CHAPTER 2

LITERATURE REVIEW
This chapter documented the brief review of all the available literature from the evolution of
concrete to the most advancement in concrete technology, and cover all the parameter affecting
the Geopolymer concrete.

2.1 Concrete Since Its Evolution

Concrete originates from the Latin word “Concretus”, meaning compact and condensed, traveled
a long path since its invention to reach the present state of the art and still not evolved into
perfect and ideal material for construction practices. Concrete can be viewed in three different
ways defined as follows:
1. Cementing medium i.e. the products of hydration of cement, as the essential building
material, with aggregate fulfilling the role of cheap, or cheaper, dilutant.
2. The coarse aggregate as the mini-masonry which is joined together by mortar
3. The product of phases: hydrated cement paste phase, aggregate phase and the interface
between them.
It is believed that a natural deposit of cement compound was formed from the sudden
combustion of limestone and oil shale together as far back as 12 million BC (Shaeffer, 1992).
The use of calcined limestone to produce gypsum mortar as a binding agent traced back from
3000 BC. Davidovits (1999) suggested that Geopolymer binder were used for the construction of
the Pyramids and temples of the old kingdom of Egypt more than 4000 years ago. According to
them, these ancient monuments were constructed from the agglomerated limestone and zeolitic
materials like kaolin clay, silt and the Egyptian salt natron (sodium carbonate), instead of
quarried blocks of natural limestone.
In the second century BC, the Romans ground lime and volcanic ash or finely ground burnt clay
tiles together to produce a cementitious binder (Neville, 1995). The silica and alumina were
combined with the lime to produce what is known as pozzolanic cement, named on village
Pozzuoli. Coliseum and Pantheon are the knows and a well-appreciated masterpiece of Romans
built by using ancient concrete. In the Reconnaissance period ( middle age) very less evidence of
any engineering advancement and very little literature were documented on the development of
cementitious material.
John Smeaton was considered to be the father of modern concrete, developed it in the eighteenth
century during the when he was commissioned to rebuild the Eddystone, Lighthouse, England, in
1756 and found that limestone, which contained a considerable proportion of clayey matter,
appeared to make the best hydraulic cement (Larson, 1991). After more than half a century of
research, in 1824 Joseph Aspidin invented the modern cement- ordinary portland cement (OPC)
(Bye, 1999). It was named Portland after it’s close resemblance with Portland stone, a type of
limestone quarried in Dorset.
2.2 Concrete and Environment

2.3 Correlation of Density and Strength

2.4 Flyash and Slag

2.5 Geopolymer

2.6 Parameters considered for Mix proportioning

2.7 The Gap in Available Literature