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Aac 3 PDF
Aac 3 PDF
2 December 2014
Abstract—Aerated lightweight concrete have many international market for more than 20 years [4]. Foamed
advantages when compared with conventional concrete such concrete have high flowability, low self-weight,
as advanced strength to weight ratio, lower coefficient of minimum consumption of aggregate, controlled low
thermal expansion, and good sound insulation as a result of strength, and excellent thermal insulation properties. The
air voids within aerated concrete. This paper is attention to
density of foamed concrete has wide range (1600-
classified of aerated lightweight concrete into foamed
concrete and autoclaved concrete. Also, it is exhibits the raw 400kg/m3), with appropriate control in the dosage of the
materials used in aerated concrete, types of agent, foam, can be obtained for application to structural,
properties and applications. The production method is partition, insulation, and filling grades [6].
classified for each foamed and autoclaved concrete. The
literature review of aerated lightweight properties is focuses
on the porosity, permeability, compressive strength and
splitting strength.
I. INTRODUCTION
The aerated concrete is a one types of lightweight
concrete. Aerated concrete is also well-known as a
cellular concrete [1]. It can be divided into two main
types according to the method of production. They are
foamed concrete (non-autoclaved aerated concrete
(NAAC)) and autoclaved aerated concrete (AAC). i)
Foamed concrete is produced by injecting preformed
stable foam or by adding a special air-entraining
admixture known as a foaming agent into a base mix of
cement paste or mortar (cement+water or Figure 1. Classification of aerated lightweight concrete
cement+sand+water). ii) The AAC is produced by adding
in a predetermined amount of aluminum powder and
other additives into slurry of ground high silica sand, A. Foam Agent
cement or lime and water [2], [3], as shown in Fig. 1. The The foam agent used to obtain foamed concrete. It is
background of foamed concrete began much later than defined as air entraining agent. The foam agent is the
lightweight aggregate concrete [4]. Foamed concrete is most essential influence on the foamed concrete. The
not a particularly new material, it is first recorded use foam agents when added into the mix water it will
date back to the early 1920s. The application of foamed produce discrete bubbles cavities which become
concrete for construction works was not recognized until incorporated in the cement paste. The properties of
the late 1970s [5]. Beside the AAC began approximately foamed concrete are critically dependent upon the quality
100 years ago. In 1914, the Swedes first discovered a of the foam. Foam agent can be classified according to
mixture of cement, lime, water and sand that was types of foaming agent: i) Synthetic-suitable for densities
expanded by the adding aluminum powder to generate of 1000kg/m3 and above. ii) Protein-suitable for densities
hydrogen gas in the cement slurry. Prior to that, inventive from 400kg/m3 to 1600 kg/m3. Foams from protein-based
minds had tried beaten egg whites, yeast and other have a weight of around 80g/litter. Protein-based foaming
unusual methods of adding air to the concrete. It was agents come from animal proteins out of horn, blood,
reported that foamed concrete was developed in Europe bones of cows, pigs and other remainders of animal
over 60 years ago and has since then been on the carcasses. This leads not only to occasional variations in
quality, due to the differing raw materials used in
Manuscript received January 31, 2014; revised March 19, 2014. different batches, but also to a very intense stench of such
foaming agents. Synthetic foams have a density of about The production of AAC requires aluminum powders
40g/litter. Synthetic foaming agents are purely chemical that contain fractions finer than 100 or 50μm. This is
products. They are very stable at concrete densities above important in order to obtain required mechanical
1000kg/m3 and give good strength. Their shelf life is properties of the aerated concrete [10].
about 1 year under sealed conditions. Synthetic foam has
finer bubble sizes compared to protein but they generally II. MIX PROPORTION AND PRODUCTION OF
give lower strength foamed concrete especially at AERATED CONCRETE
densities below 1000kg/m3 [5], [7], [8].
A. Foamed Concrete
B. Aluminum Powder
Aluminum powder is usually used to obtain autoclaved Foamed concrete is produced either by pre-foaming
aerated concrete by a chemical reaction generating a gas method or mixed foaming method. Pre-foaming method
involves the separate production of a base mix cement
in fresh mortar, so that when it sets it contains a large
slurry (cement paste or mortar) and a stably preformed
number of gas bubbles [9]. Aluminum is used as a
foaming agent in AAC production worldwide and it is aqueous (foam agent with water) and then the thorough
widely proven as the best solution for its purpose. When blending of this foam into a base mix. In mixed foaming,
the surface active agent is mixed with the base mixture
aluminum is added (usually at about 0.2% to 0.5% by dry
ingredients and during the process of mixing, foam is
weight of cement) to the mixing ingredients [10], the
Aluminum powder can be classified into three types: produced resulting in cellular structure in concrete as
atomized, flake and granules. In case of an atomized shown in Fig. 2. The preformed foam can be either wet or
dry foam. The wet foam is produced by spraying a
particle, its length, width and thickness are all of
solution of foaming agent over a fine mesh, has 2-5mm
approximately the same order where the length or width
of a flake particle maybe several hundred times it bubble size and is relatively less stable. Dry foam is
thickness. Aluminum powder in the AAC industry is produced by forcing the foaming agent solution through a
series of high density restrictions and forcing compressed
often made from foil scrap and exists of microscopic
air simultaneously into the mixing chamber. Dry foam is
flake-shaped aluminum particles.
Aluminum powder with grain size less than 100μm extremely stable and has a size smaller than 1mm [4], [6],
and particularly with fractions less than 50μm, can easily [11]. Table I shows the properties of foamed concrete
[12].
form highly flammable aero suspensions (dust clouds)
during pouring or vibration.
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[22] H. Awang and N. M. Noordin, “Effect of alkaline-resistant glass Ali J. Hamad was born in Mosul, Iraq in 1989.
fiber on compressive strength of lightweight foamed concrete,” in He received the B.Sc. in building and
Proc. 27th conference on Our World In Concrete & Structures, construction technical engineering department
Singapore, Aug. 29-30, 2002, pp. 225-230. from engineering technical college of Mosul.
[23] B. I. Na Ayudhya, “Compressive and splitting tensile strength of He is a master candidate in construction
autoclaved aerated concrete (AAC) containing perlite aggregate materials engineering department from the
and polypropylene fiber subjected to high temperatures,” engineering technical college of Mosul.
Songklanakarin Journal of Science Technology, vol. 33, no. 5, pp.
555-563, 2011.