Affiliations 

  • 1 College of Environment and Civil Engineering, Chengdu University of Technology, Chengdu 610019, Sichuan, China. zhaoxiao@cdut.cn
  • 2 Faculty of Engineering and Science, Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman, Kuala Lumpur 53100, Malaysia. siongkang@hotmail.com
  • 3 Faculty of Civil Engineering, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, Johor Bahru 81310, Malaysia. tcsiang@utm.my
  • 4 Construction and Building Materials Research Center, Nano and Advanced Materials Institute Limited, the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Clear Water Bay, Kowloon, Hong Kong 999077, China. boli@nami.org.hk
  • 5 College of Environment and Civil Engineering, Chengdu University of Technology, Chengdu 610019, Sichuan, China. hrq@cdut.edu.cn
  • 6 Institute for Mechanics of Advanced Materials and Structures, Chengdu University, Chengdu 610106, Sichuan, China. wangqy@scu.edu.cn
Materials (Basel), 2015 Jan 30;8(2):462-473.
PMID: 28787950 DOI: 10.3390/ma8020462

Abstract

Foamed mortar with a density of 1300 kg/m³ was prepared. In the initial laboratory trials, water-to-cement (w/c) ratios ranging from 0.54 to 0.64 were tested to determine the optimal value for foamed mortar corresponding to the highest compressive strength without compromising its fresh state properties. With the obtained optimal w/c ratio of 0.56, two types of foamed mortar were prepared, namely cement-foamed mortar (CFM) and slag-foamed mortar (SFM, 50% cement was replaced by slag weight). Four different curing conditions were adopted for both types of foamed mortar to assess their compressive strength, ultrasonic pulse velocity (UPV) and thermal insulation performance. The test results indicated that utilizing 50% of slag as cement replacement in the production of foamed mortar improved the compressive strength, UPV and thermal insulation properties. Additionally, the initial water curing of seven days gained higher compressive strength and increased UPV values as compared to the air cured and natural weather curing samples. However, this positive effect was more pronounced in the case of compressive strength than in the UPV and thermal conductivity of foamed mortar.

* Title and MeSH Headings from MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine.