Performance of lightweight foamed concrete using laterite as sand replacement

Lightweight foamed concrete (LWC) has been successfully used and it has
gained popularity due to its lower density than conventional concrete. It is created by
uniform distribution of air bubbles throughtout the mass of concrete. Recently, most
studies on LWC concern on the influence of filler type and the particle size of sand
on the strength. In this study, the strength of LWC with density 1400 kg/m 3 was
produces due to different percentage of laterite as sand replacement. Four series of
LWC mix designs with ratio 2:1:1 comprises of 0%, 5%, 10% and 15% as sand
replacement (by total weight of sand) were considered. Two types of testing were
conducted namely compressive strength and modulus of elasticity (MOE). The tests
were prepared in order to determine the effect of using different percentage of laterite
due to different curing ages. The results revealed that, increasing the percentage of
laterite as sand replacement, the strength improves significantly due to compressive
strength and MOE for all mixes. It also indicated that the curing ages significantly
affect its strength. However, it is noted that the optimum mix design to produce
LWC-Laterite was obtained by using 5% of laterite as sand replacement.