Confinement of Concrete Using Banana Geotextile-Reinforced Geopolymer Mortar

Abstract

Geopolymer, a sustainable alternative to ordinary Portland cement (OPC), offers reduced embodied energy, lower carbon emissions, enhanced durability, eco-compatibility, and waste valorization potential. In confining structural members, geopolymer still has limitations with respect to its brittleness and other properties. Enhancing the properties of geopolymer by adding banana fibers (BF) and fly ash (FA) to form banana geotextile-reinforced geopolymer mortar (BGT-RGM) as confining material, is investigated in this experimental study. BGT-RGM is a textile-reinforced mortar with varying thickness of BF-reinforced geopolymer mortar (BFRGM) through NaOH-treated 10 mm BFs and 2 mm banana geotextile (BGT) having varied grid spacings. To develop BGT-RGM, the physical, mechanical, and chemical properties of the BFs were determined, while BFRGMs were evaluated for compressive and dog-bone tensile strengths, workability, scanning electron microscopy (SEM) imaging, and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA). The BGT-RGM-confined and unconfined concrete were evaluated, and the strength variations were imparted by the confinement as reflected on the stress-strain curves. The local crack formation mode of failure was also determined through crack patterns during an axial load test. The BGT-RGM with 20 mm thickness of BFRGM with 15 mm and 20 mm geotextile grid spacings, exhibited 33.3% and 33.1% increases in strength, respectively. Future investigations towards the development and application of BGT-RGM are also discussed.