Periodic Reporting for period 1 - GEOCRETE (Long-term performance simulation of geopolymer concrete under coupled carbonation and chloride transport)
Reporting period: 2016-06-15 to 2018-06-14
GPC concrete is still at scientific development stage and, before it becomes acceptable by the industry, obtaining a clear understanding of its service life behaviour is needed. For the past decade, the research has been focused on understanding the chemistry, reaction processes and structure of GPC. Future studies need to target the structural behaviour, durability, and long-term performance under different environmental conditions. Carbonation and chloride transport are the main factors affecting the long-term performance of RC structures and therefore should be critically addressed for these materials as well.
• State of the art review and training on geopolymer material, chemistry of material, multi-scale modeling, transport phenomenon in porous media, reactive transport simulations.
• Successful investigation of the carbonation mechanism in these composites under natural and accelerated carbonation mechanisms.
• Successful investigation of the role of curing conditions on the stability of the pastes, stability of the pore solution pH and carbonation resistance.
• Successful conceptualization and implementation of the carbonation mechanism in binary systems of geopolymer concrete.
• Successful implementation of a multi-phase reactive transport code for simulation of the carbonation phenomenon in porous media (applicable to OPC-based, ternary-based on geopolymer-based concrete).
• Successful simulation of alkali leaching phenomenon in geopolymer concrete as one of the main mechanisms in instability of the pore solution pH.