Demand to decrease the carbon footprint caused during the manufacturing of materials pushes the researchers studying in the construction industry to seek the production of earth friendly construction materials. The concept of alkaline activated geopolymer composite was developed in this context. This new phenomenon nowadays is considered it will take the place of conventional cement-based composites. In this way, the carbon footprint of the conventional cement-based composites that is the second most consumed material in the world after water will be led to decreased since aluminosilicate-rich waste materials can be employed in the production of this new concept instead of traditional cement types. However, it should be noted that the still use of natural aggregates in production can be considered the disadvantage side of this new concept in the perspective of eco-efficiency. In this point of view, manufacturing the earth friendly and eco-efficient fly ash-based geopolymer composites as replacing the natural river sand was replaced with synthetic lightweight sand at certain levels and investigating their thermal conductivity were the main objectives of the current study. In this regard, the natural river sand was replaced with synthetic lightweight sand, which was manufactured by cold-bonding pelletization of fly ash, at replacement levels of 10%, 20%, 30%, 40%, and 50% by volume. The results revealed that replacing the natural river sand with synthetic lightweight sand and increasing the replacement level systematically decreased the thermal conductivities of geopolymer composites. Besides, it was observed that there was a meaningful decrease in both dry and saturated unit weights while there was an increase in the water absorption capacities of earth friendly geopolymer composites.
Anahtar Kelimeler: Earth Friendly Materials, Geopolymer Composites, Synthetic Lightweight Sand, Thermal Conductivity
|
