Fresh properties and strength characteristics of ambient geopolymer concrete with ground granulated blast furnace slag

Abstract Ambient cured geopolymer concrete offers a sustainable and durable alternative to traditional Ordinary Portland Cement (OPC) based concrete. Recent advancements in materials, mix de-sign, and activators have made it feasible for use in a wide range of applications, from pavements to precast elements. The study investigates the possibility of developing a sustainable ambient cured geopolymer concrete through the utilization of fly ash and Ground Granulated Blast Furnace Slag (GGBS) as precursors. The overall objective of the current study is to promote sustainability in the development of concrete mixes without compromising the strength. In total, different trails were prepared by fly ash with GGBS upto 30% in levels of 10%. The fresh properties such as workability in terms of slump, setting time and consistency and mechanical strength properties, including compressive strength, split tensile strength, and flexural strength, were evaluated at 7 and 28 days. The determined properties are compared with the conventional concrete mix. Further, slabs were casted to determine the static vertical load carrying ca-pacity. The results indicate that a geopolymer concrete mix with 80% fly ash and 20% GGBS de-livers optimal strength performance. This 80:20 proportion exhibits significantly higher load-carrying capacity compared to the 90:10 and 70:30 mixes, as well as conventional concrete. The load-carrying capacity of the 80:20 mix shows an improvement of 28.15% over conventional con-crete.