International Research Journal of Engineering and Technology (IRJET) e-ISSN: 2395 -0056 Volume: 04 Issue: 05 | May -2017 www.irjet.net p-ISSN: 2395-0072 © 2017, IRJET | Impact Factor value: 5.181 | ISO 9001:2008 Certified Journal | Page 1306 EXPERIMENTAL STUDY OF FACTORS INFLUENCING COMPRESSIVE STRENGTH OF GEOPOLYMER CONCRETE Ajay Sharma 1 , Juned Ahmad 2 1 PG Student, Structural Engineering, Integral University, Uttar Pradesh, India 2 Assistant professor, Department Of Civil Engineering, Integral University, Uttar Pradesh, India ---------------------------------------------------------------------***--------------------------------------------------------------------- Abstract - Manufacture of Portland cement produces large of volumes of carbon dioxide and other gases. Releasing these gases causes atmospheric pollution and subsequent environmental degradation. Finding a suitable alternative solution to mitigate the environmental degradation caused by using Portland cement is very important for environmental sustainability. On the other side, fly ash is the waste material of coal based thermal power plant, available abundantly but pose disposal problem. There are environmental benefits in reducing the use of Portland cement in concrete, and using a cementitious material, such as fly ash. Geopolymer concrete is new sustainable concrete which is manufactured by replacing cement 100% with processed fly ash which is chemically activated by alkaline solutions made from sodium silicate (Na2SiO3) and sodium hydroxide (NaOH). This thesis presents the effect of several factors like alkaline liquid to fly ash ratio, molarity of NaOH, curing hours and curing temperature on the compressive strength of fly ash based geopolymer concrete. Fly ash is taken as the basic material to develop the geopolymer concrete and it is activated by the alkaline solution of sodium silicate and sodium hydroxide. The test variables were molarities of sodium hydroxide (NaOH) 12M, 4M, 16M, and 18M, ratio of NaOH to sodium silicate (Na2SiO3) 2.5, alkaline liquid to fly ash ratio 0.35, 0.40, 0.45 and 0.50 were used in the present study. The experiment were also conducted on GPC cubes for curing temperature of 75° C, 90° C and 105° C with curing period of 12, 18 and 24 hours by adopting hot oven curing method. The test result indicated that the compressive strength increases with increase in molarity of NaOH but it decreases with increases in water content. It is also absorbed that compressive strength is remarkably affected by the curing hours and curing temperature. When curing temperature is increases, the compressive strength is also increases and it requires less curing period to gain the higher strength. 1.INTRODUCTION 1.1 General Production of cement is one of the major contributors to the emission of green-house gasses like carbon dioxide. Day by day the World’s Portland cement production increases with the increasing demand of construction industry. Cement is the main ingredient for the production of concrete. But the production of cement requires large amount of raw material. During the production of cement burning of lime stone take place which results in emission of carbon dioxide (CO2) gas into the atmosphere. There are two different sources of CO2 emission during cement production. Combustion of fossil fuels to operate the rotary kiln is the largest source and other one is the chemical process of burning limestone. In 1995 the production of cement was 1.5 billion tons which goes on increasing up to 2.2 billion tons in 2010. One ton of production of cement causes one ton of emission of CO2 into the atmosphere. It is estimated that the emission of carbon dioxide due to cement production to be nearly about 7% of the total production of carbon dioxide, which make required to go for other greener alternative binder from Portland cement [1]. Fly ash is the waste residue that results from the combustion of coal in thermal power station is available at large scale all over the world. In India more than 100 million tons of fly ash is produced annually. Out of this, only 17 – 20% is utilized either in concrete or in stabilization of soil. Most of the fly ash is disposed off as a waste material that coves several hectors of valuable land. As fly ash is light in weight and easily flies, this creates severe health problems like asthma, bronchitis, and so forth. There are environmental benefits in reducing the use of Portland cement in concrete, and using a by-product material, such as fly ash as a substitute. With silicon and aluminium as the main constituents, fly ash has great potential as a cement replacing material in concrete. For every ton of fly ash used in place of Portland cement saves about a ton of carbon dioxide emission to the atmosphere [2]. Davidovits proposed a new term geopolymer in 1978 to represent the mineral polymers resulting from geochemistry. Geopolymers are members of the family of inorganic polymers in which the mineral molecules are linked with covalent bond. Geopolymers are produced by source materials or by-product of geological origin that is rich in silica and alumina like fly-ash when react with alkaline solution at elevated temperature. The chemical reaction that takes place in this case is polymerization, so this binder is called geopolymer. Geopolymer concrete is a new type of concrete in which cement is fully replaced by the pozzolanic materials that is rich in Silicon (Si) and Aluminium (Al) like fly ash. It is activated by highly alkaline liquids to produce the binder which binds the aggregates in concrete when subjected to elevated temperature. The