OPTIMIZATION OF ALKALI ACTIVATOR ON THE STRENGTH PROPERTIES OF FLY ASH BASED GEOPOLYMER REPAIR MATERIALS

Flexible and rigid road pavement deteriorates over time and needs high-performance patching repair materials. Cold mix asphalt patching is an easy and inexpensive repair material to repair potholes and other damaged roads. However, the repaired road pavement fails because it doesn't have adequate compressive and bonding strength to the substrate. Thus, this research uses high-performance geopolymer repair materials to patch against road pavement potholes substrate. Geopolymer repair materials could improve the bonding strength, making them suitable for road repair purposes. For making geopolymer repair materials, the main materials used were high calcium aluminosilicate source materials such as fly ash, sodium hydroxide, sodium silicate, and water. This study tested the compressive and bonding strength of geopolymer repair materials after 1, 7, 14, and 28 days. This study found that the compressive strength of 90 g of alkali activator was the highest, at 37.0 MPa. The bonding strength improved gradually from day 1 to day 14, and then considerably on day 28. The compressive strength and bonding strength both increase in direct proportion to the amount of alkali activator present. Alkali activator is optimal at 90 grams for compressive strength and bonding strength of geopolymer repair materials.