Cover
Vol. 16 No. 2 (2025)

Published: December 15, 2025

Pages: 166-177

Research Paper

Performance of Geopolymer Concrete Based on Fly Ash Materials Exposed to Freezing and Thawing Cycle

Ahmed Fadhil 1 Dilshad kakasor Jaf
1Department of Civil engineering, College of Ebgineering, University of Salahadding Erbil, Iraq
History
  • Received: August 17, 2025
  • Revised: October 14, 2025
  • Accepted: November 15, 2025
  • Available Online: December 15, 2025
DOI

https://doi.org/10.37649/AJES-25-020

Abstract

This paper deals with the behaviour of waste pozzolanic materials, such as fly ash (FA), ground granulated blast furnace slag (GGBS), rice husk ash (RHA) and burnt brick powder (BBP)-based geopolymer concrete (GPC) under a repeated freezing and thawing cycles. The study focuses on the impact of curing regimes (24 h, 48 h, 7 d and 28 d) and exposure to 25 and 35 F-T cycles on the mechanical and durability characteristics of GPC. In recent literature, analytical and numerical work has shown that micro-crack evolution and interconnected pores dictate the degradation of strength under cyclic freezing but limited experimental data are available for waste-based GPC systems. The concretes were mixed into specimen and cured at $60^{\circ}\text{C}$ in an oven for 24 h and tested according to standard F-T testing (ASTM C666). It was found that the loss in strength up to 35 cycles did not go beyond 18 %, and residual compressive strength was higher than 80% of original one, passing durability criteria according to ASTM C666 or EN 12390-9. The relationship between the strengths in compression and tensile strength, both of F-T aged and natural samples, were roughly linear ( $R^{2}\approx0.85).$ Deeper potassium hydroxide activation and the enrichment of RHA and BBP in the AC enhanced the porosity while decreasing the mass yields, as compared with previous results. These findings demonstrate the potential uses of waste-based geopolymer concretes as environmentally friendly and frost-resistant substitutes for ordinary Portland cement in construction in sub-arctic environment.

Keywords

References

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