DEVELOPING A NOVEL GEOPOLYMER USING MARBLE DUST

Abstract

The thesis covers the study of the effect of marble dust on the properties of the geopolymer paste .The use of marble dust, fly ash and silica fume in different percentage with alkaline activator were used to study the mechanical properties (compressive strength , flexural strength and tensile strength) and durability (water absorption) of geopolymer paste .The results showed that the highest compressive strength (237.8 Kg/cm2)was obtained when using 70% of fly ash and 30% of the marble dust and w/b = 28% . In addition , it was observed that the use of w/b ratio = 0.28 in the formation of geopolymer paste containing 90% fly ash and 10% marble dust gave the highest value of the ultimate flexural load (245 kg). The highest value of tensile strength( 14.9 Kg/cm2) was obtained when using the percentages of (45% , 45% , 10%) for fly ash , marble dust , and silica fume , respectively when w/b ratio = 33%.In addition, the results were verified by SEM imaging.