Properties comparison of concrete using lightweight aggregate with different water conditions and natural aggregate

Abstract

As the lightweight aggregate used to reduce the weight of concrete has a high absorption rate, low density, and reduced liquidity in the concrete, pre-wetting is performed on the lightweight aggregate, but it is very difficult to have a uniform moisture content. In this study, concrete was tested on an air dried (ad) lightweight aggregate without pre-wetting, and concrete using natural aggregate was compared with concrete using a crude lightweight aggregate to analyze its characteristics according to the moisture conditions. The results of the experiment show that absorption of combined water resulted in a more fluid loss than natural aggregate concrete, and that the series of oven dried (od) lightweight aggregates with no moisture content. Overall, the w/b reduction effect of lightweight aggregate absorption increased, and the compressive strength was higher than that of natural aggregate concrete, but the elastic modulus factor of the aggregate itself was also reduced. Therefore, it is deemed that the pre-wetting method performed to enhance the demand of lightweight aggregates and that it also used in air dried state.