Lightweight Structural Concrete

  • Omnia Saad Structural Engineering Department, Faculty of Engineering, Ain Shams University, Cairo, Egypt
  • Khaled Ragab Department of Civil Engineering, Housing and Building Research Centre, Cairo, Egypt
  • Omar Elnawawy Structural Engineering Department, Faculty of Engineering, Ain Shams University, Cairo, Egypt
  • Yousef R. Alharbi
  • Aref A. Abadell Department of Civil Engineering, College of Engineering, King Saud University, Saudi Arabia
  • Abdalla Talaat Structural Engineering Department, Faculty of Engineering, Ain Shams University, Cairo, Egypt
  • Mohamed Kohail Structural Engineering Department, Faculty of Engineering, Ain Shams University, Cairo, Egypt
DOI: https://doi.org/10.36909/jer.12219

Abstract

Using of Lightweight concrete (LWC) amounts to a lower cost and a better thermal performance due to its unique properties and light density. The main disadvantage in using lightweight concrete is that its mechanical properties are relatively poor. An effective method to improve the mechanical properties of lightweight concrete is using a dosage of nano-silica in the concrete mix. The gained enhancement of mechanical properties promotes a more serious discussion of structural applications of lightweight concrete. There exists an optimum dosage of nano-silica by which the mechanical properties enhancement is maximized. Increasing the nano-silica content beyond the optimum dosage degrades the mechanical properties. However, a fixed optimum dosage is not agreed upon in literature. This paper investigates the optimum dosage of NS to enhance the mechanical properties and microstructure of a lightweight concrete made with lightweight expanded clay aggregates (LECA). The results concluded that a dosage of 0.75% of nano-silica is optimum for the studied lightweight concrete mixes.

Published
2021-12-22
Issue
Online First Articles
Section
Civil Engineering