Construction and Building Materials 260 (2020) 119896

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Construction and Building Materials

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/conbuildmat

Study on engineering properties of foam concrete containing waste

seashell
Yan Zhang a,b,⇑,1, Da Chen a,⇑,1, Yunchao Liang b, Kaicheng Qu a, Kehua Lu a, Shijia Chen a, Mengjie Kong a
a
College of Harbour, Coastal and Offshore Engineering, Hohai University, Nanjing 210098, China
b
College of Mechanics and Materials, Hohai University, Nanjing 210098, China

h i g h l i g h t s

The waste seashell was introduced to foam concrete.

The foam was first filled in seashell and then this shell replaced coarse aggregate.

The workability and durability of concrete were improved with the increasing of FFS.

The mechanical properties of this proposed foam were better classic foam concrete.

The proposed foam concrete provided a way to continuously recycle waste seashell.

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: The recycling utilization of waste products to lower the environmental impacts is continuously focused.
Received 21 October 2019 In this study, a modified foam concrete containing different waste seashell content was proposed and its
Received in revised form 5 June 2020 main engineering properties were studied. Compared to classic foam concrete that the foam was mixed
Accepted 8 June 2020
directly with other raw materials, here the foam was first filled in waste Babylonia areolata widely
Available online 20 June 2020
existed in China. Then this foam-filled shell (FFS) replaced partial or entire coarse aggregate and mixed
with other raw materials. The flowability, compressive and splitting strength, drying shrinkage, water
Keywords:
absorption and rapid chloride ions permeability were determined. Experimental results showed the
Foam concrete
Waste seashell
workability and durability behavior increased or slightly decreased with FFS increasing. Although the
Foam-filled shell strength reduced with FFS increasing, the strength reduction rate was lower than that of previous foam
Engineering properties concrete. Finally, the analysis of cross-sectional images of FFS concrete was used to verify the above con-
clusions. In the view of environmental perspective and engineering properties, the proposed foam con-
crete containing waste shell provided a way to continuously recycle waste seashell and the first
engineering application has been scheduled to perform on the embankment project in Zhejiang province,
China.
Ó 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
Due to the principles of sustainable development, the research
of the alternative materials of concrete to balance their economic,
environmental, and social perspectives has been continuously
focused on [1–3]. Therefore, the recycling utilization of industrial
byproducts and waste products has been generally accepted by sci-
entists and governments. For example, the utilization of industrial
byproducts to replace partial cement, such as ground-granulated
⇑ Corresponding authors.
E-mail addresses: yan.zhang@hhu.edu.cn (Y. Zhang), chenda@hhu.edu.cn (D.
Chen).
1 CO2 absorption for environmental. Generally, the waste concrete
Y. Zhang and D. Chen contributed equally.
blast-furnace slag [4,5], fly ash [6,7], and silica fume [8,9], has been
widely applied in civil engineering in recent decades. Due to their
famous pozzolanic reaction [10–12], good economy and less CO2
emission [13,14], the use of these mentioned byproducts improved
the performance of concrete and provided the visible environmen-
tal benefit. Thus, a great number of investigations have been per-
formed to further explore their advantages and engineering
applications as well [4–16].
Meanwhile, the utilization of the waste products especially the
waste concrete replacing natural aggregate in concrete has been
considered as an alternative method with the following reasons
[17]: the sustainable quantity of the waste concrete and the short
apply of natural aggregate; the significant impact on atmospheric

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.conbuildmat.2020.119896
0950-0618/Ó 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
2 Y. Zhang et al. / Construction and Building Materials 260 (2020) 119896
is crushed and referred to recycled concrete aggregate (RCA). How-
ever, the most challenge in using RCA is its variable or unstable
quality compared to natural aggregate [18]. Therefore, many scien-
tists have paid much attention to its integrated assessment and
optimization in applications [17,19,20]. Despite this disadvantage,
some scientific organizations and governments continuously
encourage the utilization of RCA. For example, it is suggested to
use RCA to replace maximum 30% nature aggregate in low level
strength applications by Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial
Research Organization, Australia [21] while the use of RCA has
been highly recommended due to its closed-loop recycling charac-
teristic by American Concrete Institute [22]. Recently, it is reported
that RCA must replace at least 30% nature aggregate in transport
engineering in Shanghai, China from 2019 by the local government
[23].
As mentioned above, it can be clearly found that the byproducts
of industries and waste concrete have been systematically studied
and widely used at commercial scale. Meanwhile, the disposal of
the waste aquaculture, especially the shellfish dominated about
40% of all aquaculture production, is still a big problem [24]. In
the related research, it was mentioned that the post-consumer pro-
duction mainly consisted of waste seashells while more than half
of the waste has not been properly disposed of [25]. The simple
accumulating of waste seashell without processing might cause
several environmental problems including marine siltation and
ugly odors [26]. Therefore, the recycling of waste seashell is a pos-
sible solution to decrease environmental problems.
Due to its characteristics of the high content of calcium carbon-
ate [27], some investigations on the recycling of waste oyster shells
have been performed. One application is to produce pure material
of CaO by high thermal treatment for several other products
instead of nature limestone [28,29]. Moreover, the most common
application is to crush waste seashell into small particles and then
to be used as an aggregate replacement in concrete. Some pioneer-
ing investigations on the effect of the replacement ratio [30,31] and
particle size [32,33] have been performed while the workability of
fresh concrete and mechanical properties of hardened concrete
have been systemically analyzed [34,35].
However, the two main recycling methods of waste seashell
showed the following limitations: the process to obtain the CaO
powders from shell led to more fuel consumption and CO2 emis-
sion, which might create more environmental impacts [36]; in
the case that the crushed waste seashell replaced partial nature
aggregate in concrete, the fresh concrete always showed poor
workability while the decrease of mechanical properties has been
generally adopted [37].
To overcome the above-mentioned disadvantages, a modified
utilization of waste seashell in foam concrete was proposed in this
study. The core innovation was that the waste shell was not
crushed and this complete shell was fully filled with foam. This
special shell was used to replace partial or entire natural coarse
aggregate of concrete. Compared to the crushed waste seashell,
the complete shell can better act as the aggregate skeleton of con-
crete. Meanwhile, the foam can decrease the density of concrete. In
Table 1
The chemical compositions and physical properties of cement.
Chemical composition (%)
SiO2 Al2O3 CaO
22.78 4.92 62.73
Physical properties
Specific gravity (g/cm3) Specific surface area (cm2/g)
3.27 3580
addition, this utilization of waste seashell was performed under
room temperature and needed no more energy consumption. More
properties will be discussed in the following parts.
In this study, the complete waste seashell filled with foam was
first prepared. Then, this foam-filled shell (FFS) was used as 0, 20,
50, 80, and 100% volume replacement of the coarse aggregate in
concrete respectively. Finally, the main engineering properties at
both fresh and hardened status were investigated. It was con-
cluded that this proposed recycling foam concrete can satisfy the
engineering requirements.
2. Materials and methods
2.1. Materials
2.1.1. Cement
Ordinary Portland Cement (PO 42.5) used was from Zhucheng
Yangchun Cement Company, China. Table 1 gives its chemical com-
positions and physical properties.
2.1.2. Classic aggregate
Natural river sand with a maximum size of 4.75 mm and fine-
ness modulus of 1.95 was used as the fine aggregate. The coarse
aggregate used was crushed stone with a maximum size of
35 mm. The density of river sand and crushed stone were
2598 kg/m3 and 2763 kg/m3 respectively.
2.1.3. Waste shell
The waste seashell selected in this study was Babylonia areolata
in southern China. Because of its delicious taste, it has been widely
accepted by breeders in recent decades. Therefore, it gradually
formed a large production scale and the disposal of a great amount
of waste has gradually become a local environmental problem. In
this research, the shell of Babylonia areolate as a post-consumer
product was used to replace coarse aggregate and its maximum
size was similar to that of the crushed stone. The main component
of Babylonia areolata is CaCO3, accounting for 96.9%.
In order to remove the impurities and chloride content of the
shells to further improve the performance of concrete, a simple
cleaning process was used as follows: firstly, rinsed the shells with
tap water for 1 h; secondly, soaked them with neutral detergent for
1 h; thirdly, rinsed them with tap water for 1 h; finally, soaked
them in 20% sodium hydroxide solution for 1 h and then it was
ready to use after drying.
2.1.4. Foaming agent
The foaming agent used here was produced by SOUDAL, Bel-
gium. This foaming agent was a classical cheap foam sealant and
the basic component was polyurethane. It expanded and solidified
through moisture and humidity in the air while the drying time
was about 10 min. Table 2 gives the main technical data of this
foam agent.
Fe2O3 MgO SO3
2.64 3 2.2
Compressive strength (MPa) Flexural strength (MPa)
3 day 7 day 28 day 3 day 7 day 28 day
27.2 40.3 55.6 5.5 7.6 8.9
 Y. Zhang et al. / Construction and Building Materials 260 (2020) 119896 3

Table 2 shells can be completely filled with foams, we continued pumping

The technical data of Polyurethane foam agent. the foam a while. Thirdly, we took the FFS out of the container as
Property The technical data shown in Fig. 1(c). It was clearly found that most of shells were full
Appearance Stabilized foam of foams and it was ready to produce concrete samples.
Foaming volume 600 ml extended 20L solidified colloid In this study, the specific weight of FFS was determined as
Shrink Nothing 504 kg/m3. This value is about one fifth that of classical coarse
Post expansion Nothing aggregate and FFS can be considered as a lightweight aggregate.
Cellular structure About 70–80% of closed vesicles
Density About 0.26 kg/m3 (fully cured after extrusion)
Then we studied its resistance to degradation. Unfortunately, the
Temperature resistance 40 °C to 90 °C FFS couldn’t be subjected to the Los Angeles test. Under the cycling
Color Champagne crushing effect of steel spheres, most of FFSs were crushed into
Water absorption rate 1% Vol pieces and finally more than 60% shell portion passed through
Compressive strength 30 KPa
the 1.70 mm sieve. The reason is that although the shell is mainly
Bending strength 70 KPa
composed by CaCO3 that is similar to stone aggregate, its hollow
structure leads to less resistance and easier fragile failing com-
pared with solid stone aggregate. Considering that in this study
Another environmentally friendly protein-based foaming agent
the FFS is mainly compared with the normal foam phase without
fabricated by Guangyu Chemical Co., Ltd., China was also used in
hardening behavior, its strength and resistance is better than that
the research. The specific weight of this brown liquid foaming
of normal foam phase.
agent is 1.1 g/cm3.
Furthermore, the FFS with protein-based foaming agent was
also obtained. One part of this environmentally friendly liquid
foaming agent was mixed with forty parts of water and then the
2.2. Preparation of FFS
proper foam with a 55 g/L density was obtained through a foam
generator. The foam was then pumped and filled the present con-
At present, we established a simple device to produce the FFS.
tainer with shells. The filling process of the protein-based foam is
Firstly, the shells were tightly placed in a sealed container as
the same as that of the above-mentioned polyurethane foam while
shown in Fig. 1(a). The container equipped two switches while
the filling effect is similar to that of polyurethane foam.
the bottom switch controlled the injection of the foam and the
top one controlled the emission of the air. Secondly, the foam
was injected into the container through the bottom switch until 2.3. Sample preparation
the container was full of foam. In this study, the foam was pro-
duced directly by canned polyurethane foam. In the filling process, In this study, five kinds of concrete were prepared: one conven-
we first kept the top switch open to ensure the constant foam tional concrete (Control series) and four foam concretes. The mix
injection at normal pressure and then closed it when the foam proportion of the control concrete satisfied the compressive
reached the top of this container (Fig. 1(b)). To ensure that all strength requirement of C30 concrete and their values are given

Fig. 1. Presentation of the device and shells.

4 Y. Zhang et al. / Construction and Building Materials 260 (2020) 119896
Table 3
Mix proportions.
Series Cement (kg/m3) River sand (kg/m3) Crushed stone (kg/m3)
Control 343 621 1261
FWOS-20 343 621 1009
FWOS-50 343 621 631
FWOS-80 343 621 252
FWOS-100 343 621 0 230
in Table 3. The detailed design process, such as cement content, W/
C ratio, sand ratio, and mix proportion adjustment, has been per-
formed according to specification for mix proportion design of
ordinary concrete, China. The present mix proportion is similar to
that of our previous research [38]. Based on the equivalent volume
replacement of classical coarse aggregate (crushed stone) with FFS,
four foam concretes with 20, 50, 80, and 100% replacement of FFS
(FWOS-20, FWOS-50, FWOS-80, FWOS-100) can be easily designed.
In the process of mix design, we also limit the maxim W/C ratio as
0.55 to satisfy the requirement of durability. Beside the mechanical
strength and workability, the durability such as the drying shrink-
age, water absorption, and rapid chloride ions permeability will be
determined and discussed in the following.
All concrete mixtures were mixed with the following steps:
firstly, cement and river sand were mixed for 60 s; crushed stone
and FFS were then added to fully stir for another 60 s; finally,
tap water was added to the dry mixture and we continued to
mix them for 240 s. The fresh mixtures were consequently poured
into the molds. To ensure its compacting, the molds were placed on
a vibrating table for 2–3 min with a 50 Hz frequency vibration. For
each kind of concrete, u 50 mm  100 mm cylinder samples were
prepared to measure the compressive strength and splitting tensile
strength, and u 100 mm  50 mm cylinders were prepared to mea-
sure the water absorption rate. The prismatic samples
(75 mm  75 mm  285 mm) were cast to measure the drying
shrinkage. To investigate the permeability resistance of concrete
to chloride ions, u 100 mm  50 mm cylinder samples were cast.
All samples were cured under the standard condition (95 ± 3% rel-
ative humidity and 20 ± 2 °C) for each testing age.
2.4. Experimental methods
For the concrete at the fresh state, the ASTM C143 (2016) [39]
test method was used to determine the slump of the concrete
and the ASTM C188 (2017) [40] test method was used to measure
the density of the concrete.
For the concrete at the hardened state, the ASTM C39 (2018)
[41] and ASTM ASTM C496 (2017) [42] test method were used to
test the compressive strength and splitting tensile strength of con-
crete respectively at 28 and 90 days. The ASTM C1585 (2013) [43]
test method was used to determine the water absorption of con-
crete at 28 and 90 days while the dry shrinkage of concrete was
tested according to ASTM C596 (2017) [44]. The NT BUILD 492
(1999) [45] was used for determining the chloride migration coef-
ficient in concrete from non-steady-state migration (NSSM)
experiment.
3. Results and discussion
3.1. Fresh concrete properties
Slump is an important index indicating the workability of con-
crete and their values of all concrete series are given in Table 4. It
was clear that the slump constantly increased with the increasing
FFS replacement. The initial slump of control concrete was 20 mm.
In the case of 20% replacement level, it showed a slight influence
Shell (kg/m3) Volume replacement (%) Water (kg/m3) W/C
0 0 175 0.51
46 20 175 0.51
115 50 175 0.51
184 80 175 0.51
100 175 0.51
and the increment slump was about 2 mm. In the high replacement
cases, i.e., 50, 80, and 100% replacement, the slump tended to
increase quickly. Compared with control concrete, the increase in
the slump was about 20 mm (100%), 24 mm (120%), and 38 mm
(190%) at 50, 80, and 100% FFS replacement level. It was attributed
to the smoother geometry of FFS compared with crushed stone of
control concrete and it was consistent with the general conclusion
that the smooth sharp of aggregate decreased the friction of con-
crete mixtures. The results indicated that the concrete with FFS
had better flowability characteristic than classical concrete. It can
be concluded that to keep the same slump, less water requirement
of FFS concrete is needed and the strength can be further increased.
Therefore, two supplementary mix designs based on FWOS-50 ser-
ies have been performed. The fine aggregate, coarse aggregate, and
cement keep constant as FWOS-50 series while the water reduces
5 kg/m3 and 10 kg/m3 respectively. Experimental results show that
the slump is 28 mm and 17 mm respective. To keep the initial
slump (20 mm), at least 5 kg water per m3 can be saved. In our
plan, the effect of W/C ratio and superplasticizer will be systemi-
cally investigated in our further research.
The unit weight of fresh concretes is also listed in Table 4. With
the increasing FFS replacement, the density ranged from 2440 kg/
m3 to 1602 kg/m3, a 34.3% decline in density relative to control
concrete. The FFS was much lighter than traditional solid aggregate
and the tightly packed foam avoided the mortar penetrating into
the shells. Therefore, FFS played a key role in the light weighting
process while high FFS replacement concrete (FWOS-80 and
FWOS-100) can be considered as lightweight concrete. This conclu-
sion that with the increase of the foam volume, the density of the
resulting material increases accordingly, is in line with previous lit-
erature studies concerning the foamed concrete [46–47]. We will
discuss strength behavior of both the present FFS concrete and pre-
vious research [48] of our laboratory so that two reference con-
cretes are also listed in Table 4. Reference 1 concrete was a
normal concrete and Reference 2 concrete was a foam concrete
in which 30% aggregate was replaced by expanded polystyrene.
Reference 1 concrete and our control concrete had the same den-
sity while the density of Reference 2 and FWOS-100 was about
1600 kg/cm3.
3.2. Compressive strength
The experimental results of the compressive strength of FFS
concrete are summarized in Table 5. It was clear that with the
increase of FFS replacement, the compressive strength at 28 days
decreased significantly from 35.8 MPa to 9.4 MPa, a 73.4% decline
relative to control concrete. This reason is that although the com-
plete shell shows solid characteristic, its strength is still lower than
that of crushed stone. The compressive strength of FFS concrete at
90 days showed similar results. The values decreased from
39.5 MPa to 11.4 MPa, a 71.1% decline relative to control one. It
was also found that the values of compressive strength slightly
increased with respect to curing time due to the continuous hydra-
tion process. As mentioned above, a foam concrete of our previous
study was used to compare with the present FFS concrete and their
values are both listed in Table 5. The values of reference concretes
 Y. Zhang et al. / Construction and Building Materials 260 (2020) 119896 5

Table 4
Fresh concrete properties.

Type Slump Increment slump Theoretical density Fresh density

mm mm kg/m3 kg/m3
Control 20 – 2400 2440
FWOS-20 22 2 2194 2334
FWOS-50 40 20 1885 2070
FWOS-80 44 24 1575 1725
FWOS-100 58 38 1369 1602
Reference 1 [48] – – 2360 2440
Reference 2 [48] – – 1777 1570

Table 5
Experimental results of the compressive strength.

Type 28 days 90 days

Compressive strength (MPa) Reduction ratio (%) Compressive strength (MPa) Reduction ratio (%)
Control 35.8 – 39.5 –
FWOS-20 25.6 28.5 33.5 15.2
FWOS-50 17.1 52.2 22.4 43.3
FWOS-80 14.8 58.7 19.6 50.4
FWOS-100 9.4 73.4 11.4 71.1
Reference 1 [48] 42.3 – 54.3 (60 d) –
Reference 2 [48] 9.1 78.5 10.6 (60 d) 80.5

at 28 days and 60 days decreased 78.5% and 80.5% with the

increasing of foam. The present FFS concrete and the reference con-
crete had the similar strength evolution while the FFS concrete
showed a better strength characteristic at the low-density level.
The foam inclusions of classical foam concrete were generally con-
sidered as pores in concrete without a benefit for its strength. Not-
ing that in this study the foams were first fully filled in shells so
that the foam inclusions with solid shell should be stronger than
classical foam inclusions. It is considered that this shelled foam
played a slight role in the concrete strength.
Furthermore, the compressive strengths with respect to differ-
ent FFS volume fractions are plotted Fig. 2 and the correlation
between the compressive strength and FFS volume is almost linear.
This observation is in accordance with Chen and Liu’s research [49]
and the relation can be expressed as

f a ¼ f C  Aa; ð1Þ

where fa and fC are the compressive strength with different FFS

replacement and the compressive strength of control concrete
respectively. a is the FFS volume fraction and A is the empirical Fig. 2. The relationship between compressive strength and FFS volume.
parameter controlling the decreasing rate related to FFS volume
fraction. According to the experimental data, it is easy to determine
the relation’s parameters shown in Table 6. This relationship is also Table 6
plotted in Fig. 2 and we can see clearly that there is a good agree- Parameters’ values of Eq. (1).
ment between theoretical results and experimental data. Curing time (d) fC (MPa) A (MPa) R2
Compared with the previous foam concrete, the present FFS 28 35.8 0.24 0.93
concrete showed less strength loss with the decreasing of the den- 90 39.5 0.26 0.90
sity. Considering that the flowability of FFS concrete was increased
with the increasing of the FFS replacement, the compressive
strength of FFS concrete at high FFS replacement level can be con- FFS replacement increased from 0 to 100%. We can see clearly that
tinuously promoted by deducing water consumption. hydration process of cement caused an increase of splitting tensile
strength when the same type samples were cured at the ages of 28
3.3. Splitting tensile strength and 90 days.
It is generally considered that the splitting strength is highly
The experimental results of splitting tensile strength of FFS con- related to the compressive strength. Based on existing empirical
relations, the following general equation can be expressed as [50]
crete are summarized in Table 7. The development of splitting ten-
sile strength with respect to FFS replacement was similar to that of B
f t ¼ Að f c Þ ; ð2Þ
compressive strength. The flexural strength at 28 days decreased
from 6.0 MPa to 2.8 MPa with the increasing of FFS content, a where ft and fc are splitting tensile strength and compressive
53.3% decline relative to control concrete. Similarly, this strength strength respectively. A and B are empirical parameters. Here the
at 90 days varied from 6.4 MPa to 3.0 MPa (53% reduction) as splitting strengths and the corresponding compressive strengths
6 Y. Zhang et al. / Construction and Building Materials 260 (2020) 119896

Table 7
Experimental results of the flexural strength.

Type 28 days 90 days

Splitting tensile strength (MPa) Reduction ratio (%) Splitting tensile strength (MPa) Reduction ratio (%)
Control 6.0 – 6.4 –
FWOS-20 5.4 10.0 5.9 11.3
FWOS-50 4.5 25.0 4.7 27.4
FWOS-80 3.9 35.0 4.0 41.5
FWOS-100 2.8 53.3 3.0 53.0
Reference 1 [48] 4.0 – 4.1 (60 d) –
Reference 2 [48] 1.4 65.0 1.3 (60 d) 68.3

are plotted in Fig. 3. According to these experimental results, the

relation for present FFS concrete can be simplified as
0:5
ft ¼ fc : ð3Þ
2
The correlation factor R of this relation is 0.95, which demon-
strates a good correlation.
Meanwhile, the splitting tensile strengths of the reference con-
cretes are also given in Table 7. At 28 and 60 days, the previous
foam concrete showed 65.0% and 68.3% strength loss with the
increasing of foam replacement. Considering that the present FFS
concrete showed 53.3% and 53.0% strength loss at 28 and 90 days,
the strength loss of FFS concrete was less than that of previous
foam concrete. This means that the present FFS concrete exhibited
better mechanical performance at low density level. This enhance-
ment might be caused by the existing foam with solid shell men-
tioned in Section 3.2.

3.4. Drying shrinkage

The strain variation of drying shrinkage for the different con-

cretes at various ages up to 90 days are presented in Fig. 4. Evi- Fig. 3. The relationship between splitting strength and compressive strength.
dently, all mixes showed higher shrinkage rate at early ages
compared to their shrinkages at later ages. The drying shrinkage
values showed a dramatic growth during the first 7 days, domi-
nated 0.017%, 0.023%, 0.029%, 0.036%, and 0.039% total shrinkage
strain with respect to control, FWOS-20, FWOS-50, FWOS-80, and
FWOS-100 concrete. This higher early shrinkage was mainly
caused by the easier loss of free water at early age. With the con-
tinuous hydration of cement and loss of moisture, all concretes
experienced a lower shrinkage rate and kept a stable strain finally.
Furthermore, it was found in Fig. 4 that the introduction of FFS
increased the drying shrinkage remarkable. For example, at the age
of 90 days, the drying shrinkage of FWOS-20, FWOS-50, FWOS-80
and FWOS-100 concrete were 0.043%, 0.046%, 0.049% and 0.050%,
47%, 54%, 66% and 69% higher than that of control concrete. It
can be concluded that higher the FFS replacement, higher the
increasing of drying shrinkage of FFS concrete. It was generally
adopted that the high drying shrinkage of foam concrete was
attributed to the absence of natural aggregates and its value might
be up to 10 times greater than that of normal concrete [51]. In this
study, the FFS concrete showed a maximum of 1.7 times drying
shrinkage compared to control concrete. Nevertheless, all FFS spec-
imens satisfied the drying shrinkage requirement (<0.078%) of ACI Fig. 4. The effect of FFS replacement on the drying shrinkage.
209 [52]. This improvement was mainly affected by the skeleton
role of the foam with a solid shell. Furthermore, considering less
water requirement of FFS concrete with the same slump, the dry- pore volume. Considering that the permeability is highly related
ing shrinkage of FFS concrete can be controlled at a suitable level to its durability, it is generally believed that concretes with lower
by decreasing water consumption. absorption generally have better durability performance. Fig. 5
shows the effect of FFS replacement on water absorption of the
3.5. Water absorption proposed concretes. It can be seen that the water absorption ratio
showed an increasing trend with the increase of FFS. When curing
This absorption characteristic is an important index to indi- to 28 days, the water absorption of control, FWOS-20, FWOS-50,
rectly represent its permeability by understanding the permeable FWOS-80, and FWOS-100 concrete were 4.82%, 5.61%, 6.31%,
 Y. Zhang et al. / Construction and Building Materials 260 (2020) 119896 7

Fig. 6. Effect of FFS replacement on Dnssm.

Fig. 5. Effect of FFS replacement on water absorption.

3.6. Rapid chloride ions permeability

6.49%, and 6.73% respectively. According to these experimental
results, the water absorption increased by up to 40% by increasing
the FFS replacement from 0% to 100%. This evolution is mainly due
to the decrease in density. Noting that in some previous research
the water absorption of foam concrete might be up to 30% [53],
the slight increase of present FFS concrete is acceptable. And also,
we can decrease W/C ratio and further increase the compactness of
concrete. This means that water absorption of FFS concrete can be
controlled at a low level.
In this study, the NSSM test was conducted to determine the
chloride ions permeability of concrete in accordance with NT
BUILD 492. This method has been widely accepted by scientists
and engineers while NSSM chloride migration coefficient Dnssm is
used to evaluate the resistance of chloride ion penetration. The
average results of Dnssm of all concrete samples at 28 days are pre-
sented in Fig. 6. The Dnssm values of the present FFS concretes var-
ied from 4.4  1012 to 2.9  1012 m2/s when FFS replacement

Fig.7. Cross-sectional images of FFS concrete.

8 Y. Zhang et al. / Construction and Building Materials 260 (2020) 119896
increased from 0 to 100%. The results showed that the Dnssm of FFS
concrete was decreased up to 34% compared to the control con-
crete. Meanwhile, it was found that the Dnssm decreased approxi-
mately linearly with the increasing of FFS replacement ratio and
the correlation factor R2 of this relation was 0.94.
The variation of NSSM coefficient Dnssm with respect to FFS
replacement is reasonable. It is generally accepted that chloride
ions transport is restricted by capillary pores [51]. In the present
FFS concrete, the large number of capillary pores in FFS appeared
to act as a phase hindering the chloride transport. Evidently, chlo-
ride ions should fill up the air-voids in FFS and then pass through
concrete. Although the porosity of FFS concrete is some greater
than that of control concrete and it might lead to little acceleration
of chloride ions penetration, the dominated hindering effect of FFS
will cause the permeation to slow down. Therefore, in the view of
enhancing chloride penetration resistance, it is suggested to
replace partial or entire natural aggregate by FFS in concrete.
3.7. Visual inspection
The performance of concrete, both workability of fresh concrete
and engineering propertied of hardened concrete, is highly related
to the existence of the coarse aggregate phase. Especially in the
case of lightweight concrete, due to the replacing nature stone by
light alternative product, this might cause segregation of concrete
mixture and non-uniform distribution of the coarse aggregate
phase during the compacting and transport process. Therefore, it
was generally considered that the workability of fresh concrete
and durability of hardened concrete would be decreased by intro-
duction of light phase such as foaming agent. However, the present
FFS concrete mixture showed better flowability at high FFS
replacement level while the use of FFS reduced or slightly
increased the chloride ions permeability, drying shrinkage, and
water absorption. Although the compressive strength and splitting
strength of FFS concrete at 28 days reduced up to 73.4% and 53.0%
respectively, the strength reduction rate was still lower than that
of previous foam concrete. To further investigate this FFS concrete,
we cut the hardened concrete samples vertically and a set of cross-
sectional images were obtained by digital camera. Fig. 7 shows the
cross-sectional images with different FFS replacement. The smooth
champagne aggregate was FFS while the irregular gray aggregate
was natural stone. It was clear that the coarse aggregate phase
was homogeneously distributed in not only control concrete with
natural stone but also FFS concrete with different FFS replacement.
Furthermore, the quality of interface between FFS and mortar in
FFS concrete was analogous to that of normal control concrete.
Therefore, it can be concluded that the existing of FFS would not
cause segregation of concrete mixture and non-uniform distribu-
tion of coarse aggregate.
Meanwhile, the foams inside shells can be clearly observed in
Fig. 7. Most of the shells were filled with champagne foams and
few shells contained some air voids. According to the champagne
color inside the shells, it was concluded that most of the mortar
was blocked outside the shells. The stable and full-filled character-
istic of the foam also played a positive role in enhancing the dura-
bility of FFS concrete.
4. Conclusion
In this study, a modified utilization of waste seashell in foam
concrete was proposed. A widely existing Babylonia areolata was
selected without crushing and then polyurethane/protein-based
foams were filled in these waste shells. Then this FFS was used
as 0, 20, 50, 80, and 100% volume replacement of coarse aggregate
in concrete respectively. The main engineering properties of this
foam concrete containing waste shells were investigated. Based
on our experimental results, the following conclusions can be
drawn:

A simplified device was proposed to produce the FFS. It was
clearly found that most of the shells were full of foams. This
means that the concrete composed with FFS can be considered
as a modified foam concrete.

The flowability of fresh concrete increased from 20 mm to
58 mm with the increasing of FFS replacement due to the
smooth geometry of shells. Meanwhile, the unit density of fresh
concretes decreased significantly from 2440 kg/m3 to 1602 kg/
m3.

Although the compressive strength and splitting strength of FFS
concrete at 28 days reduced up to 73.4% and 53.0% with the
increasing of FFS replacement, the strength reduction rate was
lower than that of previous foam concrete. Furthermore, the
mechanical behavior can be further increased by deducing
water consumption and adding superplasticizer.

Although this FFS concrete showed a maximum of 1.7 times
drying shrinkage compared to control concrete, their values
were still much less than that of classical foam concretes. Fur-
thermore, all FFS specimens satisfied the drying shrinkage
requirement (<0.078%) due to the skeleton role of the foam with
a solid shell.

The rapid chloride ions permeability ratio showed marked
declines with the increasing of FFS replacement because of chlo-
ride hindering effect of foam. The water absorption ratio slightly
increased due to the decrease of density while it can be con-
trolled in an acceptable range.

Based on the cross-sectional images, it was found that both
irregular crushed stone and smooth FFS aggregate were homo-
geneously distributed in FFS concrete. This observation can be
applied to prove the above-mentioned conclusion that the
workability of fresh concrete and durability of hardened con-
crete increased or slightly decreased with the increasing of
FFS replacement.
Considering its significant environmental protection, good engi-
neering properties at both fresh status and hardened status, the
present foam concrete containing waste shell can be considered
as an alternative cleaner recycling concrete. Moreover, the first
engineering application of FFS concrete has been scheduled to per-
form on the embankment of JINQING cruise terminal engineering
of Zhejiang Province, China.
CRediT authorship contribution statement
Yan Zhang: Conceptualization, Investigation, Writing - original
draft, Writing - review & editing, Funding acquisition. Da Chen:
Validation, Investigation, Supervision, Funding acquisition. Yun-
chao Liang: Investigation, Writing - original draft, Formal analysis.
Kaicheng Qu: Investigation. Kehua Lu: Investigation. Shijia Chen:
Investigation. Mengjie Kong: Investigation.
Declaration of Competing Interest
The authors declare that they have no known competing finan-
cial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared
to influence the work reported in this paper.
Acknowledgments
This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foun-
dation of China (51579088, 51779087).
 Y. Zhang et al. / Construction and Building Materials 260 (2020) 119896
Appendix A. Supplementary data
Supplementary data to this article can be found online at
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.conbuildmat.2020.119896.
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