Effect of Lightweight Foamed Concrete Confinement with Woven Fiberglass Mesh on its Drying Shrinkage

Abstract

Drying shrinkage is the major drawback of lightweight foamed concrete (LFC) as reported by many researchers. It is happened due to the loss of water in the capillary of concrete mixture. This problem caused the changes of dimension or volume of the concrete structure which lead to the cracking and failure thus shorten the life performance of the material. Once the water evaporated from the cement paste, it is impossible to replace it back. Thus, this paper studies the drying shrinkage behaviour of LFC with the confinement of woven fiberglass mesh at three different densities were 600kg/m3, 1100kg/m3, and 1600kg/m3. The woven fiberglass mesh implemented in this research is a synthetic textile fabric with an alkali resistance characteristic. The LFC specimens were wrapped 1-layer to 3-layer(s) of woven fiberglass mesh to enhance the drying shrinkage performance. The drying shrinkage test was measured accordance with the ASTM C157 specification and cured under air storage condition. Protein-based foaming agent (NORAITE PA-1) was used to produce the desirable density of LFC. The result shows that confinement of 160g of woven fiberglass mesh significantly improves the drying shrinkage of LFC compared to control and the enhancement also increase as the layer(s) of textile fabric is added from l-layer to 3-layer(s). Besides, the densities of LFC also play an important role to control its drying shrinkage behaviour. As proven at higher density of LFC the reduction of drying shrinkage value can be obtained.