AN INVESTIGATION ON MECHANICAL STRENGTH OF ALKALI ACTIVATED ULTRA FINE NATURAL STEATITE POWDER BASED GEOPOLYMER MORTAR

In the present study, the possibility of geopolymerization of Ultra-Fine Natural Steatite Powder (UFNSP), effects of compressive strength of mortars with alkali activating solution with various proportion of silicates, and two different volumetric proportions of powder and aggregate were studied. For synthesizing alkali activated UFNSP binder sodium silicate and sodium hydroxide with 16M was used as alkali activators. The mortars cubes were prepared with volumetric fraction of 1:2. The alkali solutions were prepared in five sets with NaOH/Na2SiO3 fraction as 1:1, 1:1.5, 1:2, 1:2.5, 1:3 and were mixed with UFNSP for the preparation of mortars. The prepared mortars were heat cured for 48h at 60◦C and were tested. The results show that alkali silicate fraction has the effect and influence on compression strength.