Development of Geopolymer Foam Concrete Incorporating Sugarcane Bagasse Ash and Fly Ash; 100% Recycled and Cement-Less Concrete

Geopolymer foam concrete is an advanced composite material having the capability to be used as a lightweight, sustainable and energy-efficient material in the construction industry, having better insulating properties. The unique characteristics like low thermal conductivity and lesser environmental impact have fascinated the researchers to develop these materials using industrial by-products. Therefore, this research work focusses on development of fly ash-based geopolymer foam concrete incorporating sugarcane bagasse ash. In this study, fly ash-sugarcane bagasse ash blends based geopolymer foam concrete was successfully synthesized using an alkali activator to solid ratio (0.25), sodium silicate to sodium hydroxide ratio (2.5/1) and 2% of hydrogen peroxide (H2O2). The mixtures with varying proportions of fly ash and sugarcane bagasse ash (SCBA) were prepared and intumescent through hydrogen peroxide. The results revealed that the insulating behavior of the mixture increases with an increase in sugarcane bagasse ash content. The GFC-00 exhibited the maximum compressive strength of 4.5 MPa with bulk density of 1295 kg/m(3) and total percentage porosity of 42.4%. The GFC-50 proved to be an optimized mixture with thermal conductivity of 0.243 W m(-1) k(-1) for bulk density of 859 kg/m(3) and total percentage porosity of 58.1%. From the results, it is found that the fly ash-SCBA-based geopolymer foam concrete can be used as a lightweight insulating material in non-load-bearing applications, as per the international standards.