ENHANCING THE MECHANICAL AND MICROSTRUCTURAL PROPERTIES OF SILICA FUME BLENDED FLY ASH BASED GEOPOLYMER USING MURRAM AS A TERTIARY SUPPLEMENT

The present study aims to investigate the compressive strength and the underlying micro-structural change of fly ash geopolymer paste with silica fume and murram as supplements up to 10% and 2.5% of the total weight respectively. The workability property of the geopolymer paste samples was evaluated at a green state using a unique methodology based on the polar graph. Besides, various geopolymer paste samples were subjected to heat curing at different temperatures and also for different durations to find the influence of heat curing to the obtained compressive strengths. The present study also probed into the underlying micro-structural changes of the corresponding geopolymer paste samples through SEM (Scanning Electron Microscopy), MIP (Mercury Intrusion Porosimetry) and EDX (Energy Dispersive X-Ray Analysis). Through the present analysis, it can be concluded that blending of silica fume and murram with fly ash based geopolymer paste results in a sustainable high performance binder even at lower alkalinity with lower heat consumption as well as lower water content which can be considered as a better alternative of cement concrete binder to march towards environmental sustainability.