The most common building material used globally is cement. Cement production is influenced by a nation’s level of industrialization and modernization (Stafford et al., 2016). However, it generates a significant amount of carbon dioxide, almost 8% of the world’s total, production, and for manufacturing purposes, it uses a lot of resources, including raw materials and energy (Anjos et al., 2020). As a result, academics are interested in long-term research on the cement industry to utilize various agricultures wastes and create cement-based sustainable materials (Talero et al., 2007; Rubenstein, 2012; Saleh et al., 2020) without compromising cement’s durability, cost, or mechanical strength. It is possible to cut carbon dioxide emissions by up to 40%–50% (Cordeiro and Kurtis, 2017; Martirena and Monzó, 2018). Various common supplemental cementitious materials, such as blast furnace slag, fly ash, metakaolin, and natural pozzolans, have been used to lower the clinker-to-cement ratio (Bahurudeen et al., 2015; Cordeiro et al., 2018; Rajasekar et al., 2018). Recent research has looked at pozzolanic geomaterials, such as industrial and agricultural wastes (Cordeiro et al., 2011; Cordeiro et al., 2016; Andreão et al., 2019).

Cementitious compounds can be improved by using blast furnace slag and pozzolanic materials to combine their distinct physical and chemical properties (Khan et al., 2021). A secondary surface for hydrate precipitation and nucleation is provided by blast furnace slag (Bentz et al., 2017); however, the dilution effect (Rodríguez de Sensale and Rodríguez Viacava, 2018) can reduce the mechanical strength of this material, making it operate like a quasi-inert material at a high concentration (Bahurudeen and Santhanam, 2015). For the cement industry, the mixture of blast furnace slag and pozzolan is a desirable alternative. Since pozzolan can improve mechanical performance at advanced ages (Cordeiro et al., 2018).

Bagasse is the fibrous byproduct that remains after the sugarcane juice has been extracted (Deepika et al., 2017). Sugarcane businesses produce sugarcane bagasse ash (SA) as a byproduct of the auto-combustion procedure in cogeneration boilers (Rao et al., 2021) as shown in Figure 1. Bagasse was first primarily utilized in the manufacture of paper (Kuruba et al., 2020). Due to its sufficient calorific content, bagasse is used as a fuel feedstock in the cogeneration boilers of the sugar industry to produce electricity (Bartošek, 2014). Nearly all of the sugar facilities in India and other nations that produce sugar have quickly built cogeneration systems due to the significant money generation connected to this process (Bartošek, 2014). Bagasse is a suitable feedstock for cogeneration boilers; however, disposing of the leftover ash causes serious environmental issues (Rodrigues, 2011). The discharge of bagasse ash causes serious contamination to nearby water bodies and land because of the light unburned fibre debris that is present and excessive black color (Andreão et al., 2020). A significant proportion of this agro-waste is being dumped in nearby regions more and more, which has a negative impact on the ecosystem and lacks disposal land (Bahurudeen et al., 2015). The main components of raw SA are coarse/fine fibrous unburned particles and fine burnt particles (Bahurudeen and Santhanam, 2015). This ash is irregularly shaped and primarily amorphous silica-rich after suitable processing to remove unburned components, with lesser amounts of aluminum, alkali, iron, and magnesium (Setayesh Gar et al., 2017). The analysis of the literature reveals that processed SA may be viewed as a supplementary cementitious material (SCM), and it is generally acknowledged that the fineness of SA enhances its pozzolanic properties (Le et al., 2018; Zareei et al., 2018).

Alkali-activated materials (AAMs) have seen an increase in use as a Portland cement substitute in recent decades due to their advantages as a greener method. In-depth analyses of AAMs’ effectiveness when it comes to mechanical strength, microstructure and durability have revealed results on par with or even better than those of ordinary Portland cement (OPC) (van Deventer et al., 2014). Alkaline activators and decent starting materials are used to create inorganic binders at the proper temperature. As activated solutions in the binder material, potassium/sodium hydroxides and/or sodium/potassium silicates are often favored (Duxson et al., 2006). Slag, fly ash, and coal bottom ash are examples of industrial by-products that include aluminosilicate and are widely utilized as precursors (Mugahed et al., 2022). Alkali hydroxide and/or alkali silicate solutions react chemically with solid aluminosilicate particles in the mixtures to generate binding gels. Two reaction products that differ from Portland cement in terms of their level of hydration are produced in AAMs, depending on the chemical components present in the starting materials. The reaction result may be N-A-S-H gels for low-calcium precursors such as fly ash (or similar ashes), and C-A-S-H gels for high-calcium precursors such as GBFS (Rakhimova and Rakhimov, 2014). Two important factors that significantly affect the compressive strength of a binder are the SiO2/Na2O molar ratio (also known as the silicate modulus, or Ms) and the Na2O molar concentration of the liquid. Based on the results of the experiments (Zhang et al., 2022a), the fresh mixtures can be classified as Bingham fluids, and the addition of the right amount of nano-SiO2 (NS) and water-reducing admixture can improve the mixtures’ rheology and flowability. However, adding too much PVA fiber and NS has an negative effect on the mixtures’ workability. According to reports, increasing the sodium oxide dose or the silicate modulus of the activator has led to better strength by improving raw material dissolution. Alkali-activated materials can be heat cured to increase their early strength and possibly reduce their shrinkage (Thomas et al., 2017). However, specimens with restricted fractures that were healed in water at room temperature showed a decrease of mechanical strength (Kirschner and Harmuth, 2004).

Furthermore, tiny particulates that might cause serious air pollution are present in the areas of sugar facilities. The majority of sugar factories are situated in villages, and SA (remaining sugarcane bagasse ash) from the factories is immediately deposited onto the arable land in these communities (Deepika et al., 2017). It is essential to discover another application for bagasse ash other than disposal. Bagasse ash has been suggested as a suitable ingredient for blended cement manufacture in earlier studies (Ganesan et al., 2007). Ashes with reactive silica are produced by the cogeneration boiler’s carefully regulated combustion process (Cetin et al., 2004). According to research using differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), enhanced production of calcium-silicate-hydrate (C-S-H) gel occurred when SA is present (Singh et al., 2000). However, the use of unprocessed SBS as a cementitious material is hindered by the greater loss on ignition (LOI) value of around 20 percent and the lower specific gravity of about 1.9. Therefore, the majority of researchers agree that treating SA is preferred over increasing its pozzolanicity (Cordeiro et al., 2009).

In comparing SBS-blended concrete to regular Portland cement (OPC) concrete, it has demonstrated increased strength, decreased permeability, and low heat of hydration (Ganesan et al., 2007; Bahurudeen et al., 2015). Due to a lack of proper knowledge of the material and scalable methodologies, the manufacturing of building materials using bagasse ash has been prohibited (Mangi et al., 2020). Most past research studies have concentrated on using bagasse ash in concrete, and on the basis of thorough experimental plans, acceptable processing technology for blended cement manufacture has been recommended (Frías et al., 2011). Numerous studies have been conducted to determine the potential utility of SA in the major nations that produce sugar, including Brazil, India, and Thailand (Chusilp et al., 2009; Wen et al., 2022). The appropriate performance assessment and processing of bagasse ash for different building materials, such as alkali-activated concrete, paver blocks, and unburned bricks, were not sufficiently studied in previous research investigations. To gain a scientific understanding and make the most use of SA, performance evaluation in various applications is also required in addition to material characterization.

Sustainable concrete is popular as a building material because of its higher flexural and compressive strengths and lower cost. Due to its limited elasticity and resistance to fracture, it is naturally vulnerable. Metal or non-metal fibers have been put into concrete to address these issues. Fiber-reinforced concrete cracks cannot form or spread if the fibers are distributed randomly. Because of this, concrete is now far more robust and malleable (Wen et al., 2022). Structures prone to earthquakes, tunnel linings, and explosions have all made use of this material (Khawaja et al., 2021). Fibers are made of polyvinyl alcohol (PVA), polypropylene (PP), hooked-end steel fiber (HKs), crimped steel fiber (CRs), and others (Najm et al., 2022a). Metallic fibers (HKs and CRs) are the bestbecause of their strong compressive, tensile, twisting, and bridging strengths. PVA-reinforced concrete offers higher pull-out loads and flexural strength than concrete reinforced with metallic fibers. The inclusion of fiber also highly contributes to enhancing the fracture (Xu et al., 2018) and fire resistance (Yashwanth et al., 2017) and seismic load (Channa et al., 2022). According to the findings (Zhang et al., 2022b), the geopolymer mortar had considerable mass loss when exposed to temperatures between 25°C and 250°C, however, only a little amount of mass loss was observed between 250°C and 700°C and none at all between 700°C and 800°C. Under wet-thermal and chloride salt conditions, fiber-reinforced cementitious composites’ fracture characteristics were enhanced by polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) and nano-SiO2 (NS). PVA fibre and NS enhanced the porosity, microcracks, and interfacial transition zone of fiber-reinforced cementitious composites at the microscopic level. The fracture characteristics considerably improved at 1.2% and 0.5%, respectively, of PVA fibre and NS contents (Zhang et al., 2022c) When the structure of PVA and fiber-reinforced cementitious composite samples heated to 600°C and 800°C became loose and more microcracks formed, it was determined that the macro-mechanical properties had reduced (Zhang et al., 2022d).

According to the literature review, there have been various initiatives to use waste materials for sustainable development, such as coal ash, bottom ash, and stone dust in cement (Ram Rathan Lal and Badwaik, 2016; Ram Rathan Lal and Nawkhare, 2016). Very few works carried out with sugar cane bagasse ash in this direction. Consequently, the main goal of this work was to evaluate the effects of various quantities of geomaterial composites with glass fibres on the mechanical properties and classify them into geomaterials per the design standards for usability. Therefore, a detailed investigation into the compressive, flexural, density, tangent modulus, stress–strain pattern, and load–deflection curve of newly prepared materials was conducted. This in-depth analysis of sugar cane bagasse ash and blast furnace slag was done with the goal of finding the ideal ratio in terms of mechanical qualities and cost, reducing environmental stress, and pursuing sustainable growth. In the numerous studies in the literature, experimental works have been used to predict the behavior of sugar cane bagasse ash (Channa et al., 2022). However, there has been no experimental work to evaluate the effect of using sugar cane bagasse ash (SA) and blast furnace slag (BF) reinforced by glass fiber (GF) on the mechanical properties of mortar, which is crucial to calibrate under different loadings (compressive and flexural) and can be used as an indication for future studies based on sugar cane bagasse ash. In addition, several scholars used different variants of concrete in their numerical and experimental research works performed under quasi-static, static, and extreme loading conditions (Khan and El Rimawi, Forthcoming; Khan and Ali, 2016; Khan et al., 2017a; Khan et al., 2017b; Khan et al., 2017c; Khan et al., 2018; Khan and Ali, 2019; Ahmed et al., 2021; Anas et al., 2021; Anas et al., 2022a; Ahmed et al., 2022; Anas et al., 2022b; Khan et al., 2022; Mansouri et al., 2022; Qaidi et al., 2022; Anas et al., 2023; Iman et al., 2023).

The performance of sugar cane bagasse ash reinforced with glass fiber (GF) in comparison to blast furnace slag (BF) and cement is examined in the current study. The compressive and flexural strength, density, tangent modulus, stress–strain pattern, and load–deflection curve of concrete are evaluated.

The failure pattern, stress and strain pattern, density, initial tangent modulus, compressive strength, flexural strength, and load–deflection curve pattern of the cube and beam specimens were evaluated, and the results obtained are discussed.

Since a lower percentage of C/SA results in a specimen that does not retain its shape even after the curing period, and this value was used as 10% while making specimens for the compressive and flexural tests. Because of this restriction, no samples with cement contents less than 10% could be cast and analyzed. Further utilization of larger specimens is impossible because of the loading frame and testing instrument with the maximum size. Based on future research, the shear strength of a material can be determined under various compression and flexure loading conditions.

Additionally, the inclusion of nano-material admixtures (Khan et al., 2021) may further me used to enhance the properties and how the application of external strengthening (Khan, 2021a; Khan, 2021b; Khan, 2022) will affect failure modes may also be studied.

Sustainable concrete is popular as a building material because of its higher flexural and compressive strengths and lower cost. Due to its limited elasticity and resistance to fracture, it is naturally vulnerable. Metal and non-metal fibers have been put into concrete to address these issues. However, This study’s primary goal was to evaluate the performance of various quantities of glass-fiber-reinforced geomaterial composites on the mechanical properties and classify them into geomaterials per the design standards for usability. Therefore, a detailed investigation into the compressive strength, flexural strength, density, tangent modulus, stress–strain pattern, and load–deflection curve of newly prepared materials were analyzed. The intention of such a detailed examination of sugar cane bagasse ash and blast furnace slag was to obtain the optimum contents in terms of mechanical properties to reduce environmental stress, and to approach sustainable development. So, in order to comprehend the behaviour of geomaterials created utilizing bagasse ash, an experimental investigation was carried out. From the observations, the findings are as follows.

− The density of the cube specimens decreased with increases in the mix ratios with values ranging from 0.2% to 1.0%. For the compression specimens with 20% cement and a water-to-SA ratio of 55%, the density decreased from 1320.1 to 1265 kg/m³ (about 4.35%).

The obtained compressive strength in this research is more than 50 kPa as reported by Matsuda et al. (2008) (Matsuda et al., 2008), would resist liquefaction during an earthquake. Therefore, the newly developed SA reinforced glass fiber material satisfy the criteria and it can be used as fill materials which can solve the problem of environmental pollution with an eye on sustainable development. The materials prepared in this study are under the lightweight category of materials. Therefore, given the observations and the recommendations of the design standards, the geomaterial composite prepared in this study is suitable as a lightweight geomaterial.