Investigating the use of pozzolans in portland cement concrete and inorganic polymer mortar.

摘要

The use of pozzolans offers promising signs for a change in the cement industry. Pozzolan in its natural and artificial forms can be used to improve cement properties or to synthesize new cement. This study investigates the use of pozzolans in portland cement concrete and inorganic polymer mortar (geopolymer mortar).;This thesis is divided into two phases. Phase 1 investigates the use of natural pozzolan as a partial replacement of portland cement in concrete. In this phase two types of class N pozzolan are used separately to develop concrete mixtures contain different percentages of class N pozzolan. Fresh concrete properties are evaluated along with hardened concretes properties. The properties of the new concretes are compared to those of a control concrete mixture made without the use of pozzolan.;Phase 2 focuses on synthesizing geopolymer mortars using artificial pozzolan as well as natural pozzolan in two separate applications. The pozzolan was used as a base material to synthesize the geopolymer binder. An alkaline solution and heat curing were deployed to enhance the polymerization process. Geopolymer mortars were synthesized using different alkaline solutions and curing temperatures. Some of the geopolymer mortar specimens then were exposed to 800°C to study the geopolymer mortars resistance to heat. Factors that affect the geopolymer mortars properties were investigated. Geopolymer mortars properties were evaluated before and after they were exposed to 800°C.