Bonding characteristics of Self Compacting Geopolymer Concrete through Pull Out Test

Geopolymer concrete has been recognized as an alternative to replace Ordinary Portland Cement
Concrete (OPC) in term of many aspects such as cost saving and environmental friendly
material. Fly ash is one of the most utilized waste materials to replace OPC as the binder in the
concrete. Fly ash from the combustion of coal in electrical power plant had also been identified
as a contributor to the environmental problem if they are not disposed properly. In this research,
fly ash was used as the main ingredient to produce geopolymer concrete which obtained from
Manjung Power station. Super Plasticizer was added to improve the self-compatibility properties
of geopolymer concrete. Thus, this material is called as Self Compacting Geopolymer Concrete
(SCGC). This concrete has the ability to be self-compacted without the need of vibration and
compaction process. This research is dedicated to investigate the bonding characteristic of Self
Compacting Geopolymer Concrete through Pull Out Test. There are two types of steel bars used
which are ribbed bars and normal bars. Besides, the molarity of sodium hydroxide in alkaline
activating solution also varied. There were four molarity used namely 8M, 10M, 12M and 14M.
Besides that, the curing regime that applied was external curing. Each sample was tested at 14
days and 28 days. Pull out test for each sample was done in the laboratory using Universal
Testing Machine (UTM). As for the result, it eventually found that out of the molarity used, the
highest bond strength occurred when molarity of sodium hydroxide is 12M. On the other hand,
between ribbed and round steel bar used, bond strength it at its highest for sample that utilized
ribbed bars. Lastly, from the observation comparing curing ages, the highest bond strength
happened at samples that have been cured for 28 days compared to 14 days.