Journal article
The effects of surfactants on properties of lightweight concrete foam
Alizera Kashani, D Ngo, Ngoc Nguyen, Ailar Hajimohammadi, Sina Sinaie, Priyan Mendis
Magazine of Concrete Research | ICE Publishing | Published : 2020
Abstract
Lightweight concrete foam is mainly used as a filling for sandwich panels for insulation of buildings. Surfactants are chemical admixtures that play an important role in stabilising the air pores in fresh concrete foam before stiffening. This study investigates the effects of surfactants on the microstructure and pore characteristics of concrete foam analysed by X-ray microtomography. The formation of larger pores due to poor stability of bubbles in the concrete foam is directly related to a substantial reduction of compressive strength. Anionic (negatively charged) surfactants produce a stable aqueous foam. However, in the presence of cement particles, the majority of anionic surfactants ad..
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Grants
Awarded by Australian Research Council
Funding Acknowledgements
This project was funded through an Australian Research Council linkage project (grant number: LP140100504) and through the ARC Centre for Advanced Manufacturing of Prefabricated Housing (ARC Grant IC150100023). The authors would like to thank Professor Peter Lee and Gabriele Imbalzano for granting access to the micro-CT scan machine and are also grateful for the support of the Trace Analysis for Chemical, Earth and Environmental Sciences (TrACEES) plat-form at the Melbourne Collaborative Infrastructure Research Program (University of Melbourne) and Dr Jay Black. The authors thank Noel Dow from Victoria University for cond-ucting the TOC analysis as well as Xian Zhang for help with the experiments.