EXPERIMENTAL AND ANALYTICAL INVESTIGATIONS ON GEOPOLYMER CONCRETE COLUMNS UNDER REPEATED AXIAL COMPRESSION

In this experimental study the strength and behaviour of plain and fibre reinforced Geopolymer concrete (GPC) columns under repeated axial compression were evaluated. A total of fifteen GPC square columns of size 150 mm and length 900 mm were cast and tested to evaluate the performance. The main variable considered in this study is the volume fraction of fibres such as 0.25% (19.62 kg/m3), 0.5% (39.24 kg/m3), 0.75% (58.86 kg/m3) and 1% (78.48 kg/m3). Experimental results revealed that addition of steel fibres slightly improved the axial strength and significantly improved the stress-strain behaviour and ductility of columns. For a better understanding of the stress and strain behaviour of column a finite element model for both plain and fibre reinforced GPC column was developed using standard finite element software (ANSYS 11.) and was found to compare satisfactorily with the experimental results.