Materials and Design 56 (2014) 833–841

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Materials and Design

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The development of compressive strength of ground granulated blast

furnace slag-palm oil fuel ash-fly ash based geopolymer mortar
Azizul Islam, U. Johnson Alengaram ⇑, Mohd Zamin Jumaat, Iftekhair Ibnul Bashar
Department of Civil Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, University of Malaya, 50603 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: The paper presents the report on the use of optimum level of palm oil fuel ash (POFA), ground granulated
Received 15 July 2013 blast furnace slag (GGBS) and low calcium fly-ash (FA) with manufactured sand (M-sand) to produce
Accepted 30 November 2013 geopolymer mortar. Eleven mixtures were prepared with varying binder contents with the POFA content
Available online 7 December 2013
varying between 25% and 100%; the other constituent materials such as fine aggregate and water were
kept constant. All the specimens were cured in oven for 24 h at 65 °C and thereafter kept in room tem-
Keywords: perature (about 26–29 °C) before testing for the compressive strength. The highest compressive strength
Palm oil fuel ash
of about 66 MPa was achieved for the mortar containing 30% of POFA and 70% of GGBS with a total binder
Ground granulated blast furnace slag
Fly ash
content of 460 kg/m3. The increase in the POFA content beyond 30% reduces the compressive strength.
Manufactured sand The density reduction after 3 days was found negligible.
Geopolymer mortar Ó 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Compressive strength

1. Introduction One of the main goals in achieving sustainable construction

The huge demand for concrete using Ordinary Portland Cement
(OPC) has resulted in high volume of CO2 emission, and lead to eco-
logical imbalance due to continuous depletion of natural resources.
The reality of air pollution through carbon dioxide (CO2) emission
into the atmosphere from the production of cement is well known.
The contribution of OPC production worldwide to greenhouse gas
emission is estimated to be about 6% of the total greenhouse gas
emissions [1]. In addition, the depletion of natural sand due to
quarrying activities has already caused flooding in many parts of
the world; the need for alternative materials to reduce natural
sand through the use of recycling of old mortar [2–4] has also been
investigated; however there have been efforts to utilize the manu-
factured sand, commonly known as M-sand from the waste of
crushed granite aggregates.
The process of formation of CO2 by calcining can be expressed
by the following equation:
CaCO3 ! CaO þ CO2
ð1 kgÞ ð0:56 kgÞ ð0:44 kgÞ
The share of CaO in clinker amounts to 64–67%. The remainder
consists of silicon oxides, iron oxides, and aluminium oxides.
Therefore, CO2 emission from clinker production amounts to about
0.5 kg/kg. The CO2 emission per tonne of cement depends on the
ratio of clinker to cement. This ratio varies normally from 0.5 to
0.95 [5].
⇑ Corresponding author. Tel.: +60 3 7967 7632; fax: +60 3 7967 5318.
E-mail addresses: johnson@um.edu.my, ujohnrose@yahoo.com (U.J. Alengaram).
materials is to reduce the overuse of virgin materials used to
produce cement, coarse and fine aggregates. The utilization of
industrial by-products such as fly ash (FA), silica fume, ground
granulated blast furnace slag (GGBS), and rice husk ash, as the ce-
ment replacement or as the additional cementitious materials has
had a constructive effect in minimizing greenhouse gas emissions.
Every year millions of tons of industrial wastes are generated and
most of these wastes are unutilized or underutilized; these wastes
cause environmental issues due to storage problem and pollution
to the surrounding field. In recent years, there is an increasing
awareness on the quantity and diversity of hazardous solid waste
generation and its impact on the human health. Increasing concern
about the environmental consequences of waste disposal has led
researchers to investigate the utilization of the wastes as potential
construction materials [6].
In order to achieve an environmentally friendly concrete,
several studies are on-going on the utilization of waste materials
to produce green concrete. Among the researches, the successful
ð1Þ one was through the development of geopolymer concrete to elim-
inate the use of cement. FA based geopolymer concrete was first
introduced by Davidovits [7] in 1979 to reduce the use of OPC in
concrete. Geopolymer concrete is well-suited to manufacture
precast concrete products that can be used in infrastructure devel-
opments [8]. A number of researchers [8–13] have published arti-
cles on the use of FA as source material in the development of
geopolymer concrete. The significant research in geopolymer
includes thermal behaviour [9], durability in sodium and magne-
sium sulfate solutions [10], and resistance to acid attack [11] of
geopolymeric materials.

0261-3069/$ - see front matter Ó 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.matdes.2013.11.080
834 A. Islam et al. / Materials and Design 56 (2014) 833–841
Fig. 1. Structural models of geopolymer concrete – Davidovits [7].
Geopolymer is an inorganic alumino-hydroxide polymer syn-
thesized from predominantly silicon and aluminium materials of
geological origin and industrial by-product material such as FA
(with low calcium) as shown in Fig. 1.
FA is a fine powder of mainly spherical glass particles having
pozzolanic properties which shall consist essentially of reactive sil-
icon dioxide (SiO2) and aluminium oxide (Al2O3), the remainder
being iron (III) oxide (Fe2O3) and other oxides. It can be obtained
by electrostatic or mechanical precipitation of dust-like particles
from the flue gases of power station furnaces fired with pulverized
bituminous or other hard coal [14]. The government of Malaysia
decided that by 2010 the share of coal in the fuel mix for electricity
generation would rise to about 40% [15]. The increased use of coal
burning in thermal power plants has increased the production of
FA to an estimated 3 million tons per annum. The abundance of
FA in Malaysia could pave way for the development of geopolymer
concrete.
The other waste material that is abundant in Malaysia is GGBS,
a by-product of the production of iron in a blast furnace and it is
composed chiefly of calcium and magnesium silicates and alumi-
nosilicates. The history of slags used for cement is not new. A quite
number of investigations have been performed on the use of GGBS
as a cementitious material in cement production since 1939 and to
evaluate its performance [16]. GGBS can be used for producing
high quality self-compacting concrete (100 MPa) [17]. Researchers
express the reactivity of GGBS in terms of slag activity index (SAI)
[17]. The use of GGBS as cement replacement material in geopoly-
mer concrete reduces the CO2 emission. Bakharev et al. [18,19]
reported that alkali-activated slag concrete had lower resistance
to carbonation and alkali-aggregate than that of OPC concrete of
similar grade. Table 1 shows the comparison of CO2 emission be-
tween the OPC and GGBS and as seen from the results, one tonne
of GGBS releases only about 70 kg of CO2, that is only 7% of CO2
of cement for the same quantity of material produced. Table 1
shows the comparison of CO2 emission from the production of
OPC and the GGBS.
Table 1
CO2 emissions for OPC and blast furnace slag [1].
CO2 emission/t OPC (kg) CO2 emission/t GGBS (kg)
Calcination of CaCO3 540 0
Fossil fuel (coal) 340 20 (drying)
Electricity generation 90 50
Total 970 70
Another locally abundant waste material from palm oil industry
is palm oil fuel ash (POFA). Malaysia is currently producing more
than half of the world’s total output of palm oil, planted over 5 mil-
lion hectares of land, yielding about 18.89 tonnes/hectare of fresh
fruit bunch (FEB) [20]. The empty fruit bunches (EFB), have tradi-
tionally been burnt and their ash recycled into the plantation as
fertilizer. Another waste from palm oil industries is Oil Palm Shell
(OPS) and it is obtained during the extraction of palm oil by crush-
ing of the palm nut in the palm oil mills. After the extraction of
palm oil from the palm oil fruit, both palm oil husk and OPS are
burnt as fuel in the boiler to generate electricity. Palm oil fuel
ash is commonly known as POFA, which is about 5% of solid waste
product, have the potentiality to be used as pozzolanic materials in
concrete industry [21]. A large area is required to dispose these
waste materials; the disposal of these wastes in the vicinity of
the factories results in environmental concerns as both the land
and ground water are likely to be affected due to pollution. The
production of these wastes is on the rise every year due to high de-
mand for palm oil. There has been a number of research works that
are being carried out to utilize these waste material i.e., OPS used
for lightweight concrete [22–26] and POFA used for high strength
concrete [27,28]. Alengaram et al. [24] reported that the increase
in sand content coupled with reduction in OPS content enhanced
the compressive strength of concrete. POFA is a cementitious
material, rich in silica that could be used with recycled aggregate
concrete that could result in a higher compressive strength than
that of recycled aggregate concrete without ground POFA [29].
 A. Islam et al. / Materials and Design 56 (2014) 833–841 835

The POFA produced sometimes varies in colour from whitish grey 100 50
to darker shade based on the carbon content in it. High-strength
concrete can be produced using POFA as a pozzolanic material 80 40

% Retained
and it also improves the durability, reduces cost due to reduction

in the use of cement [28,30]. It will also be beneficial for the envi-
ronment with respect to reducing the waste disposal volume of
landfills [28].
Quarrying of natural sand has a great irreversible environment
impact [31] as it causes reduction in the ground water that affects
the moisture content of the soil. Due to the drop in river water le-
vel, the drinking water will be affected badly specially during the
dry season and salt water intrusion is a potential problem. Sand
mining causes erosion of nearby land leading to instability in the
ecosystem [32]. Globally, natural sand and gravel extraction is
becoming less of an option and the cost of river sand increases
due to the raising demand in construction sector. During the year
2010, Malaysia consumed 2.76 billion metric tons of natural aggre-
gate of this amount 1.17 billion metric tons or 42.4%, was sand
[32]. In many regions of the world, the extraction of sand and grav-
el is heavily taxed or banned completely to try to preserve remain-
ing deposits [33]. The increasing difficulty in extraction has had a
negative effect on the bottom line for many producers. Thus, it is
imperative for the construction industries should find alternatives
to meet the growing demand for fine aggregates. One of the op-
tions is to utilize the waste materials from the crushing of granite
aggregates [34], commonly known as manufactured sand (M-sand)
as the fine aggregates. A growing number of quarry operators have
found that processed, high-quality manufactured sand can im-
prove their bottom line and significantly reduce the percentage
of waste and low-value by-products.
The main objective of this research was to investigate the devel-
opment of the compressive strength of geopolymer mortar using
four locally available waste materials such as FA, POFA and GGBS
as binders and M-sand as fine aggregate. The effect of varying
the percentages of these three binders on the compressive strength
was also investigated and reported. The optimum compressive
strength of cube specimen was determined with various binder
dosages, but by keeping other parameters such as sand, water
and activator contents constant.
2. Experimental programme
2.1. Materials
2.1.1. Ground granulated blast furnace slag
Ground granulated blast furnace slag (GGBS) was obtained from
YTL Cement Marketing Sdn Bhd, Malaysia. The slag activity index
of GGBS was 62% and 108% for 7 and 28 days respectively. The spe-
cific gravity was 2.89 g/cm3, specific surface area was 405 m2/kg
and the soundness was 1 mm. The particle size distribution of
GGBS is shown in Fig. 2. It is off-white in colour and substantially
lighter than Portland cement. The chemical composition of GGBS is
shown in Table 2; while its physical properties are given in Table 3.
GGBS shall contain at least two-thirds by mass of glassy slag. The
slag shall consist of at least two-thirds by mass of the sum of
CaO, MgO and SiO2. The remainder contains Al2O3 together with
small amounts of other oxides. The ratio by mass (CaO + MgO)/
(SiO2) shall exceed 1.0 [35].
2.1.2. Palm oil fuel ash
Palm oil fuel ash (POFA) was obtained from Jugra Palm Oil Mill
Sdn Bhd, Malaysia. It was then dried in an oven for at least 24 h at
100 °C to remove the moisture and then it was sieved through
300 lm sieve. Forty mild steel rods of 10 mm diameter and
400 mm length were placed in the rotating drum to grind
% Passing
60 30
40 20
20 10
0 0
0.01 0.1 1 10 100 1000
Particle size (µm) (log scale)
POFA (P) GGBS (P) Fly-ash (P)
Fly-ash (R) POFA (R) GGBS (R)
(P) - Passing, (R) – Retained
Fig. 2. Particle size distribution of GGBS, POFA and fly ash.
approximately 10 kg of POFA that was sieved through 300 lm.
According to ASTM:C618-12a, the mass of FA and natural pozzolan
passing 45-lm wet sieve shall be at least 66%. This criterion was
followed for POFA. The grinding of POFA was carried out for
30,000 cycle in 16 h to obtain the desired level of fineness (>66%)
and its particle size distribution is shown in Fig. 2. Tables 2 and
3 show the chemical composition and physical properties of POFA,
respectively. The fineness of POFA was checked at every 4 h of
grinding interval using a 45-lm sieve according to ASTM: C430-
08. The sieve fineness of POFA for different grinding period is
shown in Fig. 3. The fineness of POFA was found 88.4%. It was dar-
ker in colour. It was found that after processing of raw POFA, the
processed POFA obtained was about 57%.
2.1.3. Fly ash
Fly ash (FA) was obtained from Lafarge Malayan Cement Bhd,
Malaysia. According to ASTM:C618-12a, FA is divided into two dis-
tinct categories i.e., low-calcium FA (Class F, CaO < 10%) and high-
calcium FA (Class C, CaO > 10%). In this study low-calcium FA was
used. The chemical composition and physical properties are shown
in Tables 2 and 3, respectively.
2.1.4. Manufactured-sand
Manufactured sand (M-sand) was obtained from Batu Tiga
Quarry Sdn Bhd (YTL), Malaysia. Generally, the quarry dust (QD)
obtained during the crushing of granite aggregate is considered
waste and sometime used in land filling; however, recently there
is a renewed interest to reuse the QD. Thus, the QD is processed
through centrifuge action to smoothen the angular edges and the
resulting particles are rounded and it is used to replace for natural
sand (Fig. 4). The processed QD is christened as M-sand and widely
used in Singapore, India and some other countries to replace con-
ventional sand where the demand for sand is high/not available in
abundance. The M-sand has a wide range of particles as shown in
the distribution curve (Fig. 5).
From the particle-size distribution curve shown in Fig. 5.
D10 = 0.17 mm
D60 = 1.60 mm
D30 = 0.60 mm
Cu = (D60/D10) = 9.41
Cc = (D30)2/(D10  D60) = 1.32
It is observed that Cu (uniformity co-efficient) is greater than 6
and Cc (co-efficient of gradation) is between 1 and 3. Hence, the
M-sand is well graded and it is under zone-C [BS 882:1992].
836 A. Islam et al. / Materials and Design 56 (2014) 833–841

Table 2
Chemical composition (wt%) of the raw materials, X-ray Fluorescence (XRF) analysis.

Chemical compounds CaO SiO2 Al2O3 MgO Na2O SO3 P2O5 K2O TiO2 MnO Fe2O3 SrO Cl CuO LOI
GGBS 45.83 32.52 13.71 3.27 0.25 1.80 0.04 0.48 0.73 0.35 0.76 0.08 0.02 – 0.60
Fly-ash 5.31 54.72 27.28 1.10 0.43 1.01 1.12 1.00 1.82 0.10 5.15 0.36 0.01 0.01 6.80
POFA 4.34 63.41 5.55 3.74 0.16 0.91 3.78 6.33 0.33 0.17 4.19 0.02 0.45 6.54 6.20

Table 3
Physical properties of constituent materials. 100
M-sand
Materials Properties (zone-C)
80
GGBS Specific gravity: 2.89
Specific surface area: 405 m2/kg (min 275 m2/kg, [36])
Soundness: 1 mm 60

% Finer
Colour: off-white
POFA Specific gravity: 2.2 40
% Passing 45-lm sieve: 88.4
Specific surface area: 172 m2/kg
Colour: dark 20
FA Specific gravity: 2.4
Specific surface area: 341 m2/kg 0
Colour: grey 0 1 10
M-sand Specific gravity: 2.78
Particle size (mm) (log scale)
Fineness modulus (FM): 3.19
Grading zone: Zone C Grading Lower Limit Upper Limit

Fig. 5. Particle size distribution of M-sand (BS 882:1992).

100
the sodium silicate solution (Na2O = 12%, SiO2 = 30%, and
% of passing thru 45 µm

80 water = 57% by mass) and sodium hydroxide (NaOH) in flakes or

pellets form with 99% purity was prepared according to the refer-
ence [37]. The concentration of the sodium hydroxide solution
wet sieve

60
used was 12 molarity (M) and the mixture contained additional
40 water.

20 2.2.2. Preparation of fresh mortar and casting

A total 11 mixtures were prepared by varying the POFA, FA and
0 GGBS contents. The sand and activators contents were kept con-
0 4 8 12 16 20
stant to investigate the effect of the binders. The proportion of bin-
Grinding period (h) der to sand ratio was 1:4. The mixture proportions for mortar are
Fig. 3. Fineness of POFA with different grinding periods.
given in Table 4. The binder content, solution to binder ratio,
molarity of sodium hydroxide solution and curing temperature
are given in Table 5.
The binder and the M-sand were first mixed together in a rotary
mixer for about 3 min. The alkaline liquid was then added to the
dry materials followed by water and the mixing was continued
for further 4 min to produce the fresh mortar as shown in Fig. 6.
The fresh mortar was compacted and the excess mortar removed.
The moulds were covered by plastic film to avoid evaporation of
water. For each mortar mixture, twelve (12) 50 mm cube specimen
were cast to determine the compressive strength.

2.2.3. Curing
Immediately after casting, the test specimens were covered
with plastic film to minimize the water evaporation during curing
at an elevated temperature as shown in Fig. 7. The test specimens
were cured in an oven at 65 °C for 24 h. After the curing period, the
test specimens were left in the moulds for at least six hours and
Fig. 4. Processing of M-sand.
demoulded. After demoulding, the specimens were left to air-dry
condition in the laboratory with the temperature and humidity
of 27 °C and 70%, respectively until the day of test [37,38].
2.2. Specimen preparation and curing
2.3. Compressive strength
2.2.1. Activator solution
The alkaline activator used was from the combination of so- The cubes were tested in compression in accordance with the
dium silicate and sodium hydroxide solution. The activator from test procedures given in ASTM: C109/C109M-13. The compressive
 A. Islam et al. / Materials and Design 56 (2014) 833–841 837

Table 4 Fig. 9 that the mixture M3 that contains 100% FA and cured at
Mixture proportion (kg/m3). 65 °C for 24-h produced the lowest compressive strength. Though
Mix No. Binding raw materials Bakharev [9] reported that alkali activated cementitious pastes
GGBSa POFAb FAc prepared using class F FA produced higher initial compressive
strength for specimens cured at 100 °C compared to specimens
(%) Weight (%) Weight (%) Weight
cured at 80 °C, the mixes in this investigation were cured at
M1 100 460 0 0 0 0 65 °C that contained class F FA, GGBS and POFA. Hence, the reduc-
M2 0 0 100 460 0 0
M3 0 0 0 0 100 460
tion in the curing temperature allowed the mixtures with high Ca
M4 50 230 50 230 0 0 content able to achieve the desired strength. It is also reported that
M5 0 0 50 230 50 230 long pre-curing at room temperature is beneficial for strength
M6 50 230 0 0 50 230 development of geopolymeric materials utilizing FA; curing at ele-
M7 50 230 25 115 25 115
vated temperature allows shortening the time of heat treatment to
M8 40 184 60 276 0 0
M9 40 184 30 138 30 138 achieve high strength [12]. For materials utilizing FA activated by
M10 60 276 40 184 0 0 sodium silicate, 6-h heat curing is more beneficial for the strength
M11 70 322 30 138 0 0 development than 24-h heat treatment [12]. The curing at 65 °C for
a
Ground granulated blast furnace slag. 24-h was chosen in this investigation for practical reasons even-
b
Palm oil fuel ash. though the effect of short curing period is beneficial for FA based
c
Class F fly ash. geopolymer mortars. The mixture M2 contained 100% POFA and
when it was mixed with GGBS, the strength was increased signifi-
cantly. This might be attributed to the packing ability of finer par-
strength value was determined as the average of three specimens. ticles. On the contrary the mixture M1 and M11 produced higher
The testing machine and the failure mode of the specimens are compressive strength which contained higher Ca and Al2O3. POFA
shown in Fig. 8. contained very less Al2O3 and Ca but when it was mixed with
Compressive strength, fc = failure load (P)/loaded area (a). GGBS, the compressive strength increased. So it is observed that
Ca and Al2O3 influenced the compressive strength of the mortar
3. Results and discussion [6,16]. The average compressive strength and standard deviation
are given in Table 7. Wongpa et al. [39] reported that higher
3.1. Effect of specific gravity and fineness on the density solution to binder ratios (s/b) and higher paste to aggregate (P/
Agg) ratios result in lower compressive strength and higher water
Table 6 shows the 3-day oven-dry density (ODD) of the speci- permeability.
mens. The ODD depends on the specific gravity and fineness of Table 8 and Fig. 10 show the increase in the compressive
the materials. The mix with 100% GGBS that has higher specific strength between 3 and 28 days expressed as a percentage. The
gravity and fineness produced the highest density of 2163 kg/m3 28-day compressive strength was taken as the reference and the
(mix M1); on the contrary the mix M2 with 100% POFA produced 3-, 7-, and 14-days and the ratio of increase in the strengths was
the lowest density of 2014 kg/m3. Another factor that influences calculated. Most of the specimen achieved 86% of the 28-day
the density is the ability of finer particle to fill the voids within strength at the age of 3-day. Similarly the 7-day and 14-day
the mortar. Fig. 2 shows that POFA has relatively coarser particles strengths were 90% and 94%, respectively of the 28-day strength.
within a narrow range compared to that of GGBS and FA. Thus
GGBS with finer particles enhanced its density of about 7.5% as 3.3. Effect of GGBS on the compressive strength of the mortar
compared to mortar with POFA. It was observed that the density
of mortar varies between 2014 kg/m3 and 2163 kg/m3. As indicated The ground blast furnace slag employed is a latent hydraulic
earlier, in the previous works [27–29] investigations on the effects product, which can be activated by suitable activators. Without
of ash particle size on properties of geopolymer showed that the fi- an activation, the development of the strength of the GGBS is ex-
ner the particle size, the better the properties. tremely slow and the development of the slag necessitates a
pH P 12 [7]. GGBS plays an important role in the development of
3.2. Development of compressive strength the compressive strength. Higher concentrations of G.G.B.S (slag)
result in higher compressive strength of geopolymer concrete
The development of compressive strength at the age of 3-, 7-, [40]. Fig. 11 shows that the compressive strength of mortar with
14- and 28-days are shown in Fig. 9. It can be observed from 70% of GGBS (mix No. M11) produced the highest strength while
further increase in the GGBS content (mix No. M1) reduces the
compressive strength. The mixture M1 contains 100% GGBS while
the mix M11 contains 70% GGBS and 30% POFA. A comparison be-
tween the mixes M1 and M11 shows that the former with 100%
GGBS produces 3% lower compressive strength compared to the
mix with 70% GGBS and 30% POFA. The mixes M10, M4 and M8
show that the reduction of GGBS contents of 10%, 20% and 30%,
respectively and the remainder is replaced by POFA. Thus, the ef-
fect of GGBS replacement with POFA shows that the mixes M10,
M4 and M8 with high content of POFA produced lower strength
of about 9%, 15%, 35%, respectively compared to the mix M11 (with
70% GGBS and 30% POFA). The effect of POFA in enhancing the
compressive strength can be seen from Fig. 11 as the mix M4
(50% GGBS and 50% POFA) produced 22% higher strength than
the mix M6 (50% GGBS and 50% FA). Further comparison between
the mixes M6 and M7 (50% GGBS, 25% POFA and 25% FA) shows as
Fig. 6. Preparation of mortar. increase of about 17% for the latter. As explained earlier that GGBS
838 A. Islam et al. / Materials and Design 56 (2014) 833–841

Table 5
Experimental parameters.

Binder: M-sand Binder M-sand Activators (1:2.5) (kg/m3) Added water s/b w/b Curing temp.
(kg/m3) (kg/m3) (kg/m3) (wt/wt) (wt/wt) °C
NaOH solution (12 M) Na2SiO3
1:4 460 1840 53 131 184 0.4 0.4 65

s/b: solution to binder weight ratio, w/b: water to binder weight ratio.

Fig. 7. Test specimens covered with plastic film and specimens in air drying condition.

70
Compressive strength (MPa)
60

50

40

30

20

10

0
0 7 14 21 28
Test age (days)

M1 M2 M3 M4
M5 M6 M7 M8
M9 M10 M11

Fig. 9. Development of compressive strength of mortar with varying binder content

ratio.
Fig. 8. Compression testing machine and failure mode of cubes.

further increase in GGBS content decreased the workability. They

has finer particles compared to POFA and its contribution in the
strength development cannot be ignored; however further tests
are required to validate the compactness of the structure within
the mortar.
Naidu et al. [40] reported that the compressive strength of
geopolymer concrete increases with increase in percentage of
replacement of fly-ash with GGBS and 90% of the compressive
strength was achieved in 14 days and from this investigation most
of the mortar specimens achieved it in 7 days.
Shafigh et al. [41] used lightweight concrete with high volume
of GGBS and reported that 30% of cement replacement by GGBS in-
creased the workability of OPS concrete; however they reported
also reported that by introducing initial heating at 60 °C for 20 h
after demoulding, it is possible to improve the compressive
strength of GGBS OPS concrete at early ages.
3.4. Effect of POFA on the compressive strength of the mortar
Fig. 12 shows the effect of POFA content on the compressive
strength at the age of 28-day. The compressive strengths of the
mixes M2 and M3 that contain 100% POFA and 100% FA, respec-
tively shows that the later produced about 50% lower compressive
strength than the mix M2. As seen from Fig. 12 any increase

Table 6
Average oven-dry density (ODD) (kg/m3) of mortar at the age of 3-day.

Mix no. M1 M2 M3 M4 M5 M6 M7 M8 M9 M10 M11

(kg/m3) 2163 2014 2020 2116 2021 2135 2121 2107 2112 2157 2159
 A. Islam et al. / Materials and Design 56 (2014) 833–841 839

Table 7
Development of the compressive strength (MPa) and standard deviation of mortar at different ages.

Label M1 M2 M3 M4 M5 M6 M7 M8 M9 M10 M11

3-day 60 13 7 53 6 45 47 41 47 55 54
(1.45) (0.125) (1.03) (2.4) (0.38) (1.18) (0.05) (1.76) (4.03) (8.7) (1.62)
7-day 61 13 7 53 7 45 53 42 47 57 60
(1.3) (2.05) (0.95) (0.56) (0.43) (1.3) (1.76) (1.3) (0.73) (1.26) (0.39)
14-day 62 14 8 54 9 45 54 42 48 58 64
(1.26) (0.73) (0.26) (0.5) (0.29) (1.26) (1.46) (1.83) (2.19) (2.19) (0.12)
28-day 64 18 9 56 10 46 54 43 50 60 66
(0.39) (0.05) (0.54) (1.3) (0.48 (0.4) (0.4) (0.73) (0.58) (1.45) (0.5)

Note: The standard deviation of the corresponding compressive strength is shown in the brackets ().

Table 8
The comparison of increase in the compressive strength (%) among 3-, 7-, 14- and 28-days.

Test age (day) M1 M2 M3 M4 M5 M6 M7 M8 M9 M10 M11

3 94 72 78 95 60 98 87 95 94 92 82
7 95 72 78 95 70 98 98 98 94 95 91
14 97 78 89 96 90 98 100 98 96 97 97

100 M11 with 30% of POFA and 70% of GGBS produced the highest
% Achieved in compressive strength

95 strength of 66 MPa. The coarser particles of the POFA with cohesive

characteristic could not be mixed properly and hence the strength
90
development was poor. The ground POFA with high fineness
85
(d50 = 10.1 lm) is a reactive pozzolanic material and can be used
80 to produce high-strength concrete. The suggested level of POFA
75 content as cement replacement in normal concrete was 20% to pro-
70 duce high-strength concrete [27,30].
65
60
3.5. Density reduction
55
Fig. 13 shows the change in density of mortar specimens left in
50 the laboratory at temperature of 26–29 °C and relative humidity of
0 7 14
75–80%. The ODD of the mortar decreased slightly in the order of
Test age (days) about 2% in the first few weeks but remained almost constant
M1 M2 M3 M4 thereafter. Similar finding was reported by Wallah and Rangan
[37].
M5 M6 M7 M8
M9 M10 M11 3.6. Analysis of chemical composition
Fig. 10. The increase in compressive strength (%).
Khale and Chaudhary [6] reported in their review that certain
synthesis limits existed in the formation of strong products
(Table 9) but the ratio changes while working with the waste.
The rate of polymerization is influenced by parameters such as
curing temperature, water content, alkali concentration, initial sol-
ids content, silicate and aluminate ratio, pH and the type of activa-
tors used. Table 10 and Fig. 14 represent the comparison of the
major oxide composition of the three materials i.e., GGBS, POFA
and FA. The mixes M1 and M11 achieved higher strength and the
mix M3 achieved the lowest strength compared to other mixes;
however the mix M11 produced slightly higher strength than the
mix M1. Table 10 and Fig. 14 show that the mix M1 contains more
lime than the mix M11; nevertheless, the SiO2 content in the mix
M11 is slightly higher than the M1 and the ratio of SiO2/Al2O3 of
M11 is 3.7 (Table 11) which compiled with Table 9. On the con-
trary, this ratio (SiO2/Al2O3) for M1 is 2.37 and for M3 is 2.01.
Fig. 11. The effect of GGBS on the compressive strength of mortar mixed with POFA The lowest compressive strength of mix M3 that contains 100%
and FA at the age of 28-day.
FA might be attributed to the lowest SiO2/Al2O3 ratio of 2.01 as
seen from Table 11. Lime (CaO) plays a very important role. It con-
trols strength and soundness but any excess in the lime content
beyond 30% increase in POFA content decreases the strength. Saf- makes the material unsound and causes expansion and disintegra-
iuddin et al. [42] reported that a POFA content higher than 40% tion. Excessive quantity of lime (CaO) is the essence of the harden-
may adversely affect the properties and durability of concrete ing mechanism of mortar [7]. It has been reported that the
which was reflected in the geopolymer mortar as well. The mix formation of Ca compounds in geopolymers is greatly dependent
840 A. Islam et al. / Materials and Design 56 (2014) 833–841

70

Compressive strength
60 M2 (P=100,S=0.0,F=0.0)
M3 (P=0.0,S=0.0,F=100)
50
M4 (P=50,S=50,F=0.0)

(MPa)
40 M5 (P=50,S=0.0,F=50)
M7 (P=25,S=50,F=25) M8
30 (P=60,S=40,F=0.0) M9
20 (P=30,S=40,F=30) M10
(P=40,S=60,F=0.0) M11
10 (P=30,S=70,F=0.0)
0
M2 M3 M4 M5 M7 M8 M9 M10 M11
Mix no.
Legend: S – Slag (GGBS), P – POFA, F – Fly ash and mix compositions
are shown in bracket in percentage (%)
Fig. 12. The effect of POFA on the compressive strength of mortar mixed with GGBS and FA at the age of 28-day.

100
70

Chemical composition
70

Compressive strength
Ratio of density (%)

98 60 60
50 50

(wt %)

(MPa)
96 40 40
30 30
94 20 20
10 10
92 0 0
M1 M2 M3 M4 M5 M6 M7 M8 M9 M10 M11
90 Mixture no.
0 2 4 6 8 10
CaO SiO2 Al2O3
Test age (weeks)
MgO Fe2O3 Na2O
Fig. 13. Reduction in density of mortar specimen. K2O 28-d Comp. Strength

Fig. 14. The comparison between major chemical composition and compressive
strength of mortar.
Table 9
Oxide-mole ratios of the reactant mixture [6,7].

Composition M2O/SiO2 SiO2/Al2O3 H2O/M2O M2O/Al2O3

mix M2 contains the maximum percentages (%) of SiO2 among
Range 0.2–0.48 3.3–4.5 10–25 0.8–1.6
all the mixes but the silicate and aluminate ratio is very high
(11.4). Also M2 contains higher percentages of K2O and MgO which
are harmful ingredients in cement. If the amount of Na2O and K2O
on the pH and Si/Al ratio [43]. The SiO2 content provides greater exceeds 1%, it leads to the failure of concrete and if the content of
strength but at the same time it prolongs its setting time though MgO exceeds 5%, it causes cracks in the hardened concrete.

Table 10
Major chemical composition of mortar and 28-day compressive strength.

Mix No. CaO SiO2 Al2O3 MgO Fe2O3 Na2O K2O 28-d Comp. strength (MPa)
M1 45.83 32.52 13.71 3.27 0.76 0.25 0.48 64
M2 4.34 63.41 5.55 3.74 4.19 0.16 6.33 18
M3 5.31 54.72 27.28 1.10 5.15 0.43 1.00 9
M4 25.09 47.97 9.63 3.51 2.48 0.21 3.41 56
M5 4.83 59.07 16.42 2.42 4.67 0.30 3.67 10
M6 25.57 43.62 20.50 2.19 2.96 0.34 0.74 46
M7 25.33 45.79 15.06 2.85 2.72 0.27 2.07 54
M8 20.94 51.05 8.81 3.55 2.82 0.20 3.99 43
M9 21.23 48.447 15.333 2.76 3.11 0.28 2.39 50
M10 29.23 44.88 10.45 3.46 2.13 0.21 2.82 60
M11 33.38 41.79 11.26 3.41 1.79 0.22 2.24 66

Table 11
The SiO2/Al2O3 ratio for the mixes.

Mix No. M1 M2 M3 M4 M5 M6 M7 M8 M9 M10 M11

SiO2/Al2O3 2.37 11.43 2.01 4.98 3.60 2.13 3.04 5.79 3.16 4.29 3.71
 A. Islam et al. / Materials and Design 56 (2014) 833–841
4. Conclusions
The following conclusions can be drawn from this experimental
study:
(1) The compressive strength of geopolymer mortar increases as
the GGBS content is increased up to 70%. Further increase in
GGBS content did not produce desired effect.
(2) The addition of POFA up to 30% with GGBS produced the
highest strength and hence it is recommended for strength
beyond 60 MPa.
(3) In most of the specimens 90% of compressive strength of
geopolymer mortar was achieved at the age of 7 days.
(4) The coarser POFA produces cohesive mix and additional
water has to be added in the mortar to achieve desired
workability.
(5) The finer particles of GGBS produce dense mix and hence the
density of mortar produced using GGBS resulted in about 8%
of density increase.
(6) The use of locally available waste materials such as GGBS,
POFA, FA and M-sand could be used for development of sus-
tainable construction material.
Acknowledgement
The authors are grateful to University of Malaya for the financial
support through the University of Malaya Research Project ‘‘RP018/
2012B: Development of Geopolymer Concrete for Structural
Application’’.
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