Mechanical Testing Of Novel And Conventional Geopolymer Brick Dried Under Passive Solar Dryer With Ferric Chloride Dihydrate As Phase Change Material

Articles in Press

Document Type : Research Article

Authors

1 Kalasalingam Academy of Research and Education

2 Vellore Institute of Technology

3 M.Kumarasamy College of Engineering

4 High Energy Batteries (India) Limited

5 Sri Sai Ram Engineering college

Abstract

Conventionally, in Geopolymer bricks (GPB) fly ash from power plants and ground granulated blast furnace slag are converted into bricks by chemical treatment. In this work, a novel GPB has been obtained by adding nano silica and rice husk ash to the conventional ingredients of GPB, along with Ferric Chloride Dihydrate, which is used as a phase change material to accelerate the curing time by utilizing its latent heat stored in the form of phase change. This novelty aims at introducing solar dryers with phase change materials in the areas of curing GPB which have shown competent properties when compared to conventional bricks in the construction sectors. It has been experimentally found that the solar drying method with Ferric Chloride Dihydrate (22 hours) utilizes a shorter curing time when compared to an electrical oven (24 hours) and open sun drying (24 hours). The properties of novel GPBs are evaluated by mechanical testing and compared with conventional GPBs. It has been experimentally observed that novel GPB exhibits higher compressive strength of 45 MPa, tensile strength of 4.5 MPa, flexural strength of 6.5 MPa when compared to compressive strength of 41.5 MPa, tensile strength of 3.35 MPa, flexural strength of 6.2 MPa as that of conventional GPB. Also in this study, Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) images of the damaged surfaces and energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX) analysis of novel GPB obtained from test results have been furnished. Smart quantitative results from EDX analysis show that Oxygen Potassium content has the highest weight percentage and atomic percentage.

Keywords

Main Subjects

Mechanics of Advanced Composite Structures

Articles in Press, Accepted Manuscript
Available Online from 14 May 2025

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