Design Efficiency, Characteristics, and Utilization of Reinforced Foamed Concrete: A Review

Abstract

Foam concrete (FC) serves as an efficient construction material that combines well thermal insulation and structural properties. The studies of material characteristics, including the mechanical, physical, rheological, and functional properties of lightweight concrete, have been conducted rigorously. However, a lack of knowledge on the design efficiency of reinforced FC (RFC) was found in current research trends, compared to reinforced lightweight aggregate concrete. Therefore, this paper presents a review of the performance and adaption in structures for RFC. According to the code specifications, the feasibility investigation was preliminarily determined in structural use through the summary for the mechanical properties of FC of FC’s mechanical properties. For reinforced concrete design, a direct method of reduction factors is introduced to design lightweight aggregate concrete, which is also suggested to be adapted into a lightweight FC design. It was found that flexural shear behavior is a more complex theoretical analysis than flexure. However, a reduction factor of 0.75 was recommended for shear, torsion, and compression; meanwhile, 0.6 for flexural members. Serviceability limit states design should be applied, as the crack was found predominant in RFC design. The deflection controls were recommended as 0.7 by previous research. Research on RFC’s compression members, such as a column or load load-bearing wall, were rarely found. Thus, further study for validating a safe design of RFC applications in construction industries today is highly imperative.

Thermal Behavior and Energy Efficiency of Modified Concretes in the Tropical Climate: A Systemic Review

“…Several factors affect the concrete thermal conductivity [55]. For instance, the type of aggregate [56,57], the properties of cementitious materials [58][59][60][61][62][63][64][65][66], moisture content [67,68], design buildup [69][70][71][72][73][74], temperature [75,76], concrete density [12,[77][78][79][80], etc. The measurement of concrete thermal conduction is divided into steady-state and transient methods [81].…”

“…In the concrete industry, there are several solutions to reduce the carbon footprint, such as phase-change materials [108][109][110], lightweight concrete [11,12,55,[111][112][113], or cementfree concrete [59,65]. Some of these reduce the carbon footprint through minimising the use of cement since its production contributes much carbon to the environment, while some solutions provide more long-term effects on building performance or services.…”

“…Lightweight concrete is an alternative in achieving both mechanical and functional properties when relating to thermal performance [11,12,55,113]. From non-structural (brick, 5 MPa) to structural uses (17 MPa), the concrete densities can range between 1000 to 1800 or 2000 kg/m 3 for foamed concrete [11,134] or lightweight aggregate concrete.…”

“…The thermal bridging of concrete tends to let the heat from outside transfer indoors through the conductivity of building materials [3]. There are many efforts introduced to regulate indoor temperature from outdoor thermal fluctuation, for instance, with lightweight concretes [3,11,12], insulation panels [13], etc. Even so, the unnecessary gross energy consumption for mitigating human thermal discomfort within the building compound, especially in tropic climates, remains unavoidably high, thus resulting in massive energy consumption through cooling systems.…”

Foam Glass Crystalline Granular Material from a Polymineral Raw Mix

“…Numerous developments in recent years are devoted to expanding the raw material base of porous aggregates for lightweight concrete [40][41][42][43][44][45]. The technology of granulated glass-ceramic foam materials from silica industrial waste is actively developing [46,47].…”