Effect of Pumice Powder and Silica Fume on Flowability and Compressive Strength of Slag-Based Geopolymer

Geopolymer cement is an alternative to conventional cement. Geopolymer technology is relatively new, so it is highly considered to be investigated. This paper evaluates the flowability and compressive strength of GGBS-based geopolymer using ambient and oven curing under partial replacement of GGBS with pumice powder (PP) and silica fume (SF) sequentially. Test results show that PP content has a negative effect on flow and compressive strength. On the other hand, the flowability grew with increasing SF content up to 20% replacement, while further increase flattened the trend. Contrasted to ambient curing, oven curing improves compressive strength by about 50% and 22% in PP and SF replacement, respectively. The compressive strength dropped with 10% and 5% SF replacement using ambient and oven curing, respectively. While the further increase in SF content increased the compressive strength. The highest 28-day compressive strength with oven curing and 30% SF replacement was 52.59 MPa.