This paper reports on the potential use of geopolymer in the drilling process, with respect to tool wear and surface roughness. The objectives of this research are to analyze the tool life of three different economy-grade drill bit uncoated; high-speed steel (HSS), HSS coated with TiN (HSS-TiN), and HSS-cobalt (HSS-Co) in the drilling of geopolymer and to investigate the effect of spindle speed towards the tool life and surface roughness. It was found that, based on the range of parameters set in this experiment, the spindle speed is directly proportional to the tool wear and inversely proportional to surface roughness. It was also observed that HSS-Co produced the lowest value of surface roughness compared to HSS-TiN and uncoated HSS and therefore is the most favorable tool to be used for drilling the material. For HSS, HSS coated with TiN, and HSS-Co, only the drilling with the spindle speed of 100 rpm was able to drill 15 holes without surpassing the maximum tool wear of 0.10 mm. HSS-Co exhibits the greatest tool life by showing the lowest value of flank wear and produce a better surface finish to the sample by a low value of surface roughness value (Ra). This finding explains that geopolymer is possible to be drilled, and therefore, ranges of cutting tools and parameters suggested can be a guideline for researchers and manufacturers to drill geopolymer for further applications.
This paper aims to find out the effect of different weight percentages of geopolymer filler in glass-reinforced epoxy pipe, and which can achieve the best mechanical properties and adhesion between high calcium pozzolanic-based geopolymer matrices. Different weight percentages and molarities of epoxy hardener resin and high calcium pozzolanic-based geopolymer were injected into the glass fiber. By manually winding filaments, composite samples were produced, and they were then allowed to cure at room temperature. To determine how well the geopolymer matrices adhere to the fiber reinforcement, the microstructure of the composites' surfaces and perpendicular sections were examined. Maximum values of compressive strength and compressive modulus were 94.64 MPa and 2373.58 MPa, respectively, for the sample with a weight percentage of filler loading of 30 wt% for an alkali concentration of 12 M. This is a relatively wide range of geopolymer weight percentage of filler loading from 10 wt% to 40 wt%, at which we can obtain high compressive properties. By referring to microstructural analysis, adhesion, and interaction of the geopolymer matrix to glass fiber, it shows that the filler is well-dispersed and embedded at the fiber glass, and it was difficult to determine the differences within the range of optimal geopolymer filler content. By determining the optimum weight percent of 30 wt% of geopolymer filler and microstructural analysis, the maximum parameter has been achieved via analysis of high calcium pozzolanic-based geopolymer filler. Fire or elevated temperature represents one of the extreme ambient conditions that any structure may be exposed to during its service life. The heat resistance or thermal analysis between glass-reinforced epoxy (GRE) pipe and glass-reinforced epoxy pipe filled with high calcium pozzolanic-based geopolymer filler was studied by investigating burning tests on the samples, which shows that the addition of high calcium pozzolanic-based geopolymer filler results in a significant reduction of the melted epoxy.