Production of lightweight Geopolymer concrete using artificial local lightweight aggregate

Due to the rapid depletion of natural resources, the use of waste materials and by-products from different industries of building construction has been gaining increased attention. Geopolymer concrete based on Pozzolana is a new material that does not need the presence of Portland cement as a binder. The main focus of this research is to produce lightweight geopolymer concrete (LWGPC) using artificial coarse lightweight aggregate which produced from locally available bentonite clays. In this investigation, the binder is low calcium fly ash (FA) and the alkali activator is sodium hydroxide and sodium silicate in different molarities. The experimental tests including workability, fresh density, also, the compressive strength, splitting tensile strength, flexural strength, water absorption and ultrasonic pulse velocity at the age of 7, 28 and 56 days were studied. The oven dry density and thermal conductivity at 28 days age are investigated. The results show that it is possible to produce high strength lightweight geopolymer concrete successfully used as insulated structural lightweight concrete. The 28-day compressive strength, tensile strength, flexural strength, dry density, and thermal conductivity of the produced LWGPC are 35.8 MPa, 2.6MPa, 5.5 MPa, 1835kg/m3, and 0.9567 W/(m. K), respectively.