Experimental Study On The Synthesis And Characterization Of Aplite Rock-Based Geopolymers

This paper presents a new method for geopolymer synthesis of ground aplite rock. The resulting geopolymers were easy to manufacture and exhibited promising mechanical properties. Compressive strength testing, X-ray diffraction, and scanning electron microscope analyzes were performed. The results indicated that in manufacturing, the aplite-based geopolymers, potassium-containing systems gave noticeable improvements in comparison with sodium-containing systems. Rheological behavior of the geopolymeric slurry showed non-Newtonian behavior. The Bingham and Herschel-Bulkley models were selected to simulate the viscosities of the slurries. The Bingham model fitted to the measured data with an average deviation of 1.65 (lbf/100 ft(2)) while the Herschel-Bulkley model showed large deviations from the experimental data.