Akademik Veri Yönetim Sistemi
Sustainable Chemistry and Pharmacy, cilt.49, sa.102318, ss.1-27, 2026 (SCI-Expanded)
Ground granulated blast furnace slag (GBFS)-based alkali-activated binders offer a low-carbon alternative to Portland cement by eliminating clinker-related CO2 emissions. Although these systems provide high compressive strength, their flexural capacity is limited, and additional degradation may occur under elevated temperatures. Incorporating natural basalt fibers (BF) is therefore considered a promising strategy to improve both toughness and thermal stability. In this study, GBFS-based alkali-activated mortars containing 0.2–1 % BF were evaluated in terms of workability, ultrasonic pulse velocity, mechanical performance, residual behavior after exposure to 20–800 °C, and microstructural development. Flexural strength (FS) and compressive strength (CS) were also predicted as functions of curing duration and temperature using multiple linear regression (MLR) and machine learning (ML) models. BF incorporation reduced workability by up to 19.4 %, while moderate fiber dosages (around 0.6 %) led to a maximum flexural strength enhancement of approximately 25 % compared to the control. At 1 % BF, CS decreased by about 21 %, and all mixtures exhibited approximately 12 % mass loss at 800 °C. The BF0.4 mixture maintained nearly 20 % higher CS and about fourfold higher FS than the control after heating. ML models achieved high accuracy (R2 > 0.95) and identified an optimal BF content of around 0.5 %. FE-SEM observations confirmed that low fiber dosages produced a denser matrix and that BF retained structural integrity up to 800 °C.