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Article history:
Received 4 April 2010
Received in revised form 19 July 2010
Accepted 28 July 2010
Available online 21 August 2010
Keywords:
Lightweight concrete
Mineral admixtures
Stress
Strain
a b s t r a c t
This research investigates the properties of fresh and hardened concretes containing locally available natural lightweight aggregates, and mineral admixtures. Test results indicated that replacing cement in the
structural lightweight concrete developed, with 515% silica fume on weight basis, caused up to 57% and
14% increase in compressive strength and modulus of elasticity, respectively, compared to mixes without
silica fume. But, adding up to 10% y ash, as partial cement replacement by weight, to the same mixes,
caused about 18% decrease in compressive strength, with no change in modulus of elasticity, compared to
mixes without y ash. Adding 10% or more of silica fume, and 5% or more y ash to lightweight concrete
mixes perform better, in terms of strength and stiffness, compared to individual mixes prepared using
same contents of either silica fume or y ash.
2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
1. Introduction
Lightweight concrete (LWC) has been used for structural purposes for many years. The density of LWC typically ranges from
1400 to 2000 kg/m3 compared with that of 2400 kg/m3 for normal
weight concrete (NWC). Some of the techniques used for producing
LWC include using natural lightweight aggregates such as pumice,
diatomite, and volcanic cinders, or articial by-products such as
perlite, expanded shale, clay, slate, and sintered pulverized fuel
ash (PFA). Lightweight concrete has established itself as a suitable
construction material whenever the conditions require strict savings in the dead-loads in structures and energy conservations
and whenever there is an abundance of local lightweight aggregates [15]. The demand for lightweight concrete in many applications of modern construction is increasing, owing to the advantage
that lower density results in a signicant benet in terms of loadbearing elements of smaller cross sections and a corresponding
reduction in the size of the foundation. However, despite the efforts to improve the strength/weight ratio and versatility of structural lightweight concrete (SLWC), more research is needed for
exploring the potential application of this important building
material in structural design [612].
Lightweight aggregate (LWA), can be used for making masonry
blocks, wall panels, precast concrete elements, structural in situ
concrete, screeding and cladding. Its presence in concrete reduces
the dead weight of structure. The cellular structure of the aggregate gives thermal insulation properties. One of the main problems
2. Experimental program
The experimental program focused on investigating the properties of fresh and
hardened concretes containing locally available natural lightweight aggregates, and
mineral admixtures. A total of ninety-nine 100 mm cubes, and sixty-six
100 200 mm cylinders were cast to measure the density, compressive and splitting tensile strengths, and stressstrain diagram in compression.
2.1. Materials
The materials used in this investigation include lightweight aggregates (LWA),
cement, silica sand, and admixtures. The LWAs were volcanic tuffs of scoria origin
available in the outskirts of Al-Madina, Saudi Arabia. Fig. 1 shows enlarged photos
for the natural LWA used in this investigation. The physical properties of the aggre-
659
gates were determined following ACI and ASTM standards [1,13], as shown in Table
1a. A brief summary of the properties of other materials used, is presented in Table
1b.
Table 1a
Physical properties of lightweight aggregates used.
LWCA (Madina)
LWFA (Madina)
Density (kg/m3)
Loose
Rodded
965
1071
996
1040
Density (gm/cm3)
Dry
SSD
2.04
2.1
2.10
2.15
LWCA
LWFA
Time
10 min
30 min
1h
2h
4h
24 h
3.2
3.7
4.2
4.7
5.1
6.9
2.8
3.5
3.9
4.3
5.6
6.3
4.5 MPa
Table 3
Slump and density of LWC determined in this investigation.
Table 1b
Physical properties of cement, sand, and admixtures used.
Type of material
The concrete mixes were prepared using a tilting drum mixer of 0.05 m3 capacity. The interior of the drum was initially washed with water to prevent water
absorption. The coarse and medium aggregate fractions were mixed rst, followed
by adding the amount of water absorbed by the aggregates and allowed to rest for
30 min to minimize the variation in the initial slump caused by the high water
absorption of lightweight aggregates; then silica sand was added, followed by adding cement, y ash, silica fume, and the water containing about 75% of the superplasticizer. One-fourth of the superplasticizer was always retained to be added
during the last 3 min of mixing period. The concrete mixes were poured in cubic
and cylindrical molds, and compacted using a vibration table at low speed. After
each mold was properly lled the vibration speed was increased to medium speed
to ensure sufcient compaction.
Density
(gm/
cm3)
3.15
300
2.2
2.3
1.21
2000
500
2.6
Mix no.
Slump (mm)
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
160
150
90
110
130
180
180
155
150
160
160
Density (kg/m3)
Fresh
Air dry
Oven dry
2050
2040
2025
2032
2066
2050
2053
2060
2039
2032
2030
1950
1971
1946
1995
1968
1958
1947
1970
1947
1954
1935
1847
1852
1854
1878
1898
1896
1854
1834
1851
1820
1817
Table 2
Concrete mix proportions in kg/m3 using natural lightweight aggregates from Madina region.
Mix no.
Cement
Fly ash
Silica fume
Silica sand
LWCA
LWFA
Water
Superplasticizer (L)
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
400
380
360
340
380
360
360
340
340
320
320
0
0
0
0
20
40
20
40
20
40
20
0
20
40
60
0
0
20
20
40
40
60
200
199.3
198.6
200
199.2
198.7
198.6
198
197.9
197.3
199.2
550
548
546
550
548.2
546.6
546.3
544.6
544.3
542.6
548.2
350
348.7
347.4
350
348.9
347.8
347.6
346.5
346.4
345.3
348.9
250
249.1
248.2
250
249.2
248.4
248.3
247.5
247.4
246.6
249.2
1
3
3
4
2
1.5
3
2
4
4
3
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3.1. Workability
The workability of the concrete mixes cast in this investigation
was measured using the slump test. The slump test results listed in
Table 3 indicate that most of the LWC mixes showed a slump values ranging from 90 mm to 180 mm immediately after mixing. The
larger slump for LWC is desirable in order to account for the gradual loss in workability, caused by the high water absorption of the
aggregates, which may occur 12 h after mixing, i.e. at the beginning of pouring the concrete in the formwork. To be within the
scope of this investigation, the workability of all the LWC mixes
cast, was kept almost the same by changing the dosage of superplasticizer whenever needed, in particular for the mixes containing
relatively high percentages of silica fume and y ash.
3.2. Density
In this investigation, the densities of all the LWC mixes cast,
including fresh, air dry and oven dry were determined and presented in Table 3. The fresh densities shown in Table 3 indicated
that most of the LWC mixes made, showed a density varying from
2025 kg/m3 to 2066 kg/m3. Since the aggregates in the fresh state
were completely saturated with water, therefore the fresh densities were considerably higher than the corresponding air dry and
oven dry densities as shown in Table 3. Most of the specication
standards classify structural lightweight concrete based on air
dry density not exceeding 2000 kg/m3 [2]. The air dry density
shown in the table varied from 1935 to 1995 kg/m3. It can be noticed that the range of air dry density complies with the European
specications for structural LWC of air dry density not exceeding
2000 kg/m3, but does not meet ACI requirements of air dry density
not exceeding 1850 kg/m3. It should be noted that the air dry densities can be reduced to meet ACI requirements by making some
adjustments on the composition of the mixes without sacricing
the structural strength required at 28 days. It can be observed from
Table 3 that the oven dry unit weights of the LWC mixes developed
varied from 1817 to 1898 kg/m3.
3.3. Compressive strength
The test results listed in Table 4, indicate that producing structural lightweight concrete, SLWC, using locally available natural
Table 4
Compressive strength, splitting tensile strength, and modulus of elasticity, of LWC
mixes at 28 days.
Mix
no.
Compressive
strength (MPa)
Splitting tensile
strength (MPa)
Modulus of
elasticity (MPa)
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
29.3
28.8
38.0
43.2
27.7
22.5
32.2
32.4
39.0
33.7
36.7
2.75
3.15
3.47
3.18
2.68
2.76
2.91
2.39
3.44
2.86
2.64
19,788
19,343
20,413
22,477
20,795
19,751
18,696
17,457
20,213
18,694
18,587
Fig. 2. Test setup and instrumentation of the specimen used for determining the
complete stressstrain diagram.
5% Silica Fume
10% Silica Fume
15% Silica Fume
0% Silica Fume
45
661
40
35
30
25
20
15
10
5
0
0
2000
4000
6000
8000
10000
Fig. 6. Effect of silica fume, and y ash on the compressive behavior of LWC.
Fig. 5. Effect of silica fume, and y ash on the compressive behavior of LWC.
forced longitudinal pieces of the cylinder to split apart. Typical failure modes of some of the LWC specimens tested are shown in
Fig. 7.
Fig. 3 illustrates that by adding up to 15% of silica fume, to the
mixes containing LWA, caused a signicant increase of 57% and
Fig. 7. Typical failure modes of LWC cylinders tested under axial compression.
662
4. Conclusions
Based on the test results of this investigation, the following conclusions can be drawn:
1. Lightweight concrete (LWC) mixes suitable for structural applications were developed using locally available natural lightweight coarse and ne aggregates. The mixes developed had a
compressive strength range of 22.543 MPa; an air dry density
of 19351995 kg/m3; and a high degree of workability.
2. The stressstrain diagrams plotted for the structural LWC mixes
developed were comparable to typical stressstrain diagrams
for normal weight concrete with relatively larger strain capacity
at failure in case of LWC.
3. Replacing cement with 515% silica fume on weight basis for
LWC, caused up to 57% and 14% increase in compressive
strength and modulus of elasticity respectively compared to
mixes without silica fume. But, adding up to 10% y ash, as partial cement replacement by weight, to the same mixes, caused
about 18% decrease in compressive strength, with no change
in modulus of elasticity, compared to mixes without y ash.
Adding 10% or more of silica fume, and 5% or more y ash
caused a considerable increase in compressive strength and
modulus of elasticity compared to individual mixes containing
same contents of either silica fume or y ash.
Acknowledgements
The author wishes to acknowledge the nancial support provided by the Research Center at the College of Engineering of King
Saud University. He is also grateful to the engineers and the technicians at the research center, and concrete and structural labora-