Aayojan School of Architecture, Jaipur

REPORT ON
AUTOCLAVED AERATED CONCRETE
3AR7 – Structure Lab

Submitted By: Abhinav Sharma (Back)

Submitted To: Prof. Radhe Sham Kumawat
 CONTENTS

➢ Introduction
➢ Assumptions
➢ Advantages
➢ Market
➢ Raw Materials, Sources & Availability
➢ Process of Making
 INTRODUCTION

o AAC (Autoclaved Aerated Concrete) was invented in the mid-1920s by the Swedish architect and

inventor Johan Axel Eriksson. AAC is one of the major achievements of the 20th century in

the field of construction. It is a lightweight, precast building material that simultaneously

provides structure, insulation, and fire and mold resistance. AAC Blocks is a unique and
excellent type of building materials due to its superb heat, fire and sound resistance. AAC
block is lightweight and offers ultimate workability, flexibility and durability.

o Main ingredients include fly ash, water, quicklime, cement, aluminum powder and gypsum. The
block hardness is being achieved by cement strength, and instant curing mechanism by
autoclaving. Gypsum acts as a long-term strength gainer. The chemical reaction due to the
aluminum paste provides AAC its distinct porous structure, lightness, and insulation
properties, completely different compared to other lightweight concrete materials. The
finished product is a 2.5 times lighter Block compared to conventional Bricks, while providing
the similar strengths. The specific gravity stays around 0.6 to 0.65. This is one single most USP
of the AAC blocks, because by using these blocks in structural buildings, the builder saves
around 30 to 35 % of structural steel, and concrete, as these blocks reduce the dead load on
the building significantly.

o AAC is a long-proven material. AAC block is used in a wide range of commercial, industrial and
residential application and has been in use in EUROPE over 90 years, the Middle East for the
past 40 years and in America and Australia for 25 years. It's an estimate that AAC now account
for over 40% of all construction in UK and more than 60% of construction in Germany. In India
production of AAC block started in 1972.

o This unit is proposed to manufacture AAC Blocks by consuming the Fly-Ash as one of the prime
raw material. Fly-Ash, a major raw material with 70% proportion in AAC Blocks, an
indispensable by-product of Thermal Power Plants, is an environmental threat across the
globe. Power plants are facing an ever-increasing challenge of disposal of this polluting agent.
 ASSUMPTIONS

o Fly ash is to be provided free of cost by power plants. Only transportation is to be arranged by
project. Average distance of 100 KM (price depend on state).

o Carbon Credit estimates is for reference purpose. The Project owner must handle his part of
CDM project to get Carbon credits, through independent consultants. Carbon credit can be
transacted on registration. The PCN preparation & presentation, the PDD preparation &
presentation, host country approval and the UNFCCC Registration might take somewhat 6
months to 2 year. So it may be wise to start early.

o Sale price at site is estimated at conservative Rs 3000/- per cubic meter. AAC Blocks of all sizes
will be manufactured according to the market requirement, though mainly stipulated sizes as
per the BIS standards. Production is estimated at 90% capacity.
 ADVANTAGES

• The advantages are as follows:

1. Consumes Fly ash, which is a big problem for thermal power plants to dispose. It is environment
friendly, because of no need of burning.

2. Higher strength, best thermal insulation & excellent sound absorption, vibration resistance
compared to red bricks. The AAC product’s lightweight and easy workability means that is very
quick to install on site and transportation with lesser breakage.

3. AAC blocks made walls can be left exposed (without Plaster) and gains strength over time. It
saves structural cost by 35% and recycling of breakage, rejects also.

4. AAC products are not affected by harsh climatic conditions and will not degrade under normal
atmospheric conditions.

5. AAC Block does not have any toxic substances nor does it emit odors. Its production,
management and disposal do not represent any health risks or damage to the environment. Its
production process develops non-toxic gases.

6. AAC blocks are bigger in size then conventional bricks, resulting in lesser number of joints. Less
joints result in lesser quantity of mortar required, resulting in saving of mortar.
 MARKETS

o Fly ash is available continuously and of satisfactory quality. Users are of the opinion that
strength, durability, finish, availability, price are the important qualities in blocks.

o Very high willingness is observed among traditional manufacturers regarding use of fly ash in
their products. Technical assistance & increased product awareness among the public are
considered important for promoting the shift in the manufacturing practices.

o High preference for fly ash products is observed among those customers contacting
manufacturers. Increased media coverage & favorable policies are considered key for
increasing utilization of fly ash bricks & blocks.

o The current prices of fly ash blocks are in the same range of cement blocks & traditional bricks.
03 But comparatively fly ash blocks are having more strength, fire resistance, earthquake
resistance, light weight, lesser breakage and saves structural cost by 40%.

o Since 60% of country’s electricity comes from coal-based power station, the country has a huge
stock of fly ash amounting to 60 million tons annually. Despite the entire efforts present
scenario is not too encouraging as only 5% of country’s total ash has been consumed in
different sectors.

o With the rise in population and increase in constructional activities considering the
improvement in the standard of living the demand for building bricks is increasing day by day.
04

Plan：
 RAW MATERIALS, SOURCES &
AVAILABILITY

i. Plan：
Fly-Ash:
A lot has been said about this raw material in this Project Profile itself. But this Raw material is
freely available in Thermal Power plants. There are no taxes on this item whatsoever.
Transportation charges are only to be attended by the entrepreneur.

ii. Lime:
06 powered lime is a requirement for giving the real aeration to the product. In phase 1 we can
Active
aim to buy the active lime directly. In phase -2 we can think of having backward integration and
making a lime powering unit at site to have a more competitive advantage, we can also think of a
lime burning kiln inside the factory premises.

iii. OPC:
This Project aims to utilize OPC cement as main binder material. It will give faster strength to the
bricks, besides giving improved consistent quality. It also ensures a better cost effectiveness for the
same. Using OPC will be a standardized practice. The other prime advantage of using
OPC (compared to other binders) is it’s easy availability locally through nationwide Retail Network
of Cement Companies.

iv. Gypsum:
Gypsum is easily available industrial product. This is available as an industrial byproduct of Fertilizer
Plant. Gypsum is responsible to give long term strength to the Blocks.

v. Aluminum Powder:
Finely ground Aluminum powder is used in very limited quantity (less than 0.5%), so that it reacts
with active lime, and silica in base material to make the aeration, and swell the product, making it
very light weight product.
 PROCESS

1. COAL FLY ASH:

The coal fly ash will be sent to the slurry preparing pond by wheel loader to be prepared
required concentration coal fly ash slurry by add rated water, which will be pumped into slurry
tank to be stored and ready to be used.

2. QUICK LIME:
The powder will be sent into the lime powder silo for storage and ready to be used by
bucket elevator, after coming into the factory.

3. GYPSUM:
The gypsum in the storage shed will be added into slurry pond according to the required
proportion, while preparing slurry.

4. CEMENT:
The cement will be transported into factory by tank truck and directly is pumped into
cement silo to be used.

5. ALUMINUM POWDER PAST:

The purchased aluminum powder past in the bucket or bag will be stored in its
storehouse, when being used, it will be lifted to second floor of the batching building, then
measured and added into aluminum mixer to prepare 5% suspending liquid to be used.

6. SCRAPE & WASTE SLURRY:

The cleaning waste water under the casting machine will be pumped to ball mill to be
used as grinding water. The scrape from the cutting machine will be prepared to slurry and
pumped into waste slurry tank to be used.
7. BATCHING, MIXING and CASTING:
Coal fly ash will be sent to electronic scale in the batching building by pump at the bottom
slurry tank to be measured. When the slurry concentration arrives at batching requirement, the
control system will turn off the pump to stop pump slurry. The measured the slurry will be
directly discharged into casting mixer.
Lime and cement will be sent to electronic scale in the batching building by single screw
conveyer at the bottom of their silos. When measuring arrives at the required quantity, they will
be sent to casting mixer by screw conveyer.
Aluminum powder will be measured by manual, and added into aluminum mixer to be
prepared suspending liquid one by one for each mould. The finished suspending liquid can be
directly added into the casting mixer. The slurry temperature should be arrived at required
process temperature before casting. And mould will be moved to the bottom of the casting
mixer by ferry car.

8. CUTTING AND GROUPING:

After pre-curing, the green block arrives at the required strength, the crane will take it to
the cutting machine section. After removing the mould, the green block will be cut according to
the required size. The green block after cutting will be moved to the curing trolley with the
bottom plate by crane in front of autoclave for grouping. The seven trolley for each autoclave
with 14 pieces of green block.

9. AUTOCLAVED AND FINISHED PRODUCT:

Usually rising and pre-curing process takes around 60-240 minutes. Rising is dependent on
raw material mix and weather conditions. Due to this, pre-curing is also referred as ‘heating
room pre-curing’. At end of precuring process, green-cake is hard enough to be wire cut as per
requirements. Autoclave Aerated concrete is cured in an autoclave – a large pressure vessel.
Autoclave is normally a steel tube of 3m diameter and 45 meters long. Steam is fed into the
autoclaved at high pressure, typically reaching a pressure of 800kPa to 1200 KPa and a
temperature of 180°C, refer figure 9After that blocks are taken for the DE-molding and cutting
process. out of autoclave, and be sent to the store yard.

10. THE BOTTOM PLATE RETURNING, COMBINING WITH MOULD AND OILING:
After unloading, the side plate on the trolley will be lifted for returning rail by crane, and be
returned to the side of the cutting machine, which will be combined with the mould and sent to
mould returning line for cleaning and oiling to be reused.
THANK YOU