Abstract

As a potential precursor, the utilization of sugarcane bagasse ash imparts enormous technical and environmental benefits to human society. However, its rich crystal content challenges the mix design of sugarcane bagasse ash-involved geopolymers. The present study is aimed to contribute toward the substantial utilization of sugarcane bagasse ash in geopolymers and develop a guideline for designing binary geopolymers from metakaolin and sugarcane bagasse ash. The experimental results show that when suitably designed, the compressive strength of metakaolin-sugarcane bagasse ash geopolymers satisfied the structural use in building engineering, and the sugarcane bagasse ash proportion could substantially reach up to 50%. Moreover, through a combination of mechanical, economic and environmental assessments, the optimal mixing proportions fall into the following ranges: SiO2/Al2O3=4.63~5.60, Na2O/Al2O3=1.5~2.0 and H2O/Na2O=8~10. Further, multi-factor models are proposed to regulate the mix design of binary geopolymers, with a R2 value beyond 0.9 .