PRODUCTION OF LIGHTWEIGHT GEOPOLYMER MATERIAL FOR STRUCTURE APPLICATION

The problem is to replace the normal cement with the lightweight of geopolymer material for
structure application. This is because building material like roof, tiles, panelling are made
from ceramic or cement which is heavy and cause difficulty in handling also if to be transport
to the construction site. Therefore, the geopolymer products offer an alternative to recover
those problems. In this case, the lightweight geopolymer are very desirable for the building
construction as they can reduce their capital in transportation and gain more profit. The aim
of this project is to form geopolymer composite incorporate with untreated rice husk into the
formation of the geopolymer in order to reduce the weight of the geopolymer. Therefore, an
alternative has been applied for this project; the rice husk as a filler will be added into the
production of the lightweight geopolymer. The lightweight geopolymer have been created by
mixing of fly ash with sodium hydroxide (NaOH) with the addition of untreated rice husk.
This research been done by varies the concentration of the NaOH in range of 10-14M and
also the particle size of the untreated rice husk between coarse and fine size and been cured at
room temperature and at 60oC for about 7 days. There are four testing have been done for
this project. First is density test where both type of sample (coarse and fine R.H) shown that
when the concentration of NaOH increasing, the density of the sample is decreasing which
meets our target to produce lightweight geopolymer. Then, for compressive strength, the
results shown that lightweight geopolymer are less strength than pure geopolymer however
it’s still have strength which can be apply for indoor structure material such as wall panels.
For water absorption test and setting time test results showed some variation of the
lightweight geopolymer. Thus, this project have to do further development and study for
findings such as by using much finer untreated rice husk and so on.