Enunciation of embryonic palm oil clinker based geopolymer concrete and its engineering properties

Enunciation of the embryonic materials from industrial by-products is vital to address the ever-depleting virgin construction materials. The palm oil clinker (POC) is one of the industrial by-products from the palm oil industries available in abundance in Southeast Asia. POC is lightweight, and porous and hence, it is considered as a potential lightweight aggregate that could be used in normal weight and geopolymer concrete. It is imperative to exemplify the mechanical behaviour of a new material before using it in the structural application. This article presents the failure mechanism of POC-based GC (P-GC) and granite-based GC (G-GC) under compression. The compression toughness and energy absorption at elastic and plastic states due to the influence of POC at microlevel crack propagation were investigated. Further, the moment-curvatures of over-reinforced P-GC and G-GC beams were calculated from the compression load-deformation results to comprehend the feasibility of P-GC in structural application. The results show that the ultimate moment of resistances of both beams were comparable for the concretes of similar grade. The elastic limit of P-GC was lower than G-GC, hence, and the first crack initiated in P-GC earlier compared to G-GC. The midspan-deflections varied due to the difference of stiffnesses of P-GC and G-GC.

Automated summary

The article discusses the failure mechanisms of P-GC and G-GC under compression, as well as the mechanical behavior during microlevel crack propagation, to investigate the feasibility of P-GC in structural applications.