A Review on Hardened Properties of Foam Concrete

Abstract

Foam concrete (FC) possess good hardened properties such as compressive strength, thermal properties, porosity, fire resistance, shrinkage, water absorption and walkability. With absence of coarse aggregates, and replacement of cement by secondary cementitious materials such as fly ash, a foam concrete proves to be sustainable in construction by utilizing wastes. The incorporation of FCs has been limited to retaining wall backfills, acoustic insulation, and foundation insulation. But over the past few years, FCs has proved to be a structural material. Hence the studies of mechanical properties of foam concretes become vital before using it as structural construction material. This article reviews on the hardened properties of FCs. The correlations between various foam concrete properties have been described. Parameters affecting the mechanical properties such as water-binder ratio, fine aggregate-binder ratio, volume of foaming agents, design density of foam concretes have been reviewed.