Available online at www.sciencedirect.

com
Construction
and Building

Construction and Building Materials 22 (2008) 1108–1113

MATERIALS
www.elsevier.com/locate/conbuildmat

Experimental application of mineral admixtures in lightweight

concrete with high strength and workability
a,* b
Bing Chen , Juanyu Liu
a
Department of Civil Engineering, Shanghai Jiaotong University, Shanghai 200240, PR China
b
Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Alaska Fairbanks, Fairbanks, AK 99775-5900, United States

Received 18 October 2006; accepted 6 March 2007

Available online 23 April 2007

Abstract

The effects of mineral admixtures including fly ash (FA), blast furnace slag (BS) and silica fume (SF) on workable high strength light-
weight concrete were investigated. The results showed that both BS and SF can effectively improve the bonding of the mixtures, and then
improve the concrete strength at both early and late age; however, there is a tradeoff of workability of the mixtures. FA can greatly
improve the workability of the mixture; however, associated bleeding deteriorates the homogeneity of the mixture. Combining FA
and BS provides the optimum HSLC with good workability and strength.
Ó 2007 Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Keywords: FA; BS; SF; Lightweight concrete

1. Introduction characteristics of GHPC is that using different types of

In view of the global sustainable development, it is
imperative that supplementary cementing materials be used
in replace of cement in the concrete industry [1]. The most
worldwide available supplementary cementing materials
are SF, a byproduct of the reduction of high-purity quartz
with coal in electric furnaces in the production of silicon
and ferrosilicon alloys, which is also collected as a byprod-
uct in the production of other silicon alloys such as ferro-
chromium, ferromanganese, ferromagnesium, and
calcium silicon (ACI Comm. 226 1987b), and FA, a by-
product of thermal powder stations, and BS, a by-product
of steel mill. It is estimated that approximately 600 million
tons of FA are available worldwide now, but at present, the
current worldwide utilization rate of FA in concrete is
about 10% [2]. However, the recent development of Green
high performance concrete (GHPC) brings the abundant
utilization of these mineral mixtures [3]. One of the main
*
Corresponding author. Tel.: +86 21 5474 4255; fax: +86 21 54744255.
E-mail address: hntchen@sjtu.edu.cn (B. Chen).
mineral admixtures (FA, BS or SF) to partially replace
Portland cement. When these different reactive mineral
admixtures are added into concrete at the same time, they
develop their own characteristics with the development. SF
can increase the strength of the concrete significantly, how-
ever, it affects the workability of the fresh concrete greatly,
while adding large amount of FA to the concrete benefits
the workability of the concrete but not to the strength. In
addition, those mineral admixtures show different effects
on the strength of the concrete within different ages due
to their different pozzolan reactions [4–6].
Lightweight aggregate concrete (LWAC) has been suc-
cessfully used and investigated for structural purpose for
many years due to a lot of advantages including higher
strength weight ratio, better tensile strain capacity, lower
coefficient of thermal expansion, and superior heat and
sound insulation characteristic due to air voids in the
lightweight aggregate [7–14]. Due to the lightweight and
inner voids, the lightweight aggregates can easily absorb
water and float during the mixing of the cement paste,
which deteriorates the workability of the mixture and

0950-0618/$ - see front matter Ó 2007 Published by Elsevier Ltd.

doi:10.1016/j.conbuildmat.2007.03.001
 B. Chen, J. Liu / Construction and Building Materials 22 (2008) 1108–1113 1109

the strength of lightweight concrete. Some researches have 57.8 N/mm2 (MPa), which was determined according to
shown that mineral admixtures can enhance the workabil- ISO 679:1989. The SF used was a dry uncompacted powder
ity of concrete mixture and its strength [4–6]. However, from Elkem Materials with SiO2 content of 92.4%. The
little research has been done on LWAC with mineral amount retained on a 45 lm sieve was 1.6%. The FA and
admixtures, not to mention the combination of several BS were provided by Shanghai Wujing power plants and
types of mineral admixtures. Hence, this study tried add- Shaofeng cement factory of Hunan, respectively. The
ing mineral admixtures to LWAC. Rheologic and chemical composition and physical properties of the
strength properties were tested and the effects of different cement, SF, FA, and BS are given in Table 1.
mineral admixtures on the properties of LWAC were The lightweight aggregate used in this study was
investigated. expanded clay type commercially manufactured. The parti-
cle density of the dry aggregate was 1.46 g/cm3, and the
2. Experimental details bulk density was 700 ± 25 kg/m3. The particle size ranges
from 5 to 15 mm with a round but irregular shape. The
2.1. Materials and mix proportions aggregate had water absorption of 6%, 9% and 10% at
1 h, 24 h and 7 days, respectively. Medium sand with a fine-
The cement used was ASTM Type I normal Portland ness modulus of 2.80 and an apparent specific gravity of
cement (NPC), having a 28-day compressive strength of 2.64 g/cm3 was used. A naphthalene-based superplasticizer
was used.
In this study, the mix proportions are shown in Table 2.
Table 1 All mixes had 1.5% of superplasticizer by weight of cement.
Chemical composition and physical properties of mineral admixture
OPC SF BS FA 2.2. Test methods
Chemical composition (%)
Silicon dioxide (SiO2) 21.6 92.4 26.4 54.9 Before mixing, the moisture content of the lightweight
Aluminum oxide (Al2O3) 4.13 0.80 8.0 25.8 aggregate was measured. Before casting the samples, the
Ferric oxide (Fe2O3) 4.57 0.50 1.6 6.9
slump and slump flow tests of the mixture were performed.
Calcium oxide (CaO) 64.44 0.91 40.3 8.7
Magnesium oxide (MgO) 1.06 0.27 4.6 1.8 The ‘‘slump flow’’ is the average diameter of the horizontal
Sodium oxide (Na2O) 0.11 – – 0.3 flow (the largest diameter and the one orthogonal to this)
Potassium oxide (K2O) 0.56 – 0.6 0.1 after lifting Abrams’ cone.
Sulfur trioxide (SO3) 1.74 – 3.2 0.6 Cubes of 150 mm size were used for the compressive
Loss on ignition 0.76 2.0 0.4 0.2
strength tests, which were carried out in a testing machine
Physical and mechanical properties of 2000 kN capacity at a loading rate of 2.5 KN/s. The
Specific gravity (g/cm3) 3.15 2.18 2.38 2.4 results correspond to the mean values of at least three
Specific surface (cm2/g) 3410 18000 5600 4500
tests.

Table 2
Mix proportions
No. Cement Mineral admixture (kg/m3) Water (kg/m3) Lightweight aggregate Sand (kg/m3) Superplastic
(kg/m3) (kg/m3) (%)
FA BS SF
1 530 0 0 0 159 400 265 1.2
2 477 53 (10%) 0 0 159 400 265 1.0
3 424 106 (20%) 0 0 159 400 265 0.8
4 371 159 (30%) 0 0 159 400 265 0.8
5 318 212 (40%) 0 0 159 400 265 0.8

6 477 0 53 (10%) 0 159 400 265 1.0

7 424 0 106 (20%) 0 159 400 265 1.0
8 371 0 159 (30%) 0 159 400 265 1.0
9 318 0 212 (40%) 0 159 400 265 1.0

10 503.5 0 0 26.5 (5%) 159 400 265 1.0

11 477 0 0 53 (10%) 159 400 265 1.2
12 450.5 0 0 79.5 (15%) 159 400 265 1.4

13 371 132.5 (25%) 0 26.5 (5%) 159 400 265 1.0

14 371 0 132.5 (25%) 26.5 (5%) 159 400 265 1.0
15 371 79.5 (15%) 79.5 (15%) 0 159 400 265 0.8
16 371 53 (10%) 53 (10%) 53 (10%) 159 400 265 1.0
1110 B. Chen, J. Liu / Construction and Building Materials 22 (2008) 1108–1113

3. Results and discussion 62

The LWC reported by [15]
60

Compressive strength 28-day /MPa

The LWC in this paper
The compressive strength and density of the concrete are 58
summarized in Table 3. The 28-day compressive strength 56
and the dry concrete density varied from 43.4 to 54
61.0 MPa and from 1435 to 1532 kg/m3, respectively. If 52
one takes the density of normal weight concrete as 50
2300 kg/m3, there is a saving in the self-weight between 48
38% and 33%. Fig. 1 shows the relationship between the 46
density of dry concrete and the 28-day compressive 44
strength also compared to the lightweight concrete based
42
on Brazilian lightweight aggregates reported by Rossignolo
40
and Agnesini [15]. The results clearly demonstrate that the
38
lightweight concrete containing mineral admixture had 1420 1440 1460 1480 1500 1520 1540 1560 1580 1600 1620
high material efficiency (compressive-strength/density Density oven dry / kg/m3
ratio). The details about the effect of mineral admixture
Fig. 1. Relationship between 28-day compressive strength and the density
on the performance of LWAC were evaluated and dis- oven dry.
cussed below.

3.1. The effect of FA on workable LWAC
Table 4 presents the effect of the amount of FA on the
LWAC. It can be seen that, with the increase of the amount
of FA, both the slump and slump flow of the concrete
increase gradually. The FA improves the workability of
the concrete due to its ‘shape effect’. However, during the
experiment, bleeding occurred for the concrete with FA,
especially for those with more than 30% of FA content.
The up-floating aggregates resulted in poor uniformity of
the mixture. In addition, with the time of leaving the mixer,
the concrete presented different slump loss with different
amounts of FA. The concrete with 20% of FA showed
the smallest slump loss, which was 29.7% of loss after
60 min, while the concrete with 40% of FA showed the
largest slump loss, which was 36.1% of loss after 60 min.
The strength data of LWAC with FA at 7 and 28 days
are shown in Fig. 2. It can be seen that the strength of
the concrete at early age decreased after adding the FA,
which became more significant with the increase of the
amount of FA. As for the compressive strength at 28 days,
it reached the highest when the amount of the FA was 20%.
After that, it decreased with the increase of the amount of
the FA. It was mainly because at normal temperature the
pozzolan reaction of FA is a slow process. Considering
both the rheologic and strength properties, it is not sug-
gested to add the FA to the LWAC only.
3.2. The effect of BS on workable LWAC
Table 5 shows the rheologic properties of LWAC with
BS. It can be seen that with the increase of the amount
of the BS, the workability and slump flow of the concrete
were improved. Compared with the FA, at the same vol-
ume content, the LWAC with BS showed less workability
than that with FA, which was probably due to the rough

Table 3
Physical and mechanical properties of concrete
No. Bulk density (kg/m3) Compressive strength (MPa)
Fresh density Density oven dry 7-day 28-day
1 1570 1460 35.0 50.0
2 1523 1435 31.2 52.5
3 1572 1475 31.9 56.0
4 1581 1479 20.2 47.5
5 1590 1482 17.2 43.4
6 1586 1493 38.0 52.5
7 1595 1468 40.0 54.5
8 1560 1455 43.5 58.6
9 1578 1480 38.0 53.0
10 1588 1477 40.0 53.5
11 1590 1482 45.0 58.5
12 1610 1515 49.0 61.0
13 1595 1486 36.9 52.3
14 1600 1521 43.0 59.5
15 1590 1500 39.0 55.4
16 1624 1532 45.6 60.5
 B. Chen, J. Liu / Construction and Building Materials 22 (2008) 1108–1113 1111

Table 4
Effect of Fly ash content on the workability of LWC
No. FA content Slump/mm Slump flow/mm
0 min 30 min 60 min 0 min 30 min 60 min
1 0 220 213 165 516 495 445
2 10 225 210 225 539 529 495
3 20 235 217 235 543 532 496
4 30 243 215 243 548 535 498
5 40 274 226 274 550 535 497

60 70
7D 7D

Compressive strength /MPa

Compressive strength /MPa

28 D 60
50 28 D
50
40
40
30
30

20 20

10
10

0
0 0 10 20 30 40
0 10 20 30 40 BS Volume fraction /%
FA Volume fraction /%
Fig. 3. Effect of Slag volume fraction on the compressive strength of
Fig. 2. Effect of Fly ash volume fraction on the compressive strength of LWC.
LWC.

texture of the BS. However, during the experiment, the BS
can increase the viscosity of the concrete mixture and resist
the up-floating aggregates. Significant bleeding did not
occur for the concrete with BS. In addition, the concrete
with the BS showed the less slump loss than that with the
FA. For the concrete with 40% of BS, the slump loss was
only 20.2% after 60 min.
Fig. 3 presents the effect of the amount of BS on the
strength of LWAC. Due to the higher pozzolan reaction
of the BS, at the same amount, the strength of concrete
with the BS at early age was higher than that of concrete
with the FA. In addition, at each amount level, the strength
of the concrete at 28 days was higher than that at 7 days.
On comparing Fig. 3 and Table 4, it can be seen that the
workability and strength of the concrete were both highest
when the content of BS was 30%. The strengths of concrete
with BS at 7 and 28 days were higher than those of concrete
with FA by 36.4% and 4%, respectively. Hence, considering
both the rheologic and strength properties, it is feasible to
add the BS to the LWAC for high workability and strength
purposes.
3.3. The effect of SF on workable LWAC
Table 6 presents the effect of the SF on the rheologic
property of the concrete. It can be seen that adding SF
resulted in the rapid reduction of the workability of the
LWAC. The reduction degree increased with the increase
of the amount. In addition, with the time of leaving the
mixer, the concrete presented significant slump loss. How-
ever, adding SF provided significant increase of the
strength of the concrete, as shown in Fig. 4. For example,
the 7-day and 28-day strengths of concrete with 15% of SF
were higher than those of concrete without SF by almost

Table 5
Effect of blast furnace slag content on the workability of LWC
No. BS content Slump/mm Slump flow/mm
0 min 30 min 60 min 0 min 30 min 60 min
1 0 220 213 165 516 495 445
6 10 230 217 175 535 520 470
7 20 232 220 185 532 510 460
8 30 238 220 180 540 530 475
9 40 220 213 165 516 495 445
1112 B. Chen, J. Liu / Construction and Building Materials 22 (2008) 1108–1113

Table 6
Effect of Silica fume content on the workability of LWC
No. SF content Slump/mm Slump flow/mm
0 min 30 min 60 min 0 min 30 min 60 min
1 0 220 213 165 516 495 445
10 5 218 145 110 500 485 425
11 10 210 130 93 485 455 400
12 15 189 100 85 470 435 –

70 uniform concrete mixture with good workability and with-

7D
Compressive strength /MPa

out the bleeding and up-floating of aggregates. Among

60 28 D
them, the FA–BS combination enabled the best improve-
50 ment of the slump and slump flow.
40
Fig. 5 illustrates the strengths of the concrete with differ-
ent mineral admixture combinations. It can be seen that,
30 the combination of three mineral admixtures provided
20
the highest strength of both 7 days and 28 days. And the
order of the strengths of concrete with different mineral
10 admixtures according to the combinations was
0
0 5 10 15 FA–SF–BS > BS–SF > FA–BS > FA–SF
SF volume fraction /%
Therefore, considering all factors including rheologic
Fig. 4. Effect of Silica fume volume fraction on the compressive strength
of LWC. and strength properties of concrete and economic benefit,
the best combination would be the FA–BS combination
and the FA–SF–BS combination.
40% and 20%, respectively, which shows the best strength
improvement SF among those mineral admixtures used.
Nevertheless, without high-quality superplasticizer, it is
difficult to meet the design requirements of slump and
slump flow of the concrete if adding SF to the LWAC, 70
7D
though it provides great improvement of strength. Hence, 60
considering both the rheologic and strength properties, it 28 D
Compressive strength /MPa

is also not recommended to add the SF to the LWAC 50

only.
40

3.4. The effect of mineral admixture combination on

30
workable LWAC
20
Table 7 lists the effects of different mineral admixture
combinations on the workability of the LWAC. It can be 10

seen that, combining the FA and SF, the workability did

0
not reduce much due to the SF. In addition, during the
experiment, bleeding and up-floating of aggregates were FA and SF BS and SF FA and BS FA, BS and SF
controlled effectively. The FA–BS combination, SF–BS Fig. 5. Effect of different intermix of mineral admixture on the compres-
combination or FA–SF–BS combination all could provide sive strength of LWC.

Table 7
Effect of different mineral admixture on the workability of LWC
No. Volume fraction of mineral admixtures (%) Slump/mm Slump flow/mm
FA BS SF 0 min 30 min 60 min 0 30 min 60 min
1 25 0 5 239 210 140 543 530 460
13 0 25 5 231 215 147 538 520 450
14 15 15 0 243 230 156 560 535 475
15 10 10 10 235 178 144 530 510 460
16 25 0 5 239 210 140 543 530 460
 B. Chen, J. Liu / Construction and Building Materials 22 (2008) 1108–1113
4. Conclusions
The LWAC with both high workability and strength
can be reached by adding mineral admixtures and
superplasticizer.
Different mineral admixtures showed different effects on
the properties of the concrete. In the case of adding individ-
ually, the FA showed the best improvement of the work-
ability, however, the early-age strength of the concrete
decreased with the increase of the amount of the FA. Con-
sidering both the rheologic and strength properties, it is not
recommended to add the FA to the LWAC only. Adding
the SF had the advantages including, improving the
early-age strength of the concrete significantly, increasing
the bonding of the concrete mixture, and controlling of
bleeding and up-floating of aggregates, however, it caused
rapid deduction of the workability of the concrete. It is also
not recommended to add the SF to the LWAC only. Con-
sidering both the rheologic and strength properties, it is
feasible to add the BS to the LWAC for high workability
and strength purposes.
Mineral admixture combinations provided better
improvement of both the rheologic and strength proper-
ties than any single mineral admixture type. The FA–BS
combination and the FA–SF–BS combination were sug-
gested to meet all purposes including rheologic and
strength properties of concrete and economic benefit for
the LWAC.
References
[1] Demirboga Ramazan, Orung Ibrahim, Gul Rustem. Effects of
expanded perlite aggregate and mineral admixtures on the compres-
sive strength of low-density concretes. Cement Concrete Res 2001;31:
1627–32.
1113
[2] Bilodeau A, Malhotra VM. High-volume fly ash system: Concrete
solution for sustainable development. ACI Mater J 2000;97(1):41–9.
[3] Wu Z. Green high performance concrete—The development trend of
concrete. Concr Cem Prod 1998(1):3–5.
[4] Wee Tiong Huan, Yoshihisa Matsunaga, Yoshiharu Watanabe,
Etsuo Sakai. Microstructure and strength properties of high strength
concretes containing various mineral admixtures. Cement Concrete
Res 1995;25(4):715–20.
[5] Hassan KE, Cabrera JG, Maliehe RS. The effect of mineral
admixtures on the properties of high-performance concrete. Cement
Concrete Res 2000;22(4):267–71.
[6] Canan Tasdemir. Combined effects of mineral admixtures and curing
conditions on the sorptivity coefficient of concrete. Cement Concrete
Res 2003;33(10):1637–42.
[7] Mays GC, Barnes RA. The performance of lightweight aggregate
concrete structures in service. Struct Eng 1991;69(20): 351–61.
[8] Theodorakopoulos DD, Swamy RN. Contribution of steel fibers to
the strength characteristics of lightweight concrete slab-column
connections failing in punching shear. ACI Struct J 1993;90(4):
342–55.
[9] Nilsen U, Aitcin P-C. Properties of high-strength concrete containing
light-, normal-, and heavyweight aggregate. Cement Concrete Aggr
1992;14(1):8–12.
[10] Balendran RV, Zhou FP, Nadeem A, Leung AYT. Influence of steel
fibres on strength and ductility of normal and lightweight high
strength concrete. Build Environ 2002;37:1361–7.
[11] Kayali O, Haque MN, Zhu B. Some characteristics of high strength
fiber reinforced lightweight aggregate concrete. Cement Concrete
Compos 2003;25:207–13.
[12] Kayali O, Haque MN. Status of structural lightweight concrete in
Australia as the new millennium dawns. Concrete Australia
2000;25(4):22–5.
[13] Balendran RV, Zhou FP, Nadeem A, Leung AYT. Influence of steel
fibres on strength and ductility of normal and lightweight high
strength concrete. Build Environ 2002;37:1361–7.
[14] Rossignolo Joao A, Agnesini Marcos VC. Mechanical properties of
polymer-modified lightweight aggregate concrete. Cement Concrete
Res 2002;32:329–34.
[15] Rossignolo Joao A, Agnesini Marcos VC. Properties of high-
performance LWAC for precast structures with Brazilian lightweight
aggregates. Cement Concrete Compos 2003;25:77–82.