The effect of blast furnace slag on the self-compactability of pumice aggregate lightweight concrete

This paper presents the results of an experimental study of the effects of blast furnace slag, different water/(cement+mineral additive) ratios and pumice aggregates on some physical and mechanical properties of self-compacting lightweight aggregate concrete. In this study, pumice was used as lightweight aggregate. Several properties of self-compacting pumice aggregate lightweight concretes, such as unit weight, flow diameter, T50 time, flow diameter after an hour, V-funnel time, and L-box tests, 7, 28, 90 and 180-day compressive strength, 28-day splitting tensile strength, dry unit weight, water absorption, thermal conductivity and ultrasonic pulse velocity tests, were conducted. For this purpose, 18 series of concrete samples were prepared in two groups. In the first group, pumice aggregate at 100% replacement of natural aggregate was used in the production of self-compacting lightweight aggregate concrete with constant w/(c+m) ratios as 0.35, 0.40, and 0.45 by weight. Furthermore, as a second group, pumice aggregate was used as a replacement of natural aggregate, at the levels of 0, 20, 40, 60, 80, and 100% by volume. Flow diameters, T50 times, paste volumes, 28-day compressive strengths, dry unit weights, thermal conductivities and ultrasonic pulse velocity of self-compacting lightweight aggregate concrete were obtained over the range of 600-770 mm, 3-9 s, 435-540 l/m(3), 10.6-65.0 MPa, 845-2278 kg/m(3), 0.363-1.694 W/mK and 2617-4770 m/s respectively, which satisfies not only the strength requirement of semi-structural lightweight concrete but also the flowing ability requirements and thermal conductivity requirements of self-compacting lightweight aggregate concrete.