COMPARATIVE PERFORMANCE OF GEOPOLYMER CONCRETE EXPOSED TO ACIDIC ENVIRONMENT

Geopolymer concrete is emerging as an alternate green material in the construction industry. It is produced from the reaction of silica and alumina rich materials with alkaline liquid. Reviews of literatures have indicated that geopolymer concrete (GPC) have better acid resistant and hence can be used in many applications, including its use as sewer pipes. However, very few studies have comparatively assessed performance of GPC as acid resistant material when compared with conventional concrete. This paper presents the experimental investigation done on compressive strength of geopolymer concrete subjected to acidic conditions and compared with conventional concrete performance under the same acidic conditions.. The grades chosen for the investigation is M-40&G40, the mixes were designed for molarity of 8M, 12M and 16M.Initially Geopolymer concrete and Conventional concrete cubes were immersed in 5 % acid solutions consisting of H2SO4 and MgSO4,for a period of 7, 14 and 28 days. The mass loss, compressive strength reductions were determined..The results confirmed that Geopolymer concrete is highly resistant to acid in terms of low mass loss and compressive strength loss when compared to conventional concrete