Abstract—Pore space, which occupies 60 – 90% of the volume in aerated concrete, is important when considering performance. In this paper the properties of density, porosity, capillary suction and water absorption are investigated for aerated concrete produced. Aluminium powder was used with the percentage ranging between 0.25 and 1% by cement weight in order to produce the aerated concrete. Density, porosity and capillary suction tests were carried out after immersion in water for 28 days. The results show that the highest density of aerated concrete was with 0.25% aluminium powder. The porosity values obtained by vacuum saturation were consistently found to be higher than those obtained by soaking which suggests that the soaking method does not access all the pore space. Also, the capillary suction of aerated concrete as assessed by sorptivity was significantly higher than that measured by coefficient of water absorption method. However, both methods show the water absorption of aerated concrete increases with increasing aluminium content.
Index Terms—Aerated concrete, density, porosity, water absorption and aluminium powder content.
The authors are with School of Mechanical, Aerospace and Civil Engineering, University of Manchester, M13 9PL, UK (e-mail: rana.shabbar@manchester.ac.uk, rana.shubber@uokufa.edu.iq, paul.nedwell@manchester.ac.uk, jack.wu@manchester.ac.uk).
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Cite: Rana Shabbar, Paul Nedwell, and Zhangjian Wu, "Porosity and Water Absorption of Aerated Concrete with Varying Aluminium Powder Content," International Journal of Engineering and Technology vol. 10, no. 3, pp. 234-238, 2018.
