Sustainable use of silica fume in green cement concrete production: a review

Materials, like geopolymer concrete, zero-waste, and circular economy paradigm, can be used to safeguard finite natural resources, lower CO₂ emissions, and manage climate change. It completely replaces Portland cement with waste industrial products such as slag, metakaolin, silica fume, coal ash, and fly ash which is available; it can also be much stronger and perform better than traditional concrete. This study is about silica fume (SF) which is used in geopolymer concrete, silica fume an extremely pozzolanic substance, a ferrosilicon industry by-product is used to enhance the mechanical and endurance characteristics of concrete. It could be combined with silica dust and Portland cement or put directly as an element to concrete. This article discusses silica fume’s physical and chemical properties as well as the nature of its reaction. The outcomes demonstrated a significant improvement in the mechanical qualities of concrete when SF was used in its place. The assessment also provided a quick estimate of the proportion of SF replacement for both regular and high-strength concretes. In it, silica fume’s impact on concrete’s workability, flexural tensile strength, divided tensile strength, compressive strength, water absorption or porosity, modulus of elasticity, shrinkage, density or creep, and microstructure analysis is discussed.