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This study investigates the effectiveness of metakaolin (MK) in mitigating the autogenous shrinkage of alkali-activated slag (AAS). It is found that the autogenous shrinkage of AAS paste can be reduced by 40% and 50% when replacing 10% and 20% slag with MK, respectively. By providing additional Si and Al, and decreasing the pH of the pore solution, the incorporation of MK retards the formation of aluminium-modified calcium silicate hydrate gels, the main reaction products in the studied pastes. The chemical shrinkage and pore refinement are consequently mitigated, resulting in a substantial reduction in the pore pressure. Meanwhile, the elastic modulus of AAS paste is only slightly influenced after MK addition. As a result, the autogenous shrinkage of AAS is significantly mitigated by incorporating MK. In addition, the introduction of MK would extend the setting time, slightly decrease the compressive strength, but greatly increase the flexural strength of AAS.

The pore solutions of a series of hardened alkali-activated slag/fly ash pastes were extracted by the steel-die method, and analyzed using ICP-OES analysis technique. According to the saturation index from thermodynamic calculations, the pore solutions of alkali-activated slag pastes kept oversaturated with respect to solid reaction products with time. In the pore solutions of alkali-activated fly ash pastes, an increase of temperature (from 40 °C to 60 °C) led to decreases of the concentrations of Si, Al, Ca, Na, OH -, K, Fe and Mg, while the soluble silicate in the alkaline activator resulted in increases of the concentrations of these elements. Compared to the alkali-activated slag paste with the same alkaline activator, 50% replacement of slag by fly ash did not result in a substantial change of the pore solution composition. Based on the experimental results, conceptual models were proposed to describe the elemental concentrations in the pore solutions.

The engineering properties of alkali activated materials (AAMs) mainly depend on the constituent materials and their mixture proportions. Despite many studies on the characterization of AAMs, guidelines for mixture design of AAMs and their applications in engineering practice are not available. Extensive experimental studies are still necessary for the investigation of the role of different constituents on the properties of AAMs. This paper focuses on the development of alkali-activated fly ash (FA) and ground granulated blast furnace slag (GBFS) paste mixtures in order to determine their suitability for making concretes. In particular, the influence of the GBFS/FA ratio and liquid-to-binder (l/b) ratio on the slump, setting, strength, and autogenous shrinkage of the alkali activated pastes is studied.It is shown that fresh properties largely depend on the type of precursor (GBFS or FA). The slump and setting time of GBFS-rich pastes was significantly reduced. These pastes also have higher compressive strength than FA-rich pastes. The study identifies important practical challenges for application of the studied mixtures, such as the behavior of their flexural strength and high amplitudes of autogenous shrinkage of GBFS-rich mixtures. Finally, the optimum GBFS/FA ratio for their future use in concretes is recommended.