A Study on Flexural Behaviour of Geopolymer Based Ferrocement

Portland cement production is under critical review due to the high amount of carbon dioxide gas released to the atmosphere. But at the same time, disposal of huge quantity of fly ash generated from the power plants is also becoming a big burning problem. This is detrimental to animal and plant life, since it pollutes the environment as well as it requires large area for its disposal, when availability of land get scarce day by day. Most of the plants now are facing shortage of dumping space of these waste materials. Most of this by product material is a currently dumped inland fill, thus creating a threat to the environment. In recent years attempts to increase the utilization of fly ash to partially replace the use of Portland cement in concrete are gathering momentum. Efforts are urgently underway all over the world to develop environmentally friendly construction materials, which make minimum utility of fast dwindling natural resources and help to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. In this connection, Geopolymers are showing great potential and several researchers have critically examined the various aspects of their viability as binder system. Geopolymer concretes (GPCs) are new class of building materials that have emerged as an alternative to Ordinary Portland cement concrete (OPCC) and possess the potential to revolutionize the building construction industry. Considerable research has been carried out on development of Geopolymer concretes (GPCs), which involve heat curing. A few studies have been reported on the use of such GPCs f or structural applications. An experimental investigation was carried out to study the material and mixture proportions; the manufacturing processes, the fresh and hardened state characteristics of fly ash based geo polymer concrete are evaluated. In the present study the flexural behavior of geo polymer concrete was assessed and the behavior was found to be considerably more than that of conventional concrete.