Elevated temperature study on geopolymer concrete with ferrochrome slag aggregates

This paper deals with the strength and mass loss of geopolymer concrete in comparison with conventional cement concrete after elevated temperature exposure. In this study, the coarse aggregates of the conventional geopolymer concrete are replaced partially (40%) with ferrochrome slag aggregates, to obtain the replacement mix of geopolymer concrete. The microstructure of geopolymer concrete was examined by XRD, X-ray tomography, and SEM and also discussed in this paper. The results concluded that after exposure at elevated temperature, the conventional cement concrete has a strength loss of about 18% higher than the geopolymer concrete. It was also noted that though replacement geopolymer mix exhibited the strength loss of 24.4% and mass loss of 1.35% higher than the conventional geopolymer mix, it had greater strength than conventional geopolymer mix, for most of the temperature ranges. Thus the replacement mix of geopolymer concrete behaves better than conventional geopolymer concrete, both at ambient and elevated temperature conditions.