ABSTRACT

Rapid urbanization and industrialization have led to generation of abundant

quantity of industrial wastes. Red mud (RM), Fly ash (FA) and Ground

Granulated Blast Furnace Slag (GGBFS) are a few amongst the wastes that are

generated is huge quantities and are indiscriminately disposed on to open lands

which not only occupy space but also leads to soil and ground water pollution.

Also increased construction activities have increased the use of conventional

construction materials. Production of conventional construction materials such

as cement poses a lot environmental threat during its production. Thus, there is

a need to find sustainable alternate materials for a better future. Geopolymer

concrete is a ‘new’ material that doesn’t need the presence of Portland cement

as a binder material. Instead, the source of materials such as Flash, GGBFS are

in rich in Silicon (Si) and Aluminium (Al), are activated by alkaline solution to

produce the binder. Hence, Concrete with no cement. Red mud is also one of

the materials that can be used in Geopolymer concrete. It is a by-product of

Bayer’s process of aluminium production. It is characterised by strong alkalinity

which can be used as an alternative for alkaline solution thereby we can produce

much environmentally friendly Geopolymer concrete.

I
 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

We express our sincere gratitude to Dr.S.GREESHMA, Associate

Professor, Division of Structural Engineering, Department of Civil Engineering,
College of Engineering Guindy, Anna University, Chennai, for her valuable
guidance and support in every aspect of this work.

We express our sincere thanks to Dr K.P. JAYA, Professor , Department

of Civil Engineering, College of Engineering Guindy, Anna University,
Chennai, for her moral support during the course of work.

I extend my sincere thanks to DR.K.SOUNDARANAYAKI, Assistant

Professor, for her continuous encouragement and suggestions during the project
work reviews. Finally, yet importantly , I would like to express my heartfelt
thanks to my beloved parents for their blessings, my friends/classmates for their
help.

BARATH GUNALAN 

NAFEES BEGUM M

GOUTHAMAN SATHYAMOORTHY

CHAPTER TITLE PAGE

NO NO
II
 ABSTRACT I
LIST OF TABLES VI
LIST OF FIGURES VIII
1 INTRODUCTION 1
1.1 GENERAL 1
1.2 GEOPOLYMER CONCRETE 2
1.3 NEED OF GEOPOLYMER CONCRETE 5
1.4 PROPERTIES OF GEOPOLYMER 6
CONCRETE
1.5 APPLICATIONS OF GEOPOLYMER 6
CONCRETES
1.6 OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY 7
1.7 SCOPE OF THE STUDY 7
2 LITERATURE REVIEW 8
2.1 GENERAL 8
2.2 SUMMARY 13
3 MATERIAL TESTING AND 14
METHODOLOGY
3.1 GENERAL 14
3.2 METHODOLOGY 14
3.3 MATERIALS USED FOR 16
CONVENTIONAL CONCRETE
3.4 MATERIALS USED FOR 18
CONVENTIONAL CONCRETE
3.4.1 GROUND GRANULATED BLAST 18
FURNACE SLAG ( GGBFS )
3.4.2 FLYASH 21
3.4.3 REDMUD 24

III
 3.5 TESTS CONDUCTED ON MATERIALS 25
3.5.1 Tests on cement 25
3.5.2 Tests on fine aggregates 27
3.5.3 Tests on Flyash 30
3.5.4 Tests on GGBFS 30
3.5.5 Tests on Redmud 31
3.5.6 Tests on Coarse aggregates 31
3.6 CONVENTIONAL CONCRETE MIX 34
DESIGN
3.7 GEOPOLYMER CONCRETE MIX 38
DESIGN
3.7.1 Design of Flyash based GPC 38
3.7.2 Design of GGBFS based GPC 41
3.8 PREPARATION OF BINDER SOLUTION 45
3.9 MIX PROPORTIONS, MIXING AND 46
PREPARATION OF SPECIMENS
3.10 CURING OF SPECIMENS 47
3.11 TEST RESULTS AND EXPERIMENTS 48
3.11.1 Compressive strength of 48
conventional concrete
3.11.2 Compressive strength of GGBFS 49
with Redmud
3.11.3 Compressive strength of Flyash with 52
Redmud
3.12 COST ANALYSIS OF MATERIALS 56
4 RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS 64
4.1 EFFECT OF GGBS, FLY ASH AND RED 64
MUD ON WORKABILITY

IV
 4.2 EFFECT OF GGBS, FLY ASH AND RED 66
MUD ON COMPRESSIVE STRENGTH
4.3 EFFECT OF HEAT ON FLYASH’S 67
COMPRESSIVE STRENGTH
4.4 COST BENEFIT ANALYSIS 69
5 SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION 70
5.1 SUMMARY
5.2 CONCLUSION
REFERENCES 71
ANNEXURE 1 74

LIST OF TABLES

V
TABLE TITLE PAGE
NO. NO.

VI
3.1 Composition of GGBFS 18
3.2 Composition of Flyash 23
3.3 Composition of Redmud 25
3.4 Cement Consistency Test 26
3.5 Initial Setting Time Test For Cement 26
3.6 Specific Gravity Test For Cement 27
3.7 Seive Analysis Test For Fine Aggregates 27
3.8 Specific Gravity Test For Fine Aggregates 28
3.9 Seive Analysis Test For Coarse Aggregates 32
3.10 Specific Gravity Test For Coarse Aggregates 32
3.11 Volume Requirement 40
3.12 Specimen Designation 1 41
3.13 Specimen Designation 2 44
3.14 Volume Requirement 44
3.15 Compressive Strength of Conventional Concrete 48
Cube Strength
3.16 49
Compressive Strength of Geopolymer Concrete
Cube With 100% GGBFS
3.17 Compressive Strength of Geopolymer Concrete 49
Cube With 90% GGBFS And 10% Red mud
3.18 Compressive Strength of Geopolymer Concrete 49
Cube With 80% GGBFS And 20% Red mud
3.19 Compressive Strength of Geopolymer Concrete 50
Cube With 70% GGBFS And 30% Red mud
3.20 Compressive Strength of Geopolymer Concrete 50
Cube With 60% GGBFS And 40% Red mud
3.21 Compressive Strength of Geopolymer Concrete 50
Cube With 50% GGBFS And 50% Red mud

VII
 52
Compressive Strength of Geopolymer Concrete
3.22
Cube With 100% Fly Ash
52
Compressive Strength of Geopolymer Concrete
3.23
Cube With 100% Fly Ash that is cured in the oven
at 60°C for 24 hours
3.24 Compressive Strength of Geopolymer Concrete 53
Cube With 90% Fly Ash And 10% Red mud
3.25 Compressive Strength of Geopolymer Concrete 53
Cube With 80% Fly Ash And 20% Red mud
3.26 Compressive Strength of Geopolymer Concrete 53
Cube With 70% Fly Ash And 30% Red mud
3.27 Compressive Strength of Geopolymer Concrete 54
Cube With 60% Fly Ash And 40% Red mud
3.28 Compressive Strength of Geopolymer Concrete 54
Cube With 50% Fly Ash And 50% Red mud
3.29 56
Ingredient materials and their cost
3.30 Cost of production of 1m³ of OPC concrete 57
3.31 57
Cost of production of 1m³ of Fly ash concrete
(100%)
3.32 58
Cost of production of 1m³ of Fly ash concrete
(90%)
3.33 58
Cost of production of 1m³ of Fly ash concrete
(80%)
3.34 59
Cost of production of 1m³ of Fly ash concrete
(70%)

VIII
 3.35 59
Cost of production of 1m³ of Fly ash concrete
(60%)
3.36 60
Cost of production of 1m³ of Fly ash concrete
(50%)
3.37 Cost of production of 1m³ of GGBFS concrete 60
(100%)
3.38 Cost of production of 1m³ of GGBFS concrete 61
(90%)
3.39 Cost of production of 1m³ of GGBFS concrete 61
(80%)
3.40 Cost of production of 1m³ of GGBFS concrete 62
(70%)
3.41 Cost of production of 1m³ of GGBFS concrete 62
(60%)
3.42 Cost of production of 1m³ of GGBFS concrete 63
(50%)
3.43 Savings in cost of production for GPC and OPC 63
concretes
A.1 No.of Cubes Cast 74

LIST OF FIGURES

FIGURE NO TITLE PAGE NO

IX
1.1 Formation of Geopolymer process 3
3.1 Methodology Flow Chart 15
3.2 Weighing Materials For Conventional 17
Concrete
3.3 GGBFS Activation Process 19
3.4 Fly Ash Activation Process 22
3.5 Grading of aggregates 28
3.6 Redmud 31
3.7 GGBFS and Flyash 31
3.8 Preparation Of Alkaline Solution 45
3.9 Conventional Concrete Cube Castings 47
3.10 Conventional Concrete Cube Curing 47
3.11 Specimens ( GGBFS with Redmud ) 51
Casting
3.12 Specimens ( GGBFS with Redmud ) under 51
loading
3.13 Specimens ( Flyash with Redmud ) Casting 55
3.14 Oven Cured 100 % Flyash Specimen 55
3.15 Specimens ( Flyash with Redmud ) under 56
loading
3.16 Workability of Mix 1 and Mix 7 65
Specimens
3.17 Compressive Strength Value Of 68
Geopolymer Concrete With Varying %
GGBFS For 7 & 28 Days
3.18 Compressive Strength Value Of 69
Geopolymer Concrete With Varying %
GGBFS For 7 & 28 Days

X
XI