FOAM CONCRETE

MANPREEET KAUR
150070
WHAT IS FOAM CONCRETE ?

Foam concrete is a type of porous concrete. According to its features and

uses it is similar to aerated concrete. The synonyms are aerated concrete,
lightweight concrete or porous concrete. The term foam concrete is
containing no aggregates only sand, cement, water and stable foam to
perform the concrete. This action incorporates small enclosed air bubbles
within the mortar there by making the concrete lighter. It once hardened
results in a strong, lightweight concrete containing millions of evenly
distributed, consistently sized air bubbles or cells.
 HOW FOAM CONCRETE MADE?
The raw materials used for the production of foam concrete are,
binding agent, aggregates, foaming agent, and water.
• Binding agent: Cement is the most commonly used binding agent.
Other binder materials like quarry dust and fly ash can also be used
in conjunction with cement. The quarry dust can be used as an
additional filler material.
• Aggregates: For constructing and heat insulating foam concrete
production with density grade D500 and higher as well as for
constructive foam concrete aggregates are used. Quartz sand is
usually used.
•Foaming agents: Foaming agents can be divided into two main
groups:
• Natural foaming agents
• Synthetic foaming agents

•Natural waste based foaming agents ordinarily used in the industry

are extracts of leather industry, sub soaped lye, sulfite lye – they are the
products with sufficiently varying properties.
•Synthetic foaming agents are produced
in accordance with technical requirements
so that they have permanent properties and
working life much longer; this gives them
application advantages. The density of the
foam is about 110 kg/m3 and investigators
reported that foam materials below this
density are to be manufactured with care.
HOW TO DECIDE RATIO AND
PROPORTION ?
• CEMENT OR BINDER CONTENT:
1.The average cement content in conventional foam concrete with or
without sand ranges from 250 to 500 kg per cubic meter of concrete
2.Cement contents for the most commonly used mixes are between
300 and 375 kg/m3 .
3. Binder content of 924.4 kg/m3 and 1260.5 kg/m3 were adopted for
high strength foam concrete .
• WATER/BINDER RATIO :
1.The optimum water/cement ratio for the premixed paste/mortar
lies between 0.5 and 0.6.
2. The advent of super plasticizer makes it possible to produce
foam concrete with not only very low water/binder ratio but
satisfactory workability as well. Mortar or paste with water/binder
ratio of only 0.19 and 0.17.
•SAND/BINDER RATIO :
•1Conventional foam concretes made generally have sand/binder
proportions of 1:1 to 4:1.
2. The sand/cement ratio thus obtained ranged from 0.29 to 3.66 for mixes
of densities ranging from 800 to1920 kg/m3 at various cement contents
and water/cement ratios
PREPARATION OF FOAM CONCRETE

•Cement and sand are stored in different silos.

•The dry materials and water are thoroughly mixed together with high-
speed impellers.
•Foaming agent and water is mixed in a separate tank and compressed air
is supplied to it based on the amount of foam required.
•The pre formed foam is then injected to slurry to produce the foam
concrete. With minimal personnel foam concrete can be placed.
DIFFERENT FROM CONVENTIONAL
CONCRETE
• The difference between foam concrete and normal concrete is the
use of aggregate in the foam concrete is eliminated and been
replaced by the homogeneous cells created by air in the form of
small bubble which utilize a stable air cell structure rather than
tradition aggregates. It can be categorized as cellular material
because it contains a higher amount of pores. Based on this, foam
concrete can be easily known as cellular material and the behavior
must be same as cellular solid behavior.
ADVANTAGES

• The density of FC is determined by the amount of foam added to

the basic cement and sand mixture. Typical cast densities of foam
concrete range between 350 and 1600 kg/m3
• Foam concrete is both fire and water resistant.
• It possesses high sound and thermal insulation properties.
• It has more workability.
CONTINUED..
•Foam concrete is naturally self-leveling and self-compacting,
filling the smallest voids, cavities and seams within the pouring
area.
•Foam concrete forms a rigid, well-bonded body after hydrating.
It is effectively a free-standing (monolithic) structure and once
hardened, does not impose lateral loads on adjacent structures.
•Foam concrete use for producing construction blocks, thermal ,
floors, and panels of partitions in buildings, as well as floors and
basements foam concrete of higher density
Fig.1 Foam concrete
REFERENCES

• Aftab Tanveer, K Jagdeesh ,Furqan Ahmed and MD Jalal . 2017.”

Foam Concrete “ International Journal of Civil Engineering
Research. 8(1).
• D.Kavitha , K.V.N Mallikarjunrao . June 2018. “Design and
Analysis of Foam Concrete “International Journal of Engineering
Trends and Applications (IJETA). 5(3).
REFERENCES

• Fahrizal Zulkarnain, Mahyuddin Ramli . May 2011. “ Proportion

for mixture of foam concrete design” jurnal teknology. 55(1).
• Maheshkumar H. Thakrele. Feb 2014. “Experimental study on
foam concrete” International Journal of Civil, Structural,
Environmental and Infrastructure Engineering Research and
Development (IJCSEIERD).4(1)..
THANK YOU