Evaluation of heat resisting behaviour of basalt fibre reinforced FG tiles

The earth's temperature gets raised to a higher level due to global warming, which creates a distressed environment for the people to survive. Geopolymer, which is intrinsically a thermal resistant building material that, can give a better solution to make a comfort zone than Ordinary Portland Cement. Geopolymer along with insulative fibre and admixture makes it more suitable for thermal application. This paper presents in detail about the results of an experimental investigation that are carried out to predict the heat resisting behaviour of flyash-based geopolymer (FG) tiles intended for thermal applications in buildings. For this purpose, several tests such as steady state temperature, furnace heat resistance, open to sky, flame resistance, heat dissipation, thermal shock resistance, thermogravimetry analysis and thermal conductivity are carried out on geopolymer tiles. From the test results, it is found that geopolymer cube prepared with 0.5% basalt fibre to the mass of mix and 0.5% titanium dioxide to the mass of flyash gives higher compressive strength of 33.10 MPa with the dry density of 1961 kg/m3 and it shows a better thermal effect with the temperature drop of 8.4 °C. This enhancement is mainly due to the strong oxidizing property of titanium dioxide and high temperature withstanding capability of basalt fibre after undergoing high temperature processes.