Properties of concrete made from lightweight aggregate under different curing time

Abstract

Nowadays, construction either in building and infrastructure is mushrooming until cause high demand of consumption raw materials and this was led high competitive and shortage of natural resources in some part of the world. An alternative material that can replace the natural resource or raw materials should be developed immediately to cater these problems. Therefore, this study aims to produce a new types of lightweight aggregate (LWA) made from foam and ordinary portland cement (OPC), obtain an optimum mix proportion for lightweight aggregate in concrete and also study compressive strength of concrete made from lightweight aggregate for different curing time. LWA was produce by mixing foam and OPC in the ratio 1 : 2 and dried in oven at 105 °C ± 5 °C for 24 hours and the manufacturing process of LWA does not involving any sintering process, so it can reduce energy consumption around 30%. In addition, three different mix proportions of lightweight aggregate, 10% LWA, 20% LWA and 50% LWA were used as a partial replacement of granite in concrete and 100% normal weight aggregate as a control concrete cube were tested under different curing time until 100 days. Characteristics of LWA also had been study in this research where dry bulk density is 730 – 800 kg/m³, dry loose bulk density is 700 – 730 kg/m³, compressive strength is 13.92 MPa, water absorption is 14.98% and specific gravity is 1.50. Result showed compressive strength for concrete after 28 day curing, 20% LWA obtain a higher compressive strength 53.888 MPa compared to 10% LWA is 50.828 MPa, 50% LWA is 39.932 MPa and 100% normal weight aggregate is 44.746 MPa only. The result also showed when the curing time achieves 100 days, compressive strength of concrete is still increase except for 50% LWA. It can conclude that LWA produce by foam and OPC is suitable to replace aggregate in concrete.