Experimental and FEA-based Performance Evaluation of Geopolymer Versus OPC Concrete

Md. Shaon Ahmed — 2025-10-06

The rising environmental concerns associated with ordinary Portland cement (OPC) have accelerated the development of sustainable binders such as geopolymer concrete (GPC), produced from industrial by-products like ground granulated blast furnace slag (GGBS). This study presents a combined experimental and numerical investigation of GPC, focusing on its mechanical and structural performance. Laboratory testing on cylindrical, cubic, and beam specimens provided compressive, tensile, and flexural strength data, which were processed in MATLAB to derive input parameters for nonlinear finite element analysis (FEA) in ABAQUS. The numerical model, developed using the concrete damaged plasticity (CDP) approach, incorporated experimentally validated stress–strain relationships. Results revealed that GPC outperformed OPC, exhibiting 14.6% higher compressive strength and 17.5% lower deflection, with von Mises stress and load-deflection analyses confirming enhanced load-bearing capacity and reduced crack propagation. The simulation outcomes closely matched experimental data, maintaining discrepancies within 10%. Overall, the integration of MATLAB and ABAQUS proved effective for predicting GPC performance, reinforcing its potential as a sustainable alternative to OPC in structural applications.

A Comparison between Cement and Crushed Concrete in Improving the Strength of Soft Soils: A Review

Sarah Yassin Khdear — 2025-09-18

Civil engineering projects, including buildings, bridges, retaining walls, etc., require soil with an adequate bearing capacity to support the heavy loads exerted by these structures within the allowable settlement limits. Practically, not all soils provide sufficient bearing capacity, and it is required to spend much time, effort, and cost to prepare such soils for different projects. Soft clayey soils are repeatedly encountered in civil engineering projects, and improving their capacity is essential. This improvement can be achieved by mixing some materials with soft soils to improve their behavior, like Portland cement, lime, fly ash, sand, etc. The high cost and the high depletion of natural resources associated with the manufacture of such mixing materials made it necessary to use some recycled materials instead. Moreover, the extraction of natural resources releases carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions and consequently causes pollution. Construction and demolition wastes form a large quantity of overall waste materials. Crushed concrete resulting from the demolition of old buildings or concrete barriers is widely available and can be used as recycled mixing material to enhance soil properties. This research reviews some research papers investigating the effects of recycled crushed concrete, as compared with Portland cement, on the compaction characteristics, compressive strength, and California-bearing-ratio (CBR) of soft soils.

International Journal of Building Information Modeling Applications in Construction

Experimental and FEA-based Performance Evaluation of Geopolymer Versus OPC Concrete

A Comparison between Cement and Crushed Concrete in Improving the Strength of Soft Soils: A Review