A Comprehensive Review on the Effect of Fibers on Fresh and Engineering Properties of Geopolymer Concrete

Recently, the emergence of geopolymer concrete (GPC) as a sustainable and eco-friendly construction material has gained consideration as a substitute for conventional concrete. However, GPC shows brittle behavior just like ordinary concrete. To overcome the brittle behavior of the GPC, so far various researchers focused their research work on the development of fiber-reinforced geopolymer concrete (FRGPC) in order to enhance the weak parameters of GPC. The principal focus of this review paper is to summarize the outcome of different fibers, used for the production of FRGPC, in terms of workability, compressive strength, flexural strength, energy absorption, and toughness index. A wide range of data from past research publications has been collected regarding the effect of different fibers on the workability, compressive strength, flexural strength, energy absorption, and toughness of FRGPC, in order to conclude a typical range of fiber percentage incorporation in the GPC matrix. It was concluded that fiber incorporation up to 3% greatly improves the compressive and flexural strength, energy absorption, toughness index and has negative influence on the workability of FRGPC. Based on this review study and analysis, future researchers are encouraged to carry out research studies on fibers compatibility with different precursors.