer is still not conductive enough with the single addition of steel fiber.

The flexural behaviors of geopolymers containing carbon black are shown in

Fig.10(b), it is noticed that all the specimen was very brittle as the load suddenly

dropped in the experiments. The flexural strength gradually decreased with the carbon

black dosage increasing from 0% to 6%. For example, the flexural strength for

specimen G-6-0 is 27% lower than that of specimen G-0-0, which may be attributed to

the reason that the addition of carbon black introduces more interfaces and flaws into
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the matrix.

And the interfaces and flaws would make the geopolymer specimen more porous and

easier to crack. After being heated for 2 hours, the carbon black geopolymer specimens

are still very brittle while the flexural strength gradually increased with the carbon black

dosage. For example, the flexural strength for specimen G-6-0-H is about 35.6% times

higher than that for specimen G-6-0, showing that the addition of carbon black

effectively increased the conductivity of geopolymer.

The flexural behaviors of geopolymers containing both carbon black and steel

fiber are shown in Fig.10(c). For specimens G-4-2 and G-6-2, the displacement

corresponding to the peak load dramatically increased due to the bridge-effect of steel

fibers inside the geopolymer matrix. The flexural strength for G-4-2 and G-6-2

significantly increased after 2-hours electrical heating. As can be seen in Fig.11, the

flexural strength of specimens G-4-2-H and G-6-2-H is 78.1% and 144.6% higher than

that of specimens G-4-2 and G-6-2, respectively. The typical microstructures for

specimen G-6-2 and G-6-2-H are shown in Fig.12. For specimen G-6-2, numerous

unreacted fly ash particles can be observed, as shown in Fig.12(a). This is reasonable

since the chemical activity for fly ash based geopolymer cured in ambient conditions is

relatively lower. With proper electrical heating for 2 hours, as can be seen in Fig.12(b),

more fly ash particles were dissolved in the alkali activator and more silica-alumina

gels were formed in the matrix, thus the specimen was more dense and rigid after the

electrical heating.

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(a) G-6-2 (b) G-6-2-H

Fig.12. Typical microstructure for geopolymer matrix

It can be concluded that with the proper addition of steel fiber and carbon black,

electric heating enables geopolymer matrix to be conductive enough. The geopolymer

could possess higher strength and better ductility with electric heating. In this case, steel

fibers in the geopolymer matrix play two roles. On the one hand, the bridge-effect of

steel fiber increased the ductility of geopolymer. On the other hand, the steel fiber can

be regarded as resistance heating wire after electrification . It should also be noted that

the heating process is quite different from normal curing methods such like electrical

heating oven, the temperature field of the former uniformly distributes rather than

penetrating from exterior to the interior.

3.4 Environmental impact analysis

In this paper, the feasibility of curing fly ash based geopolymer by using self-

electrical heating method was investigated. As has been mentioned above, high

temperature curing is widely used as an effective approach for strengthening

geopolymers. However, the traditional oven curing method is prone to consume a

quantity of energy, which dramatically increases the carbon dioxide emissions

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generated in geopolymer producing process and thus greatly reduces the environmental

friendless of geopolymers. Self-electrical heating method has been proven to be capable

of increasing the strength of geopolymer samples. In order to further study the eco-

efficiency of self-electrical curing method, an environment impact analysis was

performed by quantitively comparing the CO2 emissions generated by traditional oven

curing method and self-electrical curing method.

A batch of geopolymer specimens cured by oven were prepared for comparative

experiment. Steel fibers and carbon black were added into the samples and the

percentage were consistent with that of specimen G-6-2. An electric oven was used for

curing samples and the temperature inside the oven ranged from 40 ºC to 80 ºC. All the

samples were cured in the oven for 2 hours before being cured under ambient conditions

(20±5ºC, with humidity of 50% ±10%) for another 7 days. Fig.13 describes the

relationship between the flexural strength of samples and curing temperature.

2500

2000
Flexural strength (N)

Self-electrical heating method

1500

1000

500

0
40 50 60 70 80
Oven curing temperature( oC )
Fig.13 Compressive strength of samples under different curing conditions

Previous studies proposed a method of using a relevant indicator to define the eco-

efficiency of binder materials (Damineli and Kemeid, 2010). In this study, the following
CO2 intensity (𝐶𝑖) taking into account the relationship between the flexural strength of

geopolymer and CO2 emissions was adapted to compare the eco-efficiency of different

curing method.

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𝐶𝑖 = 𝐶𝑑/𝑓

Where 𝐶𝑑 is the CO2 emissions (kg/m3) resulting from the curing process and 𝑓

is the flexural strength (KN) of geopolymer samples.

The CO2 emissions generated by curing was estimated based on the energy

expended by self-electrical heating method and oven curing method. According to the

previous studies (Turner and Collins, 2013; European Commission, 2012), consuming

one unit of electricity (KW h) would eventually result in 1.35 kg CO2 emission. The

CO2 emission efficiency for oven curing was estimated based on the results shown in
Fig.5 (b). The CO2 intensity (𝐶𝑖) for oven curing method and self-electrical heating

method is shown in Fig.14.

2.0
Self-electrical heating method
CO2 intensity

1.5

1.0

0.5

0.0
40 50 60 70 80
Oven curing temperature( oC )
Fig.14 CO2 intensity of samples under different curing conditions
Fig.14 shows that the CO2 intensity (𝐶𝑖) of samples cured by oven gradually

decreased with the curing temperature, the calculated CO2 intensity (𝐶𝑖) values of the

specimens cured at 40ºC, 50 ºC, 60 ºC, 70 ºC and 80 ºC were 1.78, 1.77, 1.64, 1.4 and
1.36, respectively. The CO2 intensity (𝐶𝑖) values for sample G-6-2 cured by self-

electrical heating method is 1.035, which is significantly lower than that of oven curing

samples. This can be likely explained by its lower energy cost and higher curing

efficiency.

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4. Conclusions

In this work, carbon black and steel fibers were added into the fly ash based

geopolymer to increase its electrical property and the feasibility of curing fly ash based

geopolymer by using self-electrical heating was investigated. The main conclusions can

be drawn as following:

1.According to the calorimeter test, the curing temperature has a significant effect

on the geopolymerization process of fly ash based geopolymer. The geopolymerization

process of fly ash based geopolymer under ambient curing condition is very slow.

2.The maximum surface temperature for specimen could reach 67℃. It is feasible

to make conductive geopolymer with self-electrical behaviors.

3.In order to make fly ash based geopolymer conductive enough, it is

recommended to add both steel fiber and carbon black into the geopolymer matrix.

4.The three-point bending tests showed that the flexural strength for specimen

significantly increased after the self-electrical heating. With the proper addition of

carbon black and steel fiber, the fly ash based geopolymer specimen cured after

electrical heating possesses a denser micro-structure and therefore exhibits higher

strength and better ductility.

5. Compared with traditional oven curing method, self-electrical heating method

can significantly increase the eco-efficiency because its lower energy cost and higher

curing efficiency.

Acknowledgments
This work was financially supported by Open Foundation of Key Laboratory of

Concrete and Prestressed Concrete Structure of Ministry of Education under

CPCSME2018-06, National Natural Science Foundation of China under 51908117.

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Dear Editors,

We declare that we have no financial and personal relationships with other people or
organizations that can inappropriately influence our work, there is no professional or
other personal interest of any nature or kind in any product, service and/or company
that could be construed as influencing the position presented in, or the review of, the
manuscript entitled “Fly ash-based geopolymer with self-heating capacity for
accelerated curing”.

Yours sincerely,
Jiawei Tan
Department of Civil Engineering
KU Leuven, Belgium
E-mail: jiawei.tan@kuleuven.be
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Authors’ contributions

Jingming Cai: Conceived and designed the study; Experiments; Data analysis; Writing
- Original Draft; Review & Editing
Xiaopeng Li: Review & Editing
Jiawei Tan: Review & Editing; Writing - Original Draft
Brecht Vandevyvere: Review

All authors read and approved the manuscript.