Engineering Properties of Geopolymer Mortars Containing Industrial Steel Shavings

The purpose of using waste materials is to prevent the unnecessary use of resources and to reduce the amount of waste. Geopolymer, developed as an alternative to cementitious materials, prevents the depletion of natural resources and saves a large amount of energy. This paper presents the effect of waste steel shavings on the improvement of physical and mechanical properties of geopolymer mortars. For this purpose, geopolymer mortars were produced by using two binder types [slag (BFSb) and silica fume] as well as steel shavings in five different replacement percentages (0%, 2.5%, 5%, 7.5% and 10%) by volume instead of aggregate. A series of experiments on geopolymer mortars were carried out to determine properties such as bulk density, water absorption, apparent porosity, sorptivity coefficient, splitting tensile strength, flexural strength and compressive strength. Results showed that steel shavings recovered from metal processing and forming sector were highly effective at improving engineering properties of geopolymer mortars. Furthermore, although replacement of 20% by volume of BFSb with silica fume improved properties of geopolymer mortar, it was observed that the use of silica fume at higher ratios reduced mechanical properties by increasing porosity and sorptivity of BFSb-based geopolymer mortars.