The effect of high-temperature on foamed concrete

Within the scope of this study, the foam solution was prepared by properly mixing sulfonate based foam agent with water. Furthermore, this solution was mixed with the mixture of fine sand, cement, and water to produce foamed concrete. The mixture ratios which are the percentage of foam solution used in foam concrete were chosen as 0, 20, 40 and 60% by vol. After these groups reached 28 days of strength, they were heated to 20, 100, 400 and $700^{\circ}C$ respectively. Afterward, high-temperature effects on the foamed concrete were obtained by employing physical and mechanical properties tests. Additionally, SEM (scanning electron microscope) and EDX (energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy) tests were employed to analyze the microstructure, and ${\mu}-CT$ (micro computed tomography) images were used to reconstruct 3-D models of the heat-treated specimens. Then, these models are analyzed to examine the void structures and the changes in these structures due to the high temperatures. The study has shown that the void structures reduce the high-temperature effects and the foam solution could be mixed with concrete up to 40 % by vol. where the high strength of foamed concrete is non-mandatory.