Fly ash has been highly advocated to be re-utilized as a construction material. The most common utilization is to partially replace cement in a low-percentage scheme. However, there are several other schemes available to potentially use fly ash as binder in concrete that have not been widely exercised, especially those utilizing it in high to very high volume. In those schemes, high-volume fly ash (HVFA) concrete might use more than 50% fly ash to replace cement. To exploit its self-cementing properties, with or without the addition of other compounds, such as calcium hydroxide, fly ash might be used in very high percentage of cement replacement. In geopolymeric system, fly ash acts as the precursor of a stable binder, with the presence of highly alkaline solution. This paper demonstrates a model to investigate the potential of fly ash in several binder systems. The results show that fly ash from a good source can be utilized as an alternative binder in several different schemes.

The eruption of Sidoarjo mud volcano that has been taken place since 2006 had caused significant damage to the local social environment, and until now there is no immediate solution that can be offered. Utilization of the Sidoarjo mud as construction material recently has gained some advancement by calcination of the mud, that make the previously inert material to become more reactive and to be more viable for its use as cement replacement or geopolymer precursor. This paper reports an on-going study to utilize the Sidoarjo mud as precursor of geopolymer by investigating the influence of particle size on the reactivity of the calcined Sidoarjo mud. Furthermore, durability properties of Sidoarjo mud-based geopolymer was also studied. The results show that making finer the mud particles by milling in longer period, using a rod-mill drum for 8 hours, can increase the reactivity of the mud. Compressive strength of geopolymer mortar can increase up to 155% when compared to the ones based on milling time of only 2 hours. Durability properties of sulphate acid resistance and chloride penetration are comparable to fly ash-based geopolymer, while the shrinkage measurement showing higher value.

Testing of concrete panels subjected to pure in-plane shear loading is necessary to elucidate the shear behavior of concrete. However, available data for predicting the shear capacity and behavior of steel fiber-reinforced concrete are rather limited. This study aims to evaluate the shear capacity and behavior of fiber-reinforced concrete made of highly flowable strain hardening fiber-reinforced concrete (HF-SHFRC) experimentally and analytically, respectively, using a panel tester loaded under pure shear and modified compression field theory (MCFT). The test was conducted using a panel test machine at the University of Toronto. The test results of the HF-SHFRC demonstrated strain hardening behavior at tension after the first crack, as indicated by the increase in the shear stress after the first crack in the HF-SHFRC panel. An analysis procedure is proposed for predicting the shear strength of steel fiber-reinforced concrete (SFRC) based on experimental data of the SFRC panels to obtain reliable results. A comparison of results obtained from the proposed analysis procedure and experiments show that it accurately predicted the response of the HF-SHFRC. The proposed MCFT-based analysis procedure can provide valuable insight for understanding the behavior of the SFRC panels under shear loading.