The Effects of Additives to Lightweight Aggregate on the Mechanical Properties of Structural Lightweight Aggregate Concrete

Abstract

Abstract In the paper, the effects of different percentages of additives (perlite, LECA, pumice) on the mechanical properties of structural lightweight aggregate concrete were tested and evaluated. For the research, 14 mixing designs with different amounts of aggregate, water, and cement were made. Experimental results showed that the specific gravity of lightweight structural concrete made from a mixture of LECA, pumice, and perlite aggregates could be 25-30% lighter than conventional concrete. Lightweight structural concrete with a standard specific gravity can be achieved by using a combination of light LECA with perlite lightweight aggregates (LA) and pumice with perlite in concrete. The results indicated that LECA lightweight aggregates show more effective behavior in the concrete sample. Also, the amount of cement had a direct effect on increasing the strength regardless of the composition of LAs. The amount of cement causes compressive strength to increase. Furthermore, the stability of different experimental models increased from 156 to 345 kg m 3 while increasing the amount of cement from 300 to 400 kg m 3 in the mixing designs of LECA and perlite for W/C ratios of 0.3, 0.35, and 0.4. For a fixed amount of cement equal to 300 kg, the compressive strength is reduced by 4% by changing the water to cement ratio from 0.5 to 0.4. The compression ratios of strength for 7 to 28 days obtained in this study for lightweight concrete were between 0.67-0.8. Based on the rate of tensile strength to compressive strength of ordinary concretes, which is approximately 10, this ratio is about 13.5 to-17.8 in selected and optimal lightweight concretes in this research, which can be considered good indirect tensile strength for structural lightweight concretes.