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Mechanical Properties of Geopolymers Cured in Saline Water

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New Developments in Materials for Infrastructure Sustainability and the Contemporary Issues in Geo-environmental Engineering (GeoChina 2018)

Part of the book series: Sustainable Civil Infrastructures ((SUCI))

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Abstract

An experimental study of the mechanical properties of fly ash-based geopolymer cured in saline water is presented. The resistance of building materials to saline water is of key important to the design and safety of civil infrastructure and constructions. The studied geopolymers were synthesized from the mixture of Class C fly ash and metakaolin with alkali activation, and cured immediately in saline water at ambient temperature. The ordinary Portland cement (e.g., even used as oil well cement) usually have poor performance when cured in saline water. However, fly ash-based geopolymer cements cured in saline water showed an increased unconfined compressive strength than the cured in fresh water. Chemical and compositional analyses, including the pH of the curing water, salinity or electrical conductivity of the curing water, scanning electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction, and X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy, were conducted to investigate the mechanisms for the improved performance of geopolymers cured in saline water. Results show that the increase in the strength of geopolymers cured in saline water is related to the leaching of reactants from the material and infiltration of saline water into the material.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Massachusetts Amherst, Amherst, MA, 01003, USA

    Xiaonan Ge & Guoping Zhang

Authors
  1. Xiaonan Ge
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  2. Guoping Zhang
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Correspondence to Xiaonan Ge .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Kiewit Corporation, Englewood, Colorado, USA

    Shanzhi Shu

  2. Amec Foster Wheeler, Los Angeles, California, USA

    Liangcai He

  3. Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, National University of Singapore, Singapore, Singapore

    Yao Kai

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Ge, X., Zhang, G. (2019). Mechanical Properties of Geopolymers Cured in Saline Water. In: Shu, S., He, L., Kai, Y. (eds) New Developments in Materials for Infrastructure Sustainability and the Contemporary Issues in Geo-environmental Engineering. GeoChina 2018. Sustainable Civil Infrastructures. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-95774-6_17

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