Cellular Lightweight Concrete

Published on 19 May 2022. Written by Reddy Shekar

Concrete is a foremost important material in the construction industry due to its vast applications. With the recent development in concrete technology, new and advanced types of concrete making methodologies are emerging.

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Cellular Lightweight Concrete (CLC) is such new advanced technology. Lightweight concrete has many advantages and applications compared to normal conventional concrete.

About Cellular Lightweight Concrete:

Cellular lightweight concrete is a concrete product consist of Portland cement, cement-pozzolan, lime-pozzolan, lime-silica and cement silica pastes. This type of concrete will attain the homogenous void or cell structure with the help of gas-forming chemicals of foaming agents. The unique factor in the lightweight concrete is that the density can be controlled by adding the foam or gas by foam generator.

There are many types of admixtures are available to prepare the lightweight concrete. Among all the types of admixtures, fly ash considered as one of the best admixtures for making the lightweight concrete. Because it solves the disposal of fly ash waste and at the same time it reduces the cost of construction. With the help of this new technology, it is possible to achieve a large volume by less amount of concrete.

Materials used:

1. Cement
2. Coarse aggregate
3. Water
4. Sand
5. Fly ash

Project Implementation:

1. The manufacturing process of lightweight concrete is much similar to the normal concrete.
2. Use of foam generating machine is the only one additional step involved in this manufacturing process.
3. Prepare the mixture of a slurry of cement, sand, water and fly ash.
4. Then, pour this wet mixture of slurry into the assembled moulds or formwork.
5. Introduce gas or foam to the concrete mix by means of foam generator to produce lightweight concrete.
6. Note that, the foam produced using foam generator should stable for a time duration far beyond the final setting time of cement. For creating permanent voids in hardened structure thus imparting lightness.

Applications:

The lightweight concrete used in the following areas,

1. Construction of partition of walls and panel walls.
2. Insulating water pipes.
3. Heat insulation on roofs.
4. Surface rendered for external walls.
5. It is also used for reinforced concrete.
6. Construction of non load-bearing internal external walls.

Conclusion:

With this wide range of applications, cellular lightweight concrete is becoming a superior alternative to normal concrete.

Kit required to develop Cellular Lightweight Concrete:

• Cement
• Sand
• Water
• fly ash

Technologies you will learn by working on Cellular Lightweight Concrete:

• Lightweight concrete
• Concrete technology

Any Questions?