Experimental Study of Modulus of Elasticity, Capillary absorption of water and UPV in Nature-Friendly Concrete Based on Geopolymer Materials

In the current study, granulated blast furnace slag (GBFS) based geopolymer concrete (GPC) was used with 0-2% polyolefin fibers (POFs) and 0-8% Nano silica (NS) to improve its structure. After curing the specimens under dry conditions at a temperature of 60 °C in an oven, they were subjected to Modulus of elasticity and Ultrasonic Pulse Velocity (UPV) tests to evaluate their mechanical properties, as well as Capillary absorption test to assess their durability. all tests were performed at 7 and 90 days of age at ambient temperature (20 ℃). The addition of NS enhanced the whole properties of the GBFS based GPC. Increasing the curing age improved the results of all tests. The results of all tests in GPC showed the superiority of the results over conventional concrete. At 28 days of curing age, the addition of up to 8% NS to the GPC composition improved the modulus of elasticity test results by 14.7%, UPV by 84.88% and capillary water uptake by 64.38%. Addition of up to 2% of POFs to the GPC composition improved the modulus of elasticity by up to 7.21%, capillary water uptake by up to 22.97% and decreased UPV by up to 8.77%. In the following, by conducting the SEM test, a microstructure investigation was carried out on the concrete samples. In addition to their overlapping with each other, the results indicate the GPC superiority over the regular concrete. Besides, it demonstrated the positive influence of NS addition on the concert microstructure.