Optimization of Preparation of Foamed Concrete Based on Orthogonal Experiment and Range Analysis

Abstract

For the purpose of reducing the energy consumption and construction cost of buildings, the preparation process of geopolymer based foamed concrete, which is a novel material of the wall and roof of building, had been studied in detail. Water glass and sodium hydroxide were used as the alkali activator to excite the mixture consists of slag, fly ash and Kaolin to form the geopolymer matrix, and finally the foams generated using the physical foaming method were filled into the geopolymer matrix to produce geopolymer-based foamed concrete blocks. In the preparation process, firstly one of the four parameters of foam content, water-binder ratio, water glass content, and water glass modulus had been changed separately to study the influence of a single factor on the compressive strength, dry density, thermal conductivity and specific strength of foamed concrete blocks. The experimental results show that the above four factors have different degrees of influence on the concerned performances. Next, some representative combinations of these factors were constructed by orthogonal experiment method, and the influence degree of each combination on the concerned performances was determined by means of range analysis. According to the results of analysis, the most important influencing factor in terms of thermal conductivity was the water-binder ratio, followed by foam content, water glass modulus and water glass content. When the foam content is 1.58%, the water-binder ratio is 0.45, the water glass content is 30%, and the water glass modulus is 1.2, the thermal conductivity of the prepared geopolymer foam concrete reaches 0.044 W/(m·K), which satisfies the expected requirements for heating in severe cold areas.

Flow field characteristic of water jet with air ring protective layer under submerged environment and the orthogonal optimization of nozzle structure

“…Range analysis has the advantages of simple calculation and intuitive results in processing orthogonal test data 38,39 . Therefore, the range analysis was used to investigate the influence degree of different nozzle structural parameters on jet impinge performance.…”

“…Range analysis has the advantages of simple calculation and intuitive results in processing orthogonal test data. 38,39 Therefore, the range analysis was used to investigate the influence degree of different nozzle structural parameters on jet impinge performance. Based on the orthogonal numerical simulation results given in Table 4, the sum K ij of the simulation results of factor j under level i and its average value k ij were calculated.…”

The Mechanical Properties of Gangue Paste Material for Deep Mines: An Experimental and Model Study

“…Range analysis [ 31 , 32 ], also known as intuitive analysis method, is a fast and simple analysis process. It only needs to calculate the average response value ( represents factor, represents level) of different levels of each influencing factor, and calculate the range (R) of corresponding index of each influencing factor level according to the average response value , and determine the primary and secondary relationship of influencing factors according to the value of R.…”

Effects of Rare Earth Oxides on the Mechanical and Tribological Properties of Phenolic-Based Hybrid Nanocomposites

“…The effects of the three factors on the hardness, impact strength, compressive strength, shear strength, friction coefficient, and wear rate of the phenolic-based nanocomposite friction materials were analyzed by employing the range analysis method to study the results of the orthogonal experimental design. Range analysis is a statistical method used to determine the factors’ sensitivity to the experimental result according to the orthogonal experiment [ 41 , 42 ]. Range is defined as the distance between the extreme values of the data.…”