Investigation of the Mechanical and Physical Properties of Structural Lightweight Concrete Produced with Expanded Clay Aggregate from Söğüt Region

Abstract

The use of mild materials shows an increasing tendency in industrial areas. These materials are also preferred to reduce the unit weight of the building elements in the construction sector. Various light aggregates are used to produce light concrete with a lower density than normal concrete, and the properties of these light aggregates significantly affect the properties of the concrete. In this study, the use of expanded clay aggregate (ECA) produced in the Söğüt region in structural lightweight concrete was examined. Expanded clay, sand, and crushed stone aggregate were used as aggregates in concrete mixtures. The mixture granulometry was kept the same for each group. For this purpose, 60 samples were prepared for a total of 4 mixtures with different contents. Slump and unit volume weight tests were carried out on fresh concrete samples, and compressive, flexural, and splitting tensile strength tests were carried out on 7- and 28-day-hardened concrete samples. Some of the concrete mixture samples were subjected to tests after being kept in the curing pool for 7 days, and some for 28 days. As a result of the experiments, the unit weight and compressive strength values obtained from the samples produced with ECA as coarse and fine aggregate in order to achieve the highest strength target are 1413 kg/m³ and 30 MPa, respectively. The same values were found to be 1652 kg/m³ and 39 MPa in the samples produced with river sand as fine aggregate and ECA as coarse aggregate. In the samples produced using ECA as fine aggregate and crushed stone aggregate as coarse aggregate, these values were also found to be 1689 kg/m³ and 50 MPa.