Synthesis of Volcanic Ash-based Geopolymer Mortar Designed by the Taguchi Method

This study focuses on the geopolymer synthesized from Mount Sinabung’s volcanic ash. The compressive strength of the geopolymer was determined by optimizing five factors using the Taguchi method’s L۱۶ array. The five factors included: volcanic ash wt.%, Sodium silicate (Na۲SiO۳) wt.%, Sodium hydroxide (NaOH) concentration (mole), Na۲SiO۳/NaOH wt.% and water/binder (w/b) wt.%. A total of ۱۶ mixtures were prepared per the L۱۶ array and evaluated on five levels to obtain the optimum mixture. The main findings of this study revealed that A۲B۱C۲D۳E۴ produced the highest compressive strength of ۷۹.۶۲۵ MPa after three days of curing time, while A۴B۲C۳D۱E۴ produced the lowest compressive strength of ۴۱.۹۳ MPa. The signal-to-noise (S/N) ratio analysis from the Taguchi method shows that the factor of Na۲SiO۳ has a greater impact on compressive strength. The X-ray diffraction (XRD) result for the geopolymer mortar revealed the formation of aluminosilicate type (N-A-S-H) and calcium silicate (C-S-H) gels, whereas the Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) result exhibited numerous pores and a denser structure. These characterization results demonstrated that the polymerization of volcanic ash mortar from Sinabung successfully conserves natural resources. Doi: ۱۰.۲۸۹۹۱/CEJ-۲۰۲۲-۰۸-۱۱-۰۱۶ Full Text: PDF

کلیدواژه ها:

Compressive Strength ، Geopolymer ، Taguchi Method ، Volcanic Ash.