Experimental Investigation of the Production of Sustainable Lightweight Concrete

Abstract

An experimental study on four types of coarse aggregate was conducted to produce lightweight concrete. These four types are namely; white limestone, red limestone, clay brick fragments, and pumice. Ordinary Portland cement was used for all examined mixes. Water to cement ratio (w/c) was modified according to the effect of coarse aggregate type on the workability of the resulted concrete for each mix. The reference concrete mix, which is normal concrete, water to cement ratio used was (0.5). The investigated characteristics for all concrete mixes were workability, compressive strength, dry density, absorption, and thermal conductivity. Results indicated that the aggregate type significantly affects most of the properties of lightweight concrete mixes such as workability, density, and thermal insulation for all tested types of concrete. All investigated specimens indicated improvement in terms of density, workability, and thermal conductivity when compared to the reference concrete mix. Yet, it was derived from the testing results that using pumice in lightweight concrete production is the optimum option among the other examined types. When compared to normal concrete, this type of lightweight concrete showed a 41% decrease in dry density, nearly 72.54% decrease in thermal conductivity, and about 12% increase in workability. However, it is vital to notice that due to the low compressive strength and the relatively high absorption capability for all the examined types of lightweight concrete, it is suggested to use these types of concrete for non-structural walls that are not subjected to or exposed to high humidity.