Porosity and Mechanical Strength of an Autoclaved Clayey Cellular Concrete

Abstract

This paper investigates the porosity and the mechanical strength of an Autoclaved Clayey Cellular Concrete (ACCC) with the binder produced with 75 wt% kaolinite clay and 25 wt% Portland cement. Aluminum powder was used as foaming agent, from 0.2 wt% to 0.8 wt%, producing specimens with different porosities. The results show that the specimens with higher content of aluminum presented pore coalescence, which can explain the lower porosity of these samples. The porosities obtained with the aluminum contents used in the study were high (approximately 80%), what accounts for the low mechanical strength of the investigated cellular concretes (maximum of 0.62 MPa). Nevertheless, comparing the results obtained in this study to the ones for low temperature clayey aerated concrete with similar compositions, it can be observed that autoclaving is effective for increasing the material mechanical strength.