Mechanical properties of sustainable structural aerated-polystyrene concrete
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to produce lightweight concrete by combining aerated concrete with expanded polystyrene beads concrete to create structural aerated-polystyrene lightweight concrete that satisfies the criteria of sustainability for thermal and sound insulation properties and the structural criteria of having satisfactory compressive strength for structural elements.
Design/methodology/approach
The experimental study was carried out to reach the largest compressive strength while maintaining the lowest possible density by preparing nine mixes of concrete, involving different ratios of aluminum waste powder and polystyrene beads as 0%, 0.2% and 0.3% and 0%, 0.1% and 0.2%, respectively, by weight of cement to produce the lightweight concrete with different densities. The performance of mechanical properties, thermal conductivity, ultrasonic pulse velocity, density, modulus of elasticity, acoustic impedance and scanning electron microscopy were studied and discussed.
Findings
Results showed that aerated-expended polystyrene beads concrete had the most suitable properties when the proportions of aluminum waste powder and expanded polystyrene beads were 0.2% and 0.1%, respectively. The compressive strength, density, thermal conductivity and acoustic impedance were 38.5 MPa, 1,768 Kg/m3, 0.358 W/(m.k) and 4.91 Kg/m2 s, respectively.
Originality/value
The experimental work was done using aluminum scrap waste powder as an expanding agent to produce aerated concrete and combining it with expanded polystyrene bead concrete to produce structural aerated-polystyrene concrete, which contains fine materials (silica fume and local natural raw limestone) and superplasticizers.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
The authors thankfully acknowledge Universiti Sains Malaysia for its great support in the current work. Also, the authors thank Mustansiriyah University.
Declaration of competing interest: The authors declare that they have no financial interests or relationships that might appear to influence the work reported in this paper.
Data availability: All data and parameters will be provided upon request.
Citation
Abdulhussein, S.S., Johari, I. and Fawzi, N.M. (2024), "Mechanical properties of sustainable structural aerated-polystyrene concrete", World Journal of Engineering, Vol. ahead-of-print No. ahead-of-print. https://doi.org/10.1108/WJE-01-2024-0047
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
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