Curing of novel Geopolymer brick using phase change material (paraffin wax) in passive solar dryer and comparison of proper-ties with conventional Geopolymer brick

Abstract

Conventionally, in Geopolymer bricks (GPBs), fly ash from power plants and ground granulated blast furnace slag (GGBS) are converted into bricks by chemical treatment. In this work, a novel GPB has been obtained by adding nano silica and rice husk ash along with conventional ingredients of GPB. In solar drying, paraffin wax is employed for accelerating the curing time by utilizing its latent heat stored in the form of phase change. It has been experimentally found that solar drying method with paraffin wax utilizes shorter curing time when compared to electrical oven curing and open sun drying. The properties of novel GPB are evaluated by mechanical testing and compared with conventional GPB. It has been experimentally observed that novel GPB exhibits higher mechanical properties when compared to conventional GPB. Also in this study, SEM images (2\(\mu\)m, 5 KX), (3\(\mu\)m, 4 KX), (10\(\mu\)m, 1 KX), (20\(\mu\)m, 500X), (100\(\mu\)m, 250X) and EDX analysis of novel GPB obtained from test results have been furnished. Smart quantitative results from EDX analysis show that O K has the highest weight percentage and atomic percentage.