Design and Evaluation of Cellular Hydraulic Concrete Using Modified Cement and Andesite Aggregates

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.15517/qxey9f36

Keywords:

Additive, cellular, concrete, concrete, density, mix design

Abstract

Cellular concrete is a lightweight material that requires specialized design to meet mechanical parameters such as density, as well as compressive and flexural strength. Although cellular concrete is used in other countries, its production in Costa Rica represents an innovation, as it involves the development of a mix design adapted to locally available materials. Its significance lies in its versatility and its potential to increase construction productivity.
The objective of this study is to determine, through laboratory testing, the mix designs for producing cellular hydraulic concrete using an air-entraining admixture, blended hydraulic cement modified with limestone and pozzolan, and aggregates derived from andesite alluvium.
The tests were conducted in 2023 at the National Laboratory of Materials and Structural Models at the University of Costa Rica, under controlled conditions and in accordance with standards from the American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) and guidelines from the American Concrete Institute (ACI). The results suggest that the fine aggregate sourced from andesite alluvium meets the technical requirements and enables the formulation of mixes that conform to the design parameters. In addition, tests on the density of fresh concrete indicate that there is insufficient evidence to conclude that the experimental densities differ from the  theoretical values. Finally, the compressive and tensile strength results of the cellular concrete are acceptable according to the statistical parameters used in the design.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

References

[1] N. P. Zade, A. Bhosale, P. Kumar Dhir, P. Sarkar y R. Davis, “Variability of Mechanical Properties of Cellular Lightweight Concrete Infill and Its Effect on Seismic Safety”, Am. Soc. Civ. Eng., vol. 22, no.04, jul. 2021, doi: 10.1061/ (ASCE)NH.1527-6996.0000501.

[2] N. Sutmoller, “An Introduction to Low-Density Cellular Concrete and Advanced Engineered Foam Technology”, en Geo-Congress 2020, Minnesota, USA,, 2020, pp. 630–640, doi:10.1061/9780784482780.062.

[3] S. P. Muñoz Pérez, W. R. García Chumacero y T. M. Salazar Pretel, “Uso de residuos sólidos en la elaboración de concreto celular: una revisión”, Aporte Santiaguino, vol. 14, no. 1, pp. 104-119, jun.2021, doi: 10.32911/as.2021.v14.n1.714.

[4] H. P. Góngora Rojas y F. Huamán Más, “Análisis y diseño estructural comparativo de una vivienda multifamiliar de muros de ductilidad limitada de concreto celular y concreto estructural en Chachapoyas - 2015”, Tesis de Grado, Escuela de Ingeniería Civil, Univ. Nac. Toribio Rodríguez Mendoza, Chachapoyas, Perú, 2015.

[5] P. R. N. Soudais, J. S. Camacho y G. A. Parsekian, “Influence of transverse rebars on bond between steel reinforcement and cellular concrete with very low compressive strength”, Rev. IBRACON Estrut. Mater., vol. 11, no. 3, pp. 620-643, may. 2018, doi: 10.1590/s198341952018000300011.

[6] Guía para concreto celular prefabricado de techos, pisos y unidades de bloques, ACI 523.2R-96, ACI Internacional, 1996.

[7] Terminología referente al concreto y agregados para concreto, ASTM C125-21a, ASTM Internacional, 2021.

[8] Práctica estándar para el muestreo de agregados, ASTM D75/D75M-19, ASTM Internacional, 2019.

[9] Práctica estándar para reducir las muestras de agregados a tamaño de prueba, C702/C702M-18, ASTM Internacional, 2018.

[10] Práctica estándar para el muestreo y la cantidad de pruebas de cemento hidráulico, ASTM C183/ C183M-23, ASTM Internacional, 2023.

[11] Método de ensayo estándar para materiales más finos que un tamiz No. 200 (75 μm) en agregados minerales mediante lavado, ASTM C117-23, ASTM Internacional, 2023.

[12] Método de ensayo estándar para la determinación granulométrica de agregados finos y gruesos, ASTM C136/ C136M-19, ASTM Internacional, 2019.

[13] Método de ensayo estándar para determinar la densidad, la densidad relativa (gravedad específica), y la absorción de agregados finos, ASTM C128-22, ASTM Internacional, 2022.

[14] Especificaciones estándar para agregados para concreto, ASTM C33/C33M-23, ASTM Internacional, 2023.

[15] Método de prueba estándar para determinar la cantidad de agua para consistencia normal de la pasta de cemento hidráulico, ASTM C187-23, ASTM Internacional, 2023.

[16] Método de ensayo estándar para la determinación de la densidad del cemento hidráulico, ASTM C188-17, ASTM Internacional, 2023.

[17] Método de ensayo estándar para la determinación del tiempo de fragua de un cemento hidráulico por medio de la aguja de Vicat, ASTM C191-21, ASTM Internacional, 2021.

[18] Especificaciones estándar para cemento Portland, C150/ C150M−22, ASTM Internacional, 2023.

[19] Método de prueba estándar para aditivos inclusores de aire para concreto, ASTM C233/C233M-18, ASTM Internacional, 2019.

[20] Especificaciones estándar para aditivos químicos para concreto, ASTM C494/C494M-19e1, ASTM Internacional, 2022.

[21] Especificación estándar para aditivos inclusores de aire para concreto, ASTM C260/ C260M-10a(2016), ASTM Internacional, 2016.

[22] Método de prueba estándar para densidad, absorción y vacíos en el concreto endurecido, ASTM C642-21, ASTM Internacional, 2022.

[23] Método de prueba estándar para agentes espumantes para uso en producción de hormigón celular utilizando espuma preformada, ASTM C796/C796M-19, ASTM Internacional, 2019.

[24] Método de ensayo para la resistencia a la compresión uniaxial de especímenes cilíndricos de concreto, ASTM C39/ C39M-23, ASTM Internacional, 2023.

[25] Método de prueba estándar para determinar la resistencia a la tracción de especímenes cilíndricos de concreto, C496/ C496M-17, ASTM Internacional, 2017.

[26] Guía para el concreto celular sobre 800 kg/m3, ACI 523.3R-14, ACI Internacional, 2014.

Downloads

Published

2025-09-09

Issue

Vol. 35 No. 2 (2025): July - December 2025 (open issue)

Section

Original Articles

License

Copyright (c) 2025 Einer Rodríguez Rojas, Alejandra Laínez Ayala (Autor/a)

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

In order to be considered an author, the researcher must:

  1. Has contributed substantially  in the conception or design of the research, or in the interpretation of the data.
  2. Has taken part in the design of the research or in the critical study of the content.
  3. Has taken part in the approval of the final version of the work.
  4. Be able to answer any question that the published work may raise.
  5. An “author” must meet all of the above considerations (adapted from the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors http://www.icmje.org/recommendations/translations/spanish2015.pdf)

Authors wishing to publish in this journal agree with the following terms:

  1. Authors conserve the copyrights over their work and let the journal be the first publication venue for their manuscripts.
  2. Authors agree with the Creative Commons Attribution License established by the journal which allows them to distribute their work by mentioning the initial journal where the work was published.
  3. Authors can establish separate agreements for non-exclusive distribution of their work (i.e. work repository) by mentioning the journal as the initial publication venue.
  4. Authors may publish their works electronically (e.g. in institutional repositories or in their own website) only after the journal approves and publishes the manuscript.
  5. As of Fascicle 26 No.1 of 2016; copyrights are the property of the authors of the documents. Prior to that date, editorial policies indicated that this right belonged to Engineering: Journal of the University of Costa Rica.

Contributor Roles Taxonomy

  • Conceptualization – Ideas; formulation or evolution of overarching research goals and aims.
  • Data curation – Management activities to annotate (produce metadata), scrub data and maintain research data (including software code, where it is necessary for interpreting the data itself) for initial use and later re-use.
  • Formal analysis – Application of statistical, mathematical, computational, or other formal techniques to analyze or synthesize study data.
  • Funding acquisition ​- Acquisition of the financial support for the project leading to this publication.
  • Investigation – ​Conducting a research and investigation process, specifically performing the experiments, or data/evidence collection.
  • Methodology – Development or design of methodology; creation of models.
  • Project administration – Management and coordination responsibility for the research activity planning and execution.
  • Resources – Provision of study materials, reagents, materials, patients, laboratory samples, animals, instrumentation, computing resources, or other analysis tools.
  • Software – Programming, software development; designing computer programs; implementation of the computer code and supporting algorithms; testing of existing code components.
  • Supervision – Oversight and leadership responsibility for the research activity planning and execution, including mentorship external to the core team.
  • Validation – Verification, whether as a part of the activity or separate, of the overall replication/reproducibility of results/experiments and other research outputs.
  • Visualization – Preparation, creation and/or presentation of the published work, specifically visualization/data presentation.
  • Writing – original draft – ​Preparation, creation and/or presentation of the published work, specifically writing the initial draft (including substantive translation).
  • Writing – review & editing – Preparation, creation and/or presentation of the published work by those from the original research group, specifically critical review, commentary or revision – including pre- or post-publication stages.