Shrinkage Behavior of Foam Concrete
Publication: Journal of Materials in Civil Engineering
Volume 21, Issue 11
Abstract
In the absence of coarse aggregate, the relative influence of factors affecting the shrinkage of foam concrete are likely to be different as compared to normal concrete. This paper presents the shrinkage behavior of preformed foam concrete for the influences of basic parameters, viz, density, moisture content, composition like filler-cement ratio, levels of replacement of sand with fly ash, and foam volume. Shrinkage of foam concrete is lower than the corresponding base mix. For a foam concrete with 50% foam volume, the shrinkage was observed to be about 36% lower than that of a base mix. The shrinkage of foam concrete is a function of foam volume and thus indirectly related to the amount and properties of shrinkable paste. Shrinkage increases greatly in the range of low moisture content. Even though removal of water from comparatively bigger artificial air pores will not contribute to shrinkage, artificial air voids may have, to some extent, an effect on volume stability indirectly by allowing some shrinkage; this effect was more at a higher foam volume.
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© 2009 ASCE.
History
Received: Feb 5, 2007
Accepted: Mar 31, 2009
Published online: Oct 15, 2009
Published in print: Nov 2009
Notes
Note. Associate Editor: Carl Liu
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