Engineering and Technology Journal

In this work the desired aim is to study the effect of two various sorts of a foaming agents on the properties of foamed concrete to obtain high quality with a target density is nearly 1600 kg/m3. The standard samples were designed by employing two types of foam agent (FA), the first one is commercially named (EABSSOC foam agent, FA) while the second is the foam of detergent liquid (D) which known (Fairy). The results showed that the FA sample records the lower bulk density compared to the other types. The perfect mix which involved 1wt.% of (D) had higher values of the compressive strength 20.25MPa, 16.32MPa of the curing in water and air respectively and flexural strength (F.S) values were 6.89MPa,4.47MPa of the cured samples in (air, water) for various durations (7,14 and 28) days compared to the samples that contained 1and 0.8wt. % of FA. The obtained compressive strengths were 5.1MPa, 4.3MPa while the flexural strengths were 2.74MPa, 2.9MPa for the samples contained 1wt. %foam agent (FA) after the curing into water and air at the same duration. It is obvious that the addition of foam to the cement mortar paste imparts great characteristics as lightweight with flowability. These properties and others make it suitable for some applications, for example, a decrease of the dead load from the structure, thermal and acoustic insulating and use it in non-structural sections such as a wall.

This paper shows the production of foamed concrete reinforced with carbon fibers. Firstly, different mortar mixes were prepared by varying ratio of sand/cement. Continuously, the selected mortar mix was used for the foamed concrete produced due to the results of density, compressive strength, splitting tensile strength and flexural strength test. Secondly, different foam agent amounts (0.8, 1, 1.2 and 1.4 kg/m3) with 10% of silica fume were included in the selected mortar mix to produce the optimum foamed concrete mix depending on the same set of tests mentioned above. Lastly, various volumetric fractions of carbon fibers (0.5, 1 and 1.5%) were incorporated with the optimum foamed concrete mix and the same set of tests was done to examine such foamed concrete reinforced with carbon fibers.
The results give acceptable ranges of strength for mortar mix using 1.9 sand/cement ratios. Besides, the foamed concrete produced by the inclusions of foaming agent 1 kg/m3 shows acceptable ranges of density and strength to be suitable for the reinforcing by carbon fibers. The carbon fiber included in the foamed concrete exhibit significant increases for the strengths. Such increases are varied from about 35% using 1% carbon fibers to 44% and 116% using 1.5% carbon fibers for compressive, splitting tensile and flexural strength, respectively