The engineering properties of alkali activated materials (AAMs) mainly depend on the constituent materials and their mixture proportions. Despite many studies on the characterization of AAMs, guidelines for mixture design of AAMs and their applications in engineering practice are not available. Extensive experimental studies are still necessary for the investigation of the role of different constituents on the properties of AAMs. This paper focuses on the development of alkali-activated fly ash (FA) and ground granulated blast furnace slag (GBFS) paste mixtures in order to determine their suitability for making concretes. In particular, the influence of the GBFS/FA ratio and liquid-to-binder (l/b) ratio on the slump, setting, strength, and autogenous shrinkage of the alkali activated pastes is studied.It is shown that fresh properties largely depend on the type of precursor (GBFS or FA). The slump and setting time of GBFS-rich pastes was significantly reduced. These pastes also have higher compressive strength than FA-rich pastes. The study identifies important practical challenges for application of the studied mixtures, such as the behavior of their flexural strength and high amplitudes of autogenous shrinkage of GBFS-rich mixtures. Finally, the optimum GBFS/FA ratio for their future use in concretes is recommended.

The goal of this study is to investigate the effects of different grades of calcined clay on the extrudability and early-age strength development under ambient conditions. Four mix designs were proposed. Three of them contained high, medium, and low grades of calcined clay, respectively, and one was the reference without calcined clay. In terms of extrudability, an extrusion test method based on the ram extruder was introduced to observe the quality of extruded material filaments, and to determine the extrusion pressure of tested materials at different ages. For evaluating the very early-age strength development, the penetration resistance test, the green strength test, and the ultrasonic pulse velocity test were applied. Furthermore, the mechanical properties of the developed mix designs were determined by the compressive strength test at 1, 7 and 28 days. Finally, the main finding of this study was that increasing the metakaolin content in calcined clay could significantly increase the extrusion pressures and green strength, shorten the initial setting time and enhance the compressive strength at 1, 7, and 28 days.