The mixture proportions of mortar were designed taking the
final unit weight as 2200 kg/m3. The total binder content was constant
and constituted one third of the total mixture. Mixture 1 was
designed with fly ash alone as the binder and serves as the control
mixture. Ordinary Portland cement was added as 5%, 8%, 10% and
12% of total binder in the mixtures 2, 3, 4 and 5 respectively. All
of these mixtures were activated with a constant amount of the
alkaline activator as 40% of the total binder. Mixtures 6 and 7 were
designed with a constant percentage of OPC (5%) replacing fly ash
while varying alkaline activator content as 35% and 45% of total
binder respectively. The ratio of sodium silicate to sodium hydroxide
was constant as 2.5 in the mixtures 1 through 7. Mixtures 8 and
9 were designed with varying ratios of alkaline solutions as 2.0 and
1.5 respectively to compare with mixture 4, which has a ratio of
the alkaline solutions as 2.5. All of these mixtures (4, 8 and 9)
had 10% OPC and 40% activator solutions of the total binder. All
of the mixtures in this study were designed without adding any
extra water or superplasticiser