30 years of rubberized concrete investigations (1990-2020). A bibliometric analysis

This work presents a bibliometric study of the literature on the use of caucho in the construction to promote the interest of using rubber as a prime material to reduce pollution at a global level. Published papers in the period 1999-2020 in both databases, Scopus and Web of Science (WoS), are taken into account using the Methodi Ordinatio and the VOSviewer software. A total of 967 documents on the use of rubber in structural and non-structural concrete have been published in this period and 1182 authors have contributed on the subject. Since 2010, the interest of researchers in introducing rubber in construction has increased. China, USA and Australia are the countries with the greatest interest in investigating about rubber-concrete.

Lightweight Structural Concrete

Using of Lightweight concrete (LWC) amounts to a lower cost and a better thermal performance due to its unique properties and light density. The main disadvantage in using lightweight concrete is that its mechanical properties are relatively poor. An effective method to improve the mechanical properties of lightweight concrete is using a dosage of nano-silica in the concrete mix. The gained enhancement of mechanical properties promotes a more serious discussion of structural applications of lightweight concrete. There exists an optimum dosage of nano-silica by which the mechanical properties enhancement is maximized. Increasing the nano-silica content beyond the optimum dosage degrades the mechanical properties. However, a fixed optimum dosage is not agreed upon in literature. This paper investigates the optimum dosage of NS to enhance the mechanical properties and microstructure of a lightweight concrete made with lightweight expanded clay aggregates (LECA). The results concluded that a dosage of 0.75% of nano-silica is optimum for the studied lightweight concrete mixes.