The effect of fly ash to self-compactability of pumice aggregate lightweight concrete

Abstract

This paper presents the results of an experimental study on the effects of fly ash, different water/(cement + mineral additive) ratios and pumice aggregates to some physical and mechanical properties of self-compacting lightweight aggregate concrete. In this study, pumice had been used as lightweight aggregates. Several properties of self-compacting pumice aggregate lightweight concretes like the unit weight, flow diameter, T50 time, flow diameter after an hour, V-funnel time, and L-box tests, 7, 28, 90 and 180-day compressive strength, 28-day splitting tensile strength, dry unit weight, water absorption, thermal conductivity and ultrasonic pulse velocity tests were investigated. For this purpose, 18 series of concrete samples were prepared in two groups. Pumice aggregate was used as a replacement of natural aggregate, at the levels of 0, 20, 40, 60, 80, and 100% by volume. Furthermore, a second series of 100% pumice aggregate was used for the production of self-compacting lightweight aggregate concrete with constant w/(c + m) ratios as 0.35, 0.40, and 0.45 by weight. The flow diameters, T50 times, paste volumes, 28-day compressive strengths, dry unit weights and thermal conductivities of self-compacting lightweight aggregate concrete were obtained in the range of 600–800 mm, 2–8 s, 471–572 lt/m 3, 9.2–53.26 MPa, 839–2156 kg/m 3 and 0.321–1.508 W/mk, respectively, which satisfies not only the strength requirement of semi-structural lightweight concrete but also the flowing ability requirements and thermal conductivity requirements of self-compacting lightweight aggregate concrete.