Deformation behaviour of geopolymer mortars with alkali-reactive carbonate aggregate

For understanding the alkali-carbonate reactivity in geopolymer and the mechanism of traditional alkali-carbonate reaction (ACR), the deformation behavior of geopolymer mortar with pure dolomite (YT) and dolomitic limestone from Kingston, Canada (CK) was studied by curing at different conditions, i.e. room temperature with over 95% relative humidity (RH), 38°C RH>95% and 80°C1mol/L NaOH. Results show that, at the three curing conditions, YT only acts as a filler to slightly reduce the shrinkage of the mortar; The deformation behavior of geopolymer mortar with CK varies remarkably with the changes in the curing temperature and alkalinity, especially the mortars with CK expand slightly at different curing stages when cured at 38°C RH>95% and 80°C1mol/L NaOH; it suggests that the reaction mechanism of CK in geopolymer may be quite different with that in cement system, and the shrinkage of geopolymer might be compensated by selecting special carbonate aggregate and curing conditions.