Manasi Priya Das Light Weight Concrete
Manasi Priya Das Light Weight Concrete
Manasi Priya Das Light Weight Concrete
of
MASTER OF TECHNOLOGY
In
CIVIL ENGINEERING
With specialization in
STRUCTURAL ENGINEERING
By
MANASI PRIYA DAS
(Regd. No.- 2207320011)
Under the guide of
MISS DIBYAJYOTI NAYAK
Assistant Professor
DEPARTMENT OF CIVIL ENGINEERING
ARYA VIHAR,
BHUBANESWAR PIN-752050
JANUARY 2024
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CERTIFICATE
This to certify that the work which is being presented in the project title “LIGHT
WEIGHT CONCRETE STRUCTURES” in partial fulfilment of the
requirements for the award of the degree of Master of Technology on Civil
Engineering with specialization in “Structural Engineering” and submitted in
Civil Engineering Department, Aryan Institute of Engineering and Technology,
Bhubaneswar is an authentic record of work carried out by MANASI PRIYA
DAS, Regd. No – 2207320011 under the guide of MISS DIBYAJYOTI
NAYAK, Assistant Professor, Civil Engineering Department.
The above statement made is true to the best of my knowledge and belief.
Date:
MANASI PRIYA DAS
Regd.NO-2207320011
ii
DECLARATION
I hereby declare that the Project entitled “LIGHT WEIGHT
CONCRETE STRUCTURES” carried out by us under the guidance of Asst.
Prof. Dibyajyoti Nayak, is submitted to Biju Patnaik University of Technology,
Odisha, in the partial fulfillment of the requirements for the award of the degree
of Master of Technology in Civil Engineering with specialization Structural
Engineering.
The results embodied in this report have not been copied from any
source. The results embodied in this report have not been submitted to any other
University or Institute for the award of any other degree.
Date:
iii
ABSTRACT
Lightweight concrete can be defined as a type of concrete which includes an expanding agent in that it
increases the volume of the mixture while giving additional qualities such as mailability and lessened the
dead weight. It is lighter than the conventional concrete. The use of lightweight concrete has been widely
spread across countries such as USA, United Kingdom and Sweden.
The main specialties of lightweight concrete are its low density and thermal conductivity. Its advantages
are that there is a reduction of dead load, faster building ratesin construction and lower haulage and
handling costs.
Lightweight concrete maintains its large voids and not forming laitance layers or cement films when
placed on the wall. This research was based on the performance of aerated lightweight concrete.
However, sufficient water cement ratio is vital to produce adequate cohesion between cement and water.
Insufficient water can cause lack of cohesion between particles, thus loss in strength of concrete. Like
wise too much water can cause cement to run off aggregate to form laitance layers, subsequently weakens
in strength.
Therefore, this fundamental report is prepared to study activities and progress of the lightweight concrete.
Focused were on the properties of lightweight concrete such as compressive strength, water absorption
and density and its applications in various fields of civil Engineering construction.
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Table of Contents
Abstract
Acknowledgement
1. INTRODUCTION6-11
1.1 Light Weight concrete
1.2 Types of Light Weight Concrete
1.2.1 No-fines concrete
1.2.2 Light weight aggregate concrete
1.2.3 Aerated concrete or Cellular Concrete
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
Date:
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1. INTRODUCTION
Concrete is one of the oldest manufactured construction material and it has been use
extensively in the construction of various structures since ancient day. The continuous
research and development of concrete has resulted in the production of many types of
concrete. Each of the concrete possesses their own unique characteristic to meet and suit
the demand of industry. One of the concrete that itpopularity increase drastically in recent
year is lightweight concrete. The classification of type of concrete is mainly depending on
the concrete density. The practical range of concrete density for lightweight concrete is
between 300 kg/m3 and1850 kg/m3.
Due to the practical and economic advantages it possesses, the demand for lightweight
concrete has increasing over the years and has been partially used as structures such as
panel wall, roof slab and etc. Using a lower density concrete can, therefore, significantly
reduce the self-weight of concrete structure with a consequence allowing the reduction of
columns and foundation size and other loadbearing elements and a corresponding
reduction in term of cost. Other advantages of lightweight concrete included it good
thermal insulation properties, better fire resistance and more convenience in handling the
concrete as the total mass of materials to be handled is reduced, which then lower the
haulage and handling cost and increase the productivity.
Incorporation of pozzolans, either naturally occurring or artificially made into concrete has
been in practice since the early civilisation.Besides its economic advantages, the main
reason for their use is that they can give useful modification or enhancements to concrete
properties. Many researchers have studied the use of agricultural waste as constituents in
concrete, namely rice-husk as hand sawdust ash. Their study have revealed that agricultural
waste ashes contained high amount of silica in amorphous form and could be used as a
pozzolanic material.
1.2.1NO-FINES CONCRETE:
No-fines concrete can be defined as a lightweight concrete composed of cement and coarse
aggregate i.e. omitting fine aggregates. Uniformly distributed voids are formed throughout
its mass. The main characteristics of this type of lightweight concrete is it maintains its
large voids and not forming laitance layers or cement film when placed on the wall. Figure
1 shows one example of No-fines concrete.
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There are two methods to prepare the aerated concrete. The first method is to inject the gas
into the mixing during its plastic condition by means of a chemical reaction. The second
method, air is introduced either by mixing-in stable foam or by whipping-in air, using an
air-entraining agent. The first method is usually used in precast concrete factories where the
precast units are subsequently autoclaved in order to produce concrete with a reasonable
high strength and low drying shrinkage. The second method is mainly used for in-situ
concrete, suitable for insulation roof screeds or pipe lagging. Figure 3shows the aerated
concrete.
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2. PRODUCTION OF LIGHT WEIGHT CONCRETE
2.1 MIX PROPORTIONNING:
2.4 PLACING:
Properly designed foam concrete has a stable burble structure and can be pumped
to normal heights without loss of entrained air.
A squeeze-type pump is referred over a screw-feed pump.
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Foam concrete produced and delivered at the site can be pumped up to height of
60 m and placed like Self compacting concrete.
2.5 CURING:
(i)Air Curing:
This is probably the easiest and most popular method of curing.
It is a slow, but acceptable system which enables a turnaround of moulds every 24
hours on average, depending on the ambient temperature.
(ii)Steam Curing:
When precast Aerated Concrete panels and slabs are made under factory
conditions in order to induce an early strength into the concrete by applying heat
from steam to the underside of the mounds.
Steam curing is not begun until at least five hours after casting, and even then the
increase in temperature is well controlled and should not exceed 70°C (167°F).
The extent of steam curing depends upon the climate.
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3.ENGINEERING PROPERTIES OF LWC
In order to study the behavior of lightweight concrete, normal concrete testing was done
to determine the material and structural properties of each type of lightweight concrete
and how will these properties differ according to a different type of mixture and its
composition.
Following are some distinguished properties of light weight concrete:
Figu
re5 Compressive strength & W/C ratio Relationships (A.M. Neville)
To understand how water content affects concrete, we need to consider how the water
reacts in the mix. Placing Concrete by Pumping Methods, considers two types of water
in lightweight concrete: free water and absorbed water.
Free water influences the volume of the mix, the slump and workability of the mix, and
the amount of water available for cement hydration reaction. Absorbed water is held in
the pores of the lightweight aggregate. During mixing, some free water is converted to
absorbed water, reducing the slump and the amount of water available for hydration. In
addition, the pumping pressure drives additional free water into the porous lightweight
aggregate, further reducing slump between the pump hopper and the point of discharge.
To reduce the amount of mixing water absorbed by the lightweight aggregate, concrete
suppliers pre-saturate the lightweight aggregates to fill the pore spaces prior to mixing.
Concrete suppliers frequently use water-reducing admixtures to help reduce the total
amount of mix water and, consequently, the amount of water that will potentially leave
the slab over time.
In both normal-weight concrete and lightweight concrete, water that is not consumed in
the hydration of the cement particles slowly evaporates through the exposed surfaces of
the concrete which, as is later discussed, can create problems with floor finishes.
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Almost all concrete mixes contain more water than necessary for the cement hydration
reaction, but the excess water facilitates placement and finishing. After the cement paste
has hardened, the hydration reaction continues, albeit at a slower pace, throughout the
life of the concrete as the excess water evaporates. In lightweight aggregate, some
absorbed pore water will be drawn out and contribute to more complete hydration of the
cement in a layer around the aggregates, but there will still be significant amounts of
absorbed water remaining in the pores which, will escape over time.
3.5WATER ABSORPTION:
These properties are particularly important in concrete, as well as being important for
durability. It can be used to predict concrete durability to resist corrosion. Absorption
capacity is a measure of the porosity of an aggregates; it is also used as a correlation
factor in determination of free moisture by oven-drying method.
The absorption capacity is determined by finding the weight of surface-dry sample after
it has been soaked for 24 hr and again finding the weight after the sample has been
dried in an oven; the difference in weight, expressed as a percentage of the dry sample
weight, is the absorption capacity.
3.6 CREEP AND SHRINKAGE:
Drying shrinkage occurs due to the loss of adsorbed water from the material and is
significant in aerated concrete because of its high total porosity (40±80%) and specific
surface of pores. Decrease in pore sizes, along with a higher percentage of pores of
smaller size is reported to increase shrinkage. The capillary tension theory of drying
shrinkage of porous building materials states that the water in the pore exists in tension
and this creates an attractive force between the pore walls.
3.7 DENSITY:
The density of both fresh and hardened concrete is of interest to the parties involved for
numerous reasons including its effect on durability, strength and resistance to
permeability.
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Hardened concrete density is determined either by simple dimensional checks, followed
by weighing and calculation or by weight in air/water buoyancy methods. To determine
the density of lightweight concrete sample, the simple density test method is preferred.
Fresh Density Test (ASTM C796, 2004)
A 1 liter capacity container was tarred to zero at weight machine and overfilled with
fresh lightweight foamed concrete. The fresh lightweight foamed concrete was
compacted by slight tapping at the sides of the container to allow consolidation of
fresh lightweight foamed concrete. The excess lightweight foamed concrete was struck
off and any excess lightweight foamed concrete found on container surface was wiped
off. The 1 litre container was then weighted to obtain the fresh density of LFC.
3.10THERMAL CONDUCTIVITY:
Lightweight foamed concrete possesses excellent thermal insulation properties due to it
pore structure content in it. A study showed that the thermal conductivity of lightweight
foamed concrete is 5 to 30 % of those measured on normal weight concrete. The range
of thermal conductivity for dry densities value of 600-1600 kg/m3 is between0.1 and
0.7 W/mK, reducing with decreasing densities. Besides the density of concrete,
moisture content in concrete is another parameter which affects the thermal
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conductivity significantly, since water has conductivity about 25 times that of air. So,
when the air in the pores has been partially displaced by water or moisture, the concrete
will have greater thermal conductivity.
Summary of properties:
Summarizing all the aspects pertaining to the structure and properties of aerated
concrete, the salient observations are:
i. The method of pore-formation and curing plays a significant role in its
microstructure and properties;
ii. The properties are influenced by the density and thus, they should be qualified
with the density, which is to be specified along with the moisture content;
iii. The chemical composition varies with the method of curing
iv. Strength of LWC is significantly higher due to the above reason;
v. The drying shrinkage of LWC is lower; they range from one-fourth to one-fifth
of that of Normal Concrete. The material properties and shrinkage climate also
influences drying shrinkage;
vi. Aerated concrete exhibits good functional performance characteristics.
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4. APPLICATIONS OF LIGHTWEIGHT CONCRETE
Lightweight concrete has been used since the eighteen centuries by the Romans. The
application on the ‘The Pantheon’ where it uses pumice aggregate in the construction of
cast in-situ concrete is the proof of its usage.
In USA and England in the late nineteenth century, clinker was used in their
construction for example the ‘British Museum’ and other low cost housing. The
lightweight concrete was also used in construction during the First World War. The
United States used mainly for shipbuilding and concrete blocks. The foamed blast
furnace-slag and pumice aggregate for blockmaking were introduced in England and
Sweden around 1930s.
Nowadays with the advancement of technology, lightweight concrete expands its uses.
Example in the form of perlite with its outstanding insulating characteristics. Itis widely
used as loose-fill insulation in masonry construction where it enhances fire ratings,
reduces noise transmission, does not rot and termite resistant. It is also used for vessels,
roof decks and other applications. Figure shows some examples of lightweight concrete
used in different forms.
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4.1 ARCHITECTURAL APPLICATIONS:
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3. HOLLOW CORE:
Hollow core concrete planks and wall panels
products are one of the most advanced building
materials being used in the construction industry
today. The advantage of these extruded wall panels
is in durability. They offer outstanding reductions
in sound transmission and can obtain fire ratings of up to 4 hours. The problem with
this product it has very little or if any insulation properties.
2. TRENCH REINSTATEMENT
It is an ideal material for trench reinstatement
(the filling of trenches dug in roads when
pipes are laid or repairs are carried out). The
traditional methods of filling trenches in the
roads, i.e. the use of granular fill materials,
result in settlement and damage to the road
and potentially, to the pipes. With foamed
concrete there is no settlement; and because the foamed concrete is very fluid, it will fill
any voids and cavities in the trench sides.
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I) Rapid and relatively simple construction
II) Economical in terms of transportation as well as reduction in manpower
III) Significant reduction of overall weight results in saving structural frames, footing or
piles
IV)High strength to weight ratio
V) Sustainable design
VI) Lightweight Concrete Masonry and Green Buildings
VII) LEED Certification with Lightweight CMU
VIII) Lower life-cycle cost
IX)Most of lightweight concrete have better nailing and sawing properties than heavier
and stronger conventional concrete
CONCLUSIONS
Lightweight concrete can be utilized as a normal concrete replacement structure
shield.
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Aerated Concrete and Lightweight Aggregate Concrete also can be use as energy
absorbent.
Lightweight aggregate concrete, it depends on the materials used.
Lightweight concrete can develop to be high strength concrete and good
absorbability of impact energy.
It has a lower modulus of elasticity and higher tensile strain capacity further
provides better impact resistance than normal weight concrete.
In recommendation, more research is required if the capabilities of the material
are to be exploited and utilization the reinforcement for enhance the tensile strain
capacity of concrete.
Foamed lightweight concrete is not suitable to be used as load bearing wall as the
compressive strength is 27% less than recommended.
REFERENCES
A.M Neville (2006), Properties of concrete, Pitman& comp.
Foamed Lightweight Concrete. www.pearliteconcreteforrorepair.com
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“Advantages of Structural Lightweight Aggregate Concrete”. Expanded Clay,
Shale and Slate Institute, www.escsi.org
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