Prediction total specific pore volume of geopolymers produced from waste ashes by fuzzy logic

• Main Authors: Ali Nazari, Gholamreza Khalaj
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Associação Brasileira de Metalurgia e Materiais (ABM); Associação Brasileira de Cerâmica (ABC); Associação Brasileira de Polímeros (ABPol) 2012-04-01
• Series: Materials Research
• Subjects: geopolymer; total specific pore volume; fly ash; rice husk bark ash; fuzzy logic; FT-IR
• Online Access: http://www.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S1516-14392012000200013

In the present work, total specific pore volume of inorganic polymers (geopolymers) made from seeded fly ash and rice husk bark ash has been predicted by fuzzy logic. Different specimens, made from a mixture of fly ash and rice husk bark ash in fine and coarse form together with alkali activator made of water glass and NaOH solution, were subjected to porosimetry tests at 7 and 28 days of curing. The curing regime was different: one set of the specimens were cured at room temperature until reaching to 7 and 28 days and the other sets were oven cured for 36 hours at the range of 40-90 °C and then cured at room temperature until 7 and 28 days. A model based on fuzzy logic for predicting the total specific pore volume of the specimens has been presented. To build the model, training and testing using experimental results from 120 specimens were conducted. The used data as the inputs of fuzzy logic models are arranged in a format of six parameters that cover the percentage of fine fly ash in the ashes mixture, the percentage of coarse fly ash in the ashes mixture, the percentage of fine rice husk bark ash in the ashes mixture, the percentage of coarse rice husk bark ash in the ashes mixture, the temperature of curing and the time of water curing. According to the input parameters, in the fuzzy logic model, the pore volume of each specimen was predicted. The training and testing results in the fuzzy logic model have shown a strong potential for predicting the total specific pore volume of the geopolymer specimens in the considered range.