Taguchi-grey Relational Analysis for Optimizing the Compressive Strength and Porosity of Metakaolin-based Geopolymer

Geopolymer is a promising eco-friendly material that can be produced with a variety of physical and mechanical properties through alerting the processing parameters. Obtaining Geopolymer with high compressive strength and high porosity may make this material a preferred candidate for many thermal and physicochemical applications. This research aims to identify the set of the processing parameters that yield such as these Geopolymer materials. Taguchi method combined with Grey relational analysis has been used to solve this multi-response trouble. The analysis and the experimental results showed that it is possible to achieve this aim by using a low amount of hydrogen peroxide as a foaming agent, a low amount of yeast as a catalyst, and a low amount of vegetable oil as a stabilizer. Furthermore, the polymerization time elapses before adding the foaming agent is found to be an important processing parameter. Also, the experimental results showed that high porosity and adequate compressive strength can be obtained at the same geopolymer body by choosing the suitable values of the processing parameters. Moreover, it has been found that the use of yeast as the catalyst and the polymerization time is important processing parameters. Also, it has been noticed that the amount of the vegetable oil, which is used as a stabilizer, should be kept in low values to obtain the optimal compressive strength and porosity