Early-Age Strength of Alkali-Activated Slag Mortar Based on Burned Oyster Shell and Other Chemical Activators
Publication: Journal of Materials in Civil Engineering
Volume 31, Issue 9
Abstract
An alkaline-activated, ground-granulated blast furnace slag (BFS) was used as a binder for mortar prepared using river sand. Sixteen mortar mixes with four different BFS:sand ratios (4%, 8%, 12%, and 16% dry weight) were investigated. The BFS hydration of these mortar mixes was activated using four different activator solutions (1 mol): burned oyster shell (OS), calcium hydroxide (CH), sodium hydroxide (SH), and potassium hydroxide (PH). After curing for 3 and 7 days, the unconfined compressive strength (UCS) of the mortar increases with an increasing BFS:sand ratio, regardless of the activator type. The UCS of the mortar increased with increasing pH value of the activator. The mortar activated with OS had similar but slightly lower mechanical properties (60%–90% UCS, 70%–97% peak load strain, 0.78%–100% maximum strain, 40%–114% elastic modulus, 55%–100% toughness) relative to the mortar activated by CH, while the mortars activated by SH had mechanical properties similar to those of the mortar activated by PH. In all mortar samples, activated by different activators, CSH, , and were found. The mechanical properties (strength, peak load strain, maximum strain, elastic modulus, and toughness) of the mortar samples were analyzed.
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Acknowledgments
This research was part of the first author’s PhD studies, sponsored by the Ministry of Land, Transport and Maritime Affairs and the Kyungpook National University, Korea; some data were published in Korean (Park and Choi 2013), but further analysis was carried out during his postdoctoral studies at Iowa State University. The authors would like to acknowledge the Korean Geotechnical Society for its permission to use the raw data presented in this paper. This work was also partially supported by a National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) grant funded by the Korean government (Grant No. NRF-2018R1A5A1025137).
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Published In
Journal of Materials in Civil Engineering
Volume 31 • Issue 9 • September 2019
Copyright
©2019 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Jun 29, 2018
Accepted: Mar 28, 2019
Published online: Jun 19, 2019
Published in print: Sep 1, 2019
Discussion open until: Nov 19, 2019
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