PRODUCTION OF FOAMED CONCRETE WITH A METHOD OF MIXING

Norasyikin ht. Md. Yusof

Bachelor of Engineering with Honours (Civil Engineering)

2009

UNIVERSITI MALAYSIA SARA WAK

BORANGPENGESAHAN

JUDUL: PRODUCTION OF FOAMED CONCRETE WITH A METHOD OF MIXING

SESI PENGAJIAN: 2009-2010

Saya NORASYIKIN BT. MD YUSOF (HURUF BESAR)

mengaku membenarkan tesis * ini elisimpan di Pusat Khidmat Maklumat Akademik, Universiti Malaysia Sarawak dengan syarat-syarat kegunaan seperti berikut:

1. Tesis adalah hakmilik Universiti Malaysia Sarawak. 2. Pusat Khidmat Maklumat Akademik, Universiti Malaysia Sarawak dibenarkan membuat

salinan untuk tujuan pengajian sahaja. 3. Membuat pendigitan untuk membangunkan Pangkalan Data Kandungan Tempatan. 4. Pusat Khidmat Maklumat Akademik, Universiti Malaysia Sarawak dibenarkan membuat

salinan tesis ini sebagai bahan pertukaran antara institusi pengajian tinggi. 5. ** Sila tandakan ( ...j ) eli kotak yang berkenaan

D SULIT (Mengandungi maklumat yang berdarjah keselamatan atau kepentingan Malaysia seperti yang termaktub di dalam AKTA RAHSIA RASMI 1972).

TERHAD (Mengandungi maklumat TERHAD yang telah ditentukan oleh organisasi/badan di mana penyelidikan dijalankan).

TIDAK TERHAD

Disahkan oleh

(TANDATANGAN PENULIS) (TANDATANGAN PENYELIA)

Alamat Tetap: Pos l14A Bt 5 1f4 JIn Muar, Mukim 2 Bagan,

DR MOHAMMAD IBRAHIM SAF A WI (Nama Penyelia)

Tarikh:

Catatan:

83000 Batu Pahat, Johor.

Tarikh: ---------------- ----------------

* Tesis dimaksudkan sebagai tesis bagi Ijazah Doktor Falsafah, Sarjana dan Sarjana Muda. ** Jika tesis ini SULIT atau TERHAD, sila lampirkan surat daripada pihak berkuasaJorganisasi berkenaan dengan menyatakan sekali sebab dan tempoh tesis ini perlu dikelaskan sebagai SULIT atau TERHAD.

This project report attached here to, entitle "PRODUCTION OF FOAMED

CONCRETE WITH A METHOD OF MIXING" prepared and submitted by

NORASYIKIN BT. MD YUSOF (13431) as a partial fulfillment of the requirement

for degree of Bachelor of Engineering with Honors in Civil Engineering is hereby

read and approve by:

(Dr Mohammad Ibrahim Safawi)

Project Supervisor

Faculty of Engineering

Universiti Malaysia Sarawak

Date:

PRODUCTION OF FOAMED CONCRETE WITH A METHOD OF MIXING

NORASYIKIN BT. MD. YUSOF

This project is submitted to Faculty of Engineering,

University Malaysia Sarawak in partial fulfilment of the requirement for the

Degree of Bachelor of Engineering with Honours (Civil Engineering) 2009

For my beloved father and mother,

Sister, Brother in law, younger brother and fiance

Thanks for everything.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Alhamdulillah, first and foremost, thank you to Allah S.W.T with His

companion, guidance, and wishes this project complete successfully. Thanks to my

supervisor, Dr. Mohd Ibrahim Safawi B.Mohd Zain for his help, guidance and

attention in accomplishing this thesis successfully.

Special thanks also for UNIMAS Civil Engineering Laboratory technicians

En Nur Adha b. Hj Abdul Wahab for their help and cooperation during laboratory

work. Their willingness to share their knowledge and time with me during the

research is a valuable experience.

I would like to express my utmost thanks and gratitude to my beloved family,

my mother, father, sister, brother in law, younger brother and my fiance. I would

never have been able to complete this thesis without your continuous love and

support.

Lastly, not forgetting to all my coursemates and friends, who give me support

and help whenever I needed them.

ABSTRACT

In the history of the construction industry, lightweight concrete or foamed

concrete is a special concrete which can very useful in the construction sector

because it is very lightweight and it can compact by itself at each angle of foamwork.

Many researchers have been done in overseas, and show that foamed concrete is free

flowing material which is ideal for wide range of application. Moreover, material

used to produce concrete is cheap to normal concrete. The objective of this thesis is

to determine strength of concrete by using different material such as superplasticizer

and without using superplasticizer follow by mixing by using water and without

using water. The addition of chemical admixture such as superplasticizer (in the

form of liquid) can help achieve as it can produce mortar of normal workability but

with an extremely high strength owing to a very substantial reduction in the

water/cement ratio. There are three test that been through at concrete laboratory such

as Flow Table Test, Curing Test and Strength test in order to understand and look out

character of the concrete. An inspection from this project can show the nature of

foamed concrete when strength test will be done.

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ABSTRAK

Dalam sejarah industri pembinaan, konkrit ringan atau konkrit busa adalah

konkrit khas yang amat berguna dalam industry pembinaan kerana sifatnya yang

ringan dan boleh mampat dengan sendiri di dalam setiap ruang acuan. Banyak kajian

yang telah dijalankan di luar Negara, menunjukkan bahawa konkrit busa mempunyai

sifat yang mengalir dengan sendiri di mana ianya digunakan secara meluas.

Tambahan lagi, bahan yang digunakan untuk menghasilkan konkrit ini murah dan

dapat mengurangkan kos pembinaan. Tujuan kajian ini dijalankan adalah untuk

menentukan kekuatan konkrit dengan mengunakan bahan yang berbeza seperti bahan

menggunkan superpemplastikan dan tidak mengunakan bahan superpemplastikan

diikuti dengan campuran yang mengandungi air dan campuran yang tidak

menggunkan air. Penambahan bahan tambah kimia seperti superpemplastikan

(dalam bentuk cecair) dapat membantu untuk menghasilkan ciri yang lebih baik

dengan menghasilkan mortar dengan kebolehkerjaan biasa bagi mempunyai kekuatan

yang tinggi apabila nisbah airlsimen dikurangkan. Terdapat tiga jenis ujian yang

dijalankan seperti ujian kebolehkerjaan, ujian rendaman dan ujian kekuatan untuk

mengetahui dan melihat sifat-sifat concrete tersebut. Pemerhatian daripada kajian ini

menunjukkan sifat konkrit buih apabila ujian kekuatan dilaksanakan.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

CONTENT Page

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

ABSTRACT II

ABSTRAK III

TABLE OF CONTENT IV

LIST OF TABLE VIll

LIST OF FIGURE IX

CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background 1

1.2 Objectives of Study 2

1.3 Limitation of Study 2

1.4 Outline of the Thesis 3

CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1 Introduction 6

2.2 Foam Concrete 6

2.3 Type of Foamed concrete

2.3.1 Wet Foam 8

2.3.2 Dry Foam 8

2.4 Method of mixing 9

IV

2.4.1 Inline System (Wet Method)

2.4.2 Inline System (Dry Method)

2.4.3 Pre-foamed Method

2.5 Water Cement Ratio

2.6 Strength Criteria

2.7 Material Properties

2.8 Characteristic of Foamed Concrete

2.9 Typical Application

2.10 Mixer

2.10.1 Drum Mixer

2.10.2 Rotating Drum Mixer

2.11 Superplasticizer

2.11.1 Nature of Superplasticizer

2.11.2 Advantages of Superplasticizer

2.11.3 Characteristic of mortar using Superplasticizer

2.12 Pozzolan

2.13 Pulverised Fuel Ash

2.12.1 Benefit of Fly Ash

2.14 Properties of Mortar

CHAPTER 3 METHODOLOGY

3.1

3.2

3.3

General

Preparation of Foamed Concrete

Mixing Procedure

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3.3.1 Mixing with Super plasticizer 33

3.3.2 Mixing without Super plasticizer 34

3.4 Equipment 35

3.4.1 Flow Table Test 35

3.4.2 Drum Mixer 36

3.4.3 Mortar Mixer 36

3.4.4 Foam Generator 37

3.4.5 Air Compressor 38

3.4.6 Cylinder 38

3.4.7 Formwork 39

3.5 Material use in Experiment 40

3.5.1 Cement 40

3.5.2 Water 41

3.5.3 Sand 41

3.5.4 Forming agent 42

3.5.5 Super Plasticizer 42

3.5.6 Pozzolan 43

3.6 Experimental Program 43

3.6.1 Casting 45

3.6.2 Curing 46

3.7 Production of Foamed Concrete 46

3.7.1 Flow Table Test 47

3.7.2 Strength Test 48

3.7 Summary 48

VI

CHAPTER 4 RESULT AND ANALYSIS

4.1 Introduction

4.2 Compressive Strength Test

4.3 Mortar Flow Test

4.4 Summary

CHAPTER 5 CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION

5.1 General

5.2 Conclusion

5.3 Recommendation

REFERENCES

APPENDIX

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LIST OF TABLE

Tables Page

Table 2.1 Typical Properties of Foamed Concrete 13

Table 2.2 Main Features and Characteristic of Foamed Concrete 16

Table 2.3 Classification, Composition and Particle characteristic

ofPozzolan for Concrete 22

Table 2.4 Typical Properties ofPF A 25

Table 3.1 Sample of mix 42

Table 3.2 Fine Aggregates Grading 44

Table 3.3 Sample without Water 44

Table 3.4 Sample with Water 44

Table 3.5 Sample Without Superplasticizer 44

Table 3.6 Sample with Superplasticizer 44

Table 3.7 Material used for Sample 45

Table 4.1 Mortar Flow Table Test Result without Water 58

Table 4.2 Mortar Flow Table Test Result with Water 59

Table 4.3 Mortar Flow Table Test Result without Superplasticizer 60

Table 4.4 Mortar Flow Table Test Result with Superplasticizer 61

V111

LIST OF FIGURES

Figures Page

Figure 2.1 Micrograph ofPF A 25

Figure 3.1 Flow Table Test 35

Figure 3.2 Drum Mixer 36

Figure 3.3 Concrete / Mortar mixer 37

Figure 3.4 Foam Generator 37

Figure 3.5 Air Compressor 38

Figure 3.6 Cylinder 39

Figure 3.7 Polystyrene mould 39

Figure 3.8 Cement 40

Figure 3.9 Sand 41

Figure 3.10 Pulverized Fly Ash 43

Figure 3.11 Flow Table Test 47

Figure 3.12 Strength Test 48

Figure 4.1 Result Average Compressive Strength 50

Figure 4.2 Result Average Compressive Strength 52

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Figure 4.3 Result Average Compressive Strength 53

Figure 4.4 Result Average Compressive Strength 54

Figure 4.5 Result Average Compressive Strength 55

Figure 4.6 Cube D5 56

Figure 4.7 Cube D1 57

Figure 4.8 Flow Table Test without water 58

Figure 4.9 Flow Table Test with Water 59

Figure 4.10 Flow Table Test using Superplasticizer 60

Figure 4.11 Flow Table Test without using Superplasticizer 61

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CHAPTERl

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background

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.

Basically, there are two method of producing foamed concrete such as pre-

foam method and inline method. The inline method can divided into wet method and

dry method. To produces foamed concrete, there are two type of foam will be used

by wet foam and dry foam. A foamed concrete is described as having an air content

of more than 25% which distinguishes it from highly air entrained materials.

Foamed concrete may have density from as low 500kg/m3 to 1600kg/m3 and strength

from less than IN/mm2 to 25N/mm2 .

1

The strength of foamed concrete will be affected by the cement content of the

mix, the water/cement ratio, the proportion of cement to sand and the properties of

the sand. High compressive strength is generally achieved by using high cement

content, a low water/cement ratio and a sand.

Basically, the workability test and strength test will be tested to investigate

properties of foamed concrete. To measure of workability test and strength test will

be tested in the experiment such as slump test. This concrete will be tested before

concrete is casting into mould, therefore the fresh concrete will be used to determine

the workability of concrete mix, and after the concrete harden, strength test will be

measure on 7 days and 28 days.

1.2 Objectives of Study

The aims of this project were to investigate and to improving of workability of

foamed concrete. There are two main objectives of the project are:

1. To produce foamed concrete in laboratory.

11. To determine the effectiveness of using super plasticizer in mortar.

111. To determine and compared strength of foamed concrete, first using super

plasticizer and secondly without using super plasticizer.

2

1.3 Limitation of Study

Foamed concrete is one field that is too wide to discuss. To achieve the

objective of this project, the study is just to focus on the related foamed concrete.

The following are the main limitation of study:

1. This study also by using target density lOOOkg/m3

11. These theses also look out by using water and without water followed by

using super plasticizer and without using super plasticizer.

1.4 Outline of the Thesis

This thesis contains five chapters starting with the introduction in chapter 1,

followed by literature review in chapter 2 and methodology in chapter 3. Chapter 4

also contains result and analysis and the end of the thesis is providing conclusion and

recommendation in chapter 5.

• Chapter 1: Introduction

This chapter discusses about background of foamed concrete and the

objectives and followed by limitation of study.

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• Chapter 2: Literature Review

This chapter discussed the detail about foamed concrete and properties of

foamed concrete and the application. The properties are strength, water

cement ratio, density and cement content. The application is using a foam

concrete that depend to the density of foam concrete. In this chapter also

discussed about the production of the foamed concrete.

• Chapter 3: Methodology

This chapter discussed about equipment used to produce foam concrete, the

material and mix proportion. In this chapter also contain the test uses to

achieved the objectives this project. The test is checking the strength and

workability of the foamed concrete.

• Chapter 4: Analysis and Discussion

This chapter analyzed and discussed about the data obtained from

experiments.

4

• Chapter 5: Conclusion and Recommendation

This chapter discussed the conclusion base on data and the recommendation

for the further work.

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CHAPTER 2

LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1 Introduction

This thesis is to produce the foam concrete and test the foamed concrete at

laboratory to identify the suitable density and the mix proportion to use for produce

the foam concrete for structure. All properties of foamed concrete like dry density,

compressive strength, thermal conductivity, and drying shrinkage are describe in this

chapter. Also describe in this chapter is the typical application and the production of

foam concrete.

2.2 Foam 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. A foamed concrete

is described as having an air content of more than 25% which distinguishes it from

highly air entrained materials. Foamed concrete may have density from as low

500kg/m3 to 1600kg/m3 and strength from less than IN/mm2 to 25N/mm2 .

6

The stable foam is the most important gradient in the production of foamed

concrete. The foaming generator made foam, where is blend of sand, cement, and

water (the base mix) and foaming agent either protein or synthetic are mixed and

produced stable foam is foamed.

According to a study by (Norizal, 2002) state that foams from protein foaming

agent comes from natural sources and has a weight of around 80g/litre and expansion

of about 12.5 x using portaform foam generator. They generally are more stable then

synthetic foams but have a shorter shelf life of about 12 month in open conditions.

They also give a higher strength of concrete compared to synthetic foams. This is

suitable for densities from 400kg/m3 to 1600kg/m3 .

According to a study by (Norizal, 2002) state that synthetic foams have density

of about 40g/litre with an expansion of about 25 x using portafoam. They are very

stable at concrete densities above 1000kg/m3 and give good strength. Their shelf life

is about 16month under sealed condition. This is suitable for densities of 1000kg/m3

and above.

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2.3 Type of foam concrete

2.3.1 Wet foam

Wet foam is produced by spraymg a solution of foaming agent (usually

synthetic) and water over a fine mesh. This action causes a drop in pressure across

the mesh allowing air to be sucked from atmosphere to equal the pressure. This

equalization of pressure causes the solution to expand into what can best be

described as a foamed similar in appearance to bubble bath foam. With the bubble

size ranging 2-Smm. The foam has a large "loose" bubble structure and although

relatively stable it is not recommended for the production of low density (below

1100kg/m3) foamed materials. It is also not suitable for pumping long distance or

pouring to any great depth.

When tends to happen is that as pressure on the materials increases (this pressure

increase can be as simple as pouring the material over a certain depth), the bubble

basically burst causing a decrease in yield along with an increase in density.

2.3.2 Dry foam

Dry foam is produced by forcing a similar solution of foaming agent and water

through a series of high density restrictions whilst at the same time forcing

compressed air into a mixing chamber. The action of forcing this pressurized air into

the solution expands the solution into thick, tight foam, similar in appearance to

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shaving foam. The bubble size is typically less than lmm in diameter and of an even

size. The type of foam is extremely stable and these stable properties are passed onto

the foamed materials when the foam is blended with the base materials.

As detailed previously this stability is particularly important when the ratio of

foam to base materials is greater than 50:50. When the foam becomes the dominant

partner within the mix it has to retain its stability to avoid collapse during, pumping,

curing, and pouring. Foamed concrete produced using dry foam can be pumped

further, poured deeper and exhibits better flow characteristics than a like for like mix

produced with a wet foam system.

2.4 Method of Mixing

There are two method of producing foamed concrete such as pre-foamed method

and the inline method:-

2.4.1 Inline system (Wet method)

This system has been driven in the main part by the need for both higher product

quality control and the commercial requirement for lower density material. These

systems incorporate the same type of foam generator and foaming chemicals as used

in the pre-foam method, but differ in that it except wet base materials into an abroad

hopper and add the foam through a completely separate process together.

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