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In the study, mechanical properties and durability performance of confined/unconfined geopolymer concrete and ordinary concrete specimens were investigated under ambient and seawater environments. Some of the specimens were confined by carbon fiber and basalt fiber–reinforced polymer fabric materials with one layer and three layers under chloride and ambient environments to observe mechanical strength contribution and durability performances of these hybrid types of materials. These fiber-reinforced polymer fabric materials were also evaluated in terms of retrofit purposes especially in the marine structures. In addition, microstructural evaluation is also conducted using scanning electron microscope on geopolymer concrete and ordinary concrete specimens to observe the amount of deterioration in microscale due to the chloride attacks. Results indicated that confined specimens exhibited enhanced strength, ductility, and durability properties than unconfined specimens, and the degree of the enhancement depended on the fiber-reinforced polymer confinement type and the number of fiber-reinforced polymer layer. Specimens confined by carbon fabrics with three layers showed superior mechanical properties and durability performance against chloride attack, while specimens confined by basalt fabrics with one layer exhibited low performance, and unconfined specimens showed the worst performance. Both fiber-reinforced polymer fabric materials can be utilized as retrofit materials in structural elements against chloride attacks. The results also pointed out that seawater attack reduced the ductility performance of the geopolymer concrete and ordinary concrete specimens. Furthermore, geopolymer concrete specimens were found more durable than the ordinary concrete specimens, and both types of concretes exhibited similar fracture properties, indicating that geopolymer concrete can be utilized for structural elements instead of ordinary concretes.

This study investigates the fresh and hardened state performance of slag-based self-compacting alkali-activated concretes (SCAAC) reinforced with steel fibers (SF) and nano-silica (NS), cured at an ambient temperature. Two different hooked-end SF with two fiber volumes and NS were used to examine the combined effect of the SF volume ratio, SF aspect ratio, and NS on the fresh and hardened state performance of SCAAC. In extension, the influence of specimen thickness to steel fiber length (d/FL) ratio on the failure modes of the bending specimens was evaluated. The fresh state properties were evaluated via T50 value, slump flow, V-funnel, and L-Box tests, while the hardened state properties were studied through compressive strength, splitting tensile strength, modulus of elasticity, and flexural tensile strength tests. The relationship analyses were carried out among fresh and hardened state properties, and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) was also conducted to examine the microstructure. The results indicated that fresh state performance was favorably affected by NS inclusion but adversely influenced by SF content and aspect ratio. The hardened state performances enhanced with a higher amount of SF volume and an aspect ratio. Also, the NS improved the splitting tensile and flexural strength but decreased the compressive strength and elasticity modulus of the specimens. The d/FL ratio was found a significant parameter on failure modes, and the specimens having a d/FL ratio of 3.33 showed flexural cracks. In contrast, the specimens having a d/FL ratio of 1.25 exhibited inclined flexural-shear cracks, especially for 1% SF.