Axial Compressive Behavior of Geopolymer Recycled Lump Concrete

To reduce the environmental pollution from cement production and the damage to natural resources from aggregate mining in the concrete industry, a relatively new concrete, termed geopolymer recycled lump concrete (GRLC), which uses geopolymer as the binding material to replace traditional cement and uses large demolished concrete lumps (DCLs) to partly replace concrete, is prepared in this study. Cubic and cylindrical GRLC specimens containing fresh geopolymer concrete and DCLs were tested under axial compression with various parameters, including the compressive strength levels of both fresh geopolymer concrete and DCLs, and the replacement ratio of DCLs. The compressive behavior of the GRLC specimens was compared with traditional cement recycled lump concrete (CRLC) specimens, with test results showing that GRLC specimens possess higher compressive strength than CRLC specimens under the same experimental conditions, which is due to the strengthening effect that fresh geopolymer concrete has on the DCLs. From the scanning electron microscope pattern of the GRLC specimen, it is found that the geopolymer bonds well with the old mortar attached to DCLs. As the replacement ratio increases from 0% to 33%, the elastic modulus of GRLC increases by 5%–11% but Poisson’s ratio remains almost constant (in the 0.16–0.17 range). Based on the measured strength and the predicted results, which coincide with one another well, a modified method for predicting the compressive strength of GRLC cubic and cylindrical specimens is proposed.