Hashem Al-Mattarneh

Geopolymer concrete for structural use: Recent findings and limitations

Geopolymer binders offer a possible solution for several problems that facing the current cement industry. These binders exhibit similar or better engineering properties compared to cement and can utilize several types of waste materials. This paper presents the recent research progress regarding the structural behaviour of reinforced geopolymer concrete members including beams, columns and slabs. The reported results showed that the structural behaviour of the reinforced geopolymer concrete members is similar to the known behaviour of the ordinary reinforced concrete members. In addition, the currently available standards have been conservatively used for analysis and designing of reinforced geopolymer concrete structures. On the other hand, the main hurdles facing the spread of geopolymer concrete was the absence of standards and the concerns about the long-term properties. Other issues included the safety, cost and liability.

Evolution of geopolymer binders: a review

This study aimed to present the current state of research about the terminology, chemical reactions, mechanisms, and microstructure modelling of geopolymer binders. Modelling the structure of the geopolymerization products is essential for controlling the product properties. The currently available models have shown some limitations in determining the rate of geopolymerization and setting time of the gel. There is a need for deeper knowledge regarding the physicochemical analysis of geopolymer binders. Most of the available models have used pure material like metakaolin; however, the less pure materials are expected to have different mechanisms. The FTIR and MAS-NMR analysis are considered as effective tools in providing information on the molecular deviations during geopolymerization. However, XRD analysis is not effective because most of the changes take place in amorphous phases. Also, the role of the iron oxides and some of the other impurities still not clear where none of the previous method of investigation can be used to detect the molecular changes of the iron compounds. This issue is very relevant hence the iron oxides are existed in substantial amounts in most of the waste materials that are suitable to be used as geopolymer source materials.

Structural Behavior of Reinforced Self-Compacted Engineered Cementitious Composite Beams

Eight large-scale reinforced self-compacted engineered cementitious composite (R-SC-ECC) beams with different steel reinforcement ratios have been designed, prepared, cast, cured, and tested to failure at the age of 28 days. The experimental results have been compared with theoretical values predicted using EC2, RILEM, and VecTor2 models. Results show that failure modes in flexure and shear of R-SC-ECC beams are comparable to that of normal reinforced concrete beam. Nevertheless, contrary to VecTor2, models of EC2 and RILEM are not suitable for predicting reasonable ultimate moments for the beams, while results using VecTor2 model have successfully predicted the failure modes and load-deflection curves for all R-SC-ECC beams. It has been concluded that R-SC-ECC fall in the category of ductility class medium to high which gives advantages of using R-SC-ECC beams in regions susceptible to seismic activities.

A Novel Method for Monitoring Hydration Process of Cement Paste Material

A new measurement system is developed to monitor the early hydration of cementitious materials based on measured dielectric properties of the material in low electromagnetic frequency range. The objectives of this paper were to evaluate the changes in the electromagnetic properties for samples with different fly ash content and to establish the reliability of the measurement technique by comparing with results obtained by traditional method such as thermal method that is either time consuming or impractical. The method adopted in the present experimental work is a parallel plate electrode system (PPES). The suggested monitoring device for concrete hydration and strength development is based on the relationship between the electromagnetic properties such as dielectric constant, loss factor and the strength development during hydration process and curing time. In this research the electromagnetic properties of concrete is found to be dependent on the hydration and strength of concrete. Therefore the development of microstructure and concrete compressive strength can be determined by monitoring its electromagnetic properties in the frequency range of 1 to 100 kHz.

Effect of Plasticizers and Water on Properties of HCFA Geopolymers

In this study, different types of plasticizers were used to investigate their effects on the fresh and hardened properties of high calcium fly ash geopolymers (HCFA). Modified polycarboxylate polymers (G3) and lignin-based polymers (G1) were used as plasticizing admixtures and the results were compared to the effect of tap water addition. The results showed that all the admixtures used are effective in increasing the workability of the HCFA geopolymers mixtures and the workability increased by 25-48% compared to the control mixtures. However, the use of G3 has adversely affected the strength by a reduction of 20%. While the use of G1 reduced the final setting time by 7% which is critical in the case of HCFA geopolymers where the final setting time occurs within 70 minutes. Water can be considered as the best admixture in terms of cost, setting time, and effect on compressive strength and it can be used where medium workability enhancement is required.

Dielectric Dispersion Characteristics of Unsaturated Sand Contaminatedby Diesel

Generally the methods were used to characterize soil contamination include collecting samples of soil then analyzing them to recognize contaminates in the laboratory. Commonly, this method of characterizing the contamination of a soil system is the only one agreeable to regulatory societies. However, sample analysis in the lab faces important problems such as soils sampling is really time consuming and costly, sampling is not constant with time and the samples be able to contaminate through sampling and carrying to the lab. Thus several geophysical techniques have been developed which used the dissimilarity in the soil physical properties after soil contamination. Dielectric technique shows high conceivable for characterization diesel contaminated soil. Further use of this technique; rely upon the availability of information about the dielectric properties of the contaminated soil. In this study, the effects of induced by a diesel presence in an unsaturated soil, on the complex dielectric properties were sought. It has been shown experimentally that the diesel presence in an unsaturated soil is traduced by an increase of both dielectric constant and loss factor. A comparison with the existing results in this study and in the literature for saturated soils shows an opposite effect on the complex dielectric properties. The importance of the influence induced by the diesel on the dielectric properties of an unsaturated soil was noticed and compared to a saturated soil. On the basis of the theoretical dielectric mixture models, a justification to these opposite behaviors and their importance has been presented and various models for the two cases have been developed.

Determination of Soil Polluted with Kerosene Using Electromagnetic Cell

Soil contamination with petroleum hydrocarbons has become one of the most serious problems due to its negative repercussion on ecosystems. For this reason, different analytical techniques have been developed to evaluate the quantity and the quality of organic pollutants using electrochemical techniques, and a geophysical methods have been developed which utilizes the contrast caused by the contaminant on physical properties of the soil dielectric methods shows high potential for characterization kerosene contaminated soil and determination of the level of contaminant. The potential of dielectric measuring techniques for soil characterization has not been fully explored. For this purpose, dielectric measurements, in the frequency range from 100 kHz to1000 kHz, were carried out in sandy soil samples, contaminated with solutions of kerosene, at different concentrations. The differences of the dielectric behavior with contaminant content suggest that the monitoring of complex dielectric constant has the potential to quantify contaminants.