Bond behavior of reinforcing steel bars in metakaolin – calcium carbide residue-based geopolymer concrete

Abstract The bond property of concrete is a key characteristic of concrete that affect the structural activity of reinforced concrete beams. Concrete produced from geopolymer has the prospect to replace concrete produced from ordinary Portland cement (OPC) for structural applications. Therefore, this research evaluates the bond behavior of metakaolin-calcium carbide residue (CCR)-based geopolymer concrete for use in in situ structural applications. Comparative studies were carried out on concrete made of geopolymer and OPC. The embedment lengths (5 ϕ and 7 ϕ ) and reinforcing bar diameters (14 and 16 mm) were varied and the bonding activity of the different concrete types was studied. Additionally, the qualities of the concrete produced were assessed, including density, ultrasonic pulse velocity, and compressive and flexural strengths. Generally, the metakaolin-CCR-based geopolymer concrete samples had the best mechanical properties, followed by metakaolin-based geopolymer and OPC concrete, respectively. Bond activity enhanced when embedment length and diameter of reinforcement were reduced in all types of concrete. Thus, with a reinforcing bar diameter of 14 mm and an embedment length of 5 ϕ , the average bond strength of the metakaolin-CCR-based geopolymer concrete was 14.3MPa, which was 18.87% and 105.46% higher than that of the metakaolin-based geopolymer and OPC concrete, respectively. Influenced by experimental conclusions, it can be established that the metakaolin-CCR-based geopolymer concrete has the capacity to be used in place of OPC concrete in bond applications where steel reinforcing bars are employed.