Soil-Geopolymer Mixtures Using Recycled Concrete Aggregates for Base and Subbase Layers

Abstract

The recycling of concrete aggregates has become a viable venture to investigate particularly its application in road construction. This study was conducted to proffer the feasibility of using recycled concrete aggregate (RCA) mixed with soil, flyash and alkali activator as an alternative to soil-cement in road base or subbase applications. The resulting product known as Soil-RCA geopolymer was made by varied mix constituents of flyash, RCA, sodium silicate, and sodium hydroxide. The influence of mixture variables on the mechanical properties of Soil-RCA geopolymer was investigated through an experiment design using two different flyash. Models to predict the unconfined compressive strengths based on mixture parameters were also established for the sensitivity analysis and selection of final mixtures. The results and analysis showed that the Soil-RCA geopolymer mixture exhibited sound strength, stiffness and durability characteristics.