Practical Approach for Assessing Lightweight Aggregate Potential for Concrete Performance

Abstract

The properties and amount of lightweight aggregates used in a concrete mixture can significantly influence its mechanical properties and density. Nevertheless, such influence cannot be accurately described and used in practical application without an extensive experimental work. A practical evaluation method for assessing the influence of lightweight aggregate on concrete properties is required to anticipate the performance of concrete in advance and chose the most suitable lightweight aggregate for a certain structural application. In this paper, existing models are reviewed, generalized, and validated to obtain a methodology for assessing the potential of the lightweight aggregates to provide a specified concrete density, modulus of elasticity, and compressive strength. A practical evaluation methodology is proposed and validated with four different lightweight aggregates, obtaining correlations between measured and estimated density; modulus of elasticity; and compressive strength of 93.4, 84.8, and 91.7%, respectively. Therefore, this methodology allows practical and reliable comparison and selection of lightweight aggregates based on only one trial mixture.