Functional and strength characteristics of EPS beads incorporated foam concrete wall panels

The study deals with the usage of perforated foam of various percentages to that of coarse aggregate to produce light weight concrete. With the day to day increase in industries and civilization’s expansion it has become very much necessary to produce structures with proficiently lesser weight. Its usage has become more proficient in construction of building in earthquake prone areas. This experimental investigation deals with the study of strength parameters of light weight concrete by performing various strength test and its various behavior s such as compression, tensile and flexure are studied by adding preformed foam at various proportions of 0%, 2%, 5%, 10%, 20% and 40%. All these strength parameter test are performed on 7th day, 14th day and 28th day respectively from day of casting

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Evaluation of fire performance of lightweight concrete wall panels using finite element analysis

Journal of Structural Fire Engineering ◽

10.1108/jsfe-10-2020-0030 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽

Author(s):

Irindu Upasiri ◽

Chaminda Konthesingha ◽

Anura Nanayakkara ◽

Keerthan Poologanathan ◽

Brabha Nagaratnam ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Finite Element ◽

Lightweight Concrete ◽

Lightweight Aggregate ◽

Lightweight Aggregate Concrete ◽

Fire Performance ◽

Concrete Wall ◽

Aggregate Concrete ◽

Content Type ◽

Wall Panels ◽

Foamed Concrete

Purpose In this study, the insulation fire ratings of lightweight foamed concrete, autoclaved aerated concrete and lightweight aggregate concrete were investigated using finite element modelling. Design/methodology/approach Lightweight aggregate concrete containing various aggregate types, i.e. expanded slag, pumice, expanded clay and expanded shale were studied under standard fire and hydro–carbon fire situations using validated finite element models. Results were used to derive empirical equations for determining the insulation fire ratings of lightweight concrete wall panels. Findings It was observed that autoclaved aerated concrete and foamed lightweight concrete have better insulation fire ratings compared with lightweight aggregate concrete. Depending on the insulation fire rating requirement of 15%–30% of material saving could be achieved when lightweight aggregate concrete wall panels are replaced with the autoclaved aerated or foamed concrete wall panels. Lightweight aggregate concrete fire performance depends on the type of lightweight aggregate. Lightweight concrete with pumice aggregate showed better fire performance among the normal lightweight aggregate concretes. Material saving of 9%–14% could be obtained when pumice aggregate is used as the lightweight aggregate material. Hydrocarbon fire has shown aggressive effect during the first two hours of fire exposure; hence, wall panels with lesser thickness were adversely affected. Originality/value Finding of this study could be used to determine the optimum lightweight concrete wall type and the optimum thickness requirement of the wall panels for a required application.

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