• Journal of the Korea Concrete Institute
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• v.22 no.2
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• pp.159-169
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• 2010

A multiphysics model analysis including moisture transport, heat transfer and solid mechanics and experiments on the normal and light weight concrete were carried out in order to study the effect of preabsorbed water in the light weight aggregates on the drying and shrinkage characteristics of concrete. Consequently, with fixed water-cement ratio, loss of water content of normal and light weight concrete were compared and the results showed that the lightweight concrete lost less moist than the normal concrete in early age and long term which was by moist supply effect. Accordingly, shrinkage strain size and distribution of lightweight concrete were decreased, and shrinkage reducing effect was efficient in early age with water cement ratio 0.3 and in both early age, and long term with water cement ratio 0.5. The comparison of analysis results and exaperimental results indicate that characteristic values of moisture transport and the relation humidity and shrinkage strain from this study are resonable for application for other differential shrinkage analysis in lightweight concrete.

• Journal of the Korea Concrete Institute
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.405-412
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• 2008

Six alkali-activated (AA) concrete mixes were tested to explore the significance and limitations of developing an environmental friendly concrete. Ground granulated blast-furnace slag and powder typed sodium silicate were selected as source material and an alkaline activator, respectively. The main parameter investigated was the replacement level of lightweight fine aggregate to the natural sand. Workability and mechanical properties of lightweight AA concrete were measured: the variation of slump with time, the rate of compressive strength development, the splitting tensile strength, the moduli of rupture and elasticity, the stress-strain relationship, the bond resistance and shrinkage strain. Test results showed that the compressive strength of lightweight AA concrete sharply decreased when the replacement level of lightweight fine aggregate exceeded 30%. In particular, the increase in the discontinuous grading of lightweight aggregate resulted in the deterioration of the mechanical properties of concrete tested. The measured properties of lightweight AA concrete were also compared, wherever possible, with the results obtained from the design equations specified in ACI 318-05 or EC 2, depending on the relevance, and the results predicted from the empirical equations proposed by Slate et al. for lightweight ordinary Portland cement concrete. The stress-strain curves of different concrete were compared with predictions obtained from the mathematical model proposed by Tasnimi. The measured mechanical properties of lightweight AA concrete generally showed little agreement with the predictions obtained from these equations.

• Journal of the Korean Ceramic Society
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• v.41 no.3
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• pp.221-228
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• 2004

Basic properties of artificial lightweight aggregate by using waste dusts and strength properties of LWA concrete were studied. Bulk specific gravity and water absorption of artificial lightweight aggregates varied from 1.4 to 1.7 and 13 to 16%, respectively. Crushing ratio of artificial lightweight aggregate was above 10% higher than that of crushed stone or gravel. As a result of TCLP leaching test, the leaching amount of tested heavy metal element was below the leaching standard of hazardous material. Slump, compressive strength and stress-strain properties of LWA concrete made of artificial lightweight aggregate were tested. Concrete samples derived from LWA substitution ratio of 30 vol% and W/C ratio of 45 wt% showed the best properties overall. Thermal insulation and sound insulation characteristics of light weight concrete panel with the optimum concrete proportion were tested. Average overall heat transmission of 3.293W/㎡$^{\circ}C$ was observed. It was higher by about 15% than those of normal concrete made by crushed stone. Sound transmission loss of 50.9 ㏈ in frequency of 500 ㎐ was observed. It was higher by about 13% than standard transmission loss.

• Korean Journal of Agricultural Science
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• v.23 no.1
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• pp.120-130
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• 1996

Concrete is the most commonly used structural materials, but in concrete construction, its self-weight represents a very large proportion of the total load on the structure, and there are clearly considerable advantages in reducing the density of concrete. This study was carried out to investigate the stress-strain properties of no-fines synthetic lightweight concrete with synthetic lightweight coarse aggregates. The used synthetic lightweight coarse aggregate were two types, one was expanded clay with grading 3~8mm, the other is pumice stone with grading 4.75~10mm. The results of this study were summarized as follows ; The static modulus of elasticity of the synthetic lightweight concrete was $1.8{\times}10^5kg/cm^2$ at type CE using the expanded clay and $1.6{\times}10^5kg/cm^2$ at type CL using the pumice stone. The dynamic modulus of elasticity was $1.9{\times}10^5kg/cm^2$(CE) and $2.0{\times}10^5kg/cm^2$(CL). The dynamic modulus of elasticity was 10~30% larger than that of the static modulus of elasticity. The load-time curves of synthetic lightweight concrete were shown approximately similar to each other type except for added foaming agent. The stress-strain curves in uniaxial compressive of synthetic lightweight concrete were similar to each other.

• Journal of the Korea Concrete Institute
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• v.22 no.2
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• pp.255-262
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• 2010

The purpose of this study is to provide preliminary data on chloride diffusion of lightweight aggregate concrete containing crushed stone-powder. Accordingly, the study performed experiments using concrete aggregates of Crushed Aggregate (CG), Single-sized Lightweight Aggregate (SLG), Continuous Graded Lightweight Aggregate (CLG), and using water-binder ratio of 0.4, 0.5, 0.6, and using binder of FA and BFS. The chloride diffusion coefficient is calculated according to the NT BUILD 492. Diffusion coefficient of SLG and CLG were higher than that of CG concrete, but the difference was not significant. Also, chloride diffusion coefficient data indicated that it was highly affected by water-binder ratio, and it decreased with the decrease in waterbinder ratio. The admixture substitution of FA15% was effective in decreasing the diffusion coefficient only with water-binder ratio of 0.4 while admixture substitution of FA10+BFS20% was effective with all levels of water-binder ratio. The result of study shows lightweight aggregate concrete containing crushed stone-powder has slightly higher chloride diffusion coefficient than CG concrete, but the difference is not significant such that it can be overcome by adjusting water-binder ratio and admixture substitution. In addition, the data indicate the chloride diffusion coefficient of lightweight aggregate concrete can be estimated from the strength of lightweight aggregate.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.41 no.4
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• pp.495-508
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• 2012

The strength theory of concrete is significant to structure design and nonlinear finite element analysis of concrete structures because concrete utilized in engineering is usually subject to the action of multi-axial stress. Experimental results have revealed that lightweight aggregate (LWA) concrete exhibits plastic flow plateau under high compressive stress and most of the lightweight aggregates are crushed at this stage. For the purpose of safety, therefore, in the practical application the strength of LWA concrete at the plastic flow plateau stage should be regarded as the ultimate strength under multi-axial compressive stress state. With consideration of the strength criterion, the ultimate strength surface of LWA concrete under multi-axial stress intersects with the hydrostatic stress axis at two different points, which is completely different from that of the normal weight concrete as that the ultimate strength surface is open-ended. As a result, the strength criteria aimed at normal weight concrete do not fit LWA concrete. In the present paper, a multi-axial strength criterion for LWA concrete is proposed based on the Unified Twin-Shear Strength (UTSS) theory developed by Prof Yu (Yu et al. 1992), which takes into account the above strength characteristics of LWA under high compressive stress level. In this strength criterion model, the tensile and compressive meridians as well as the ultimate strength envelopes in deviatoric plane under different hydrostatic stress are established just in terms of a few characteristic stress states, i.e., the uniaxial tensile strength $f_t$, the uniaxial compressive strength $f_c$, and the equibiaxial compressive $f_{bc}$. The developed model was confirmed to agree well with experimental data under different stress ratios of LWA concrete.

• Computers and Concrete
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• v.27 no.3
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• pp.241-252
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• 2021

An experimental program was conducted to investigate the fresh properties, mechanical properties and durability characteristics of the self-compacting mortars (SCM) produced with pumice powder and Artificial Lightweight Fine Aggregate (aLWFA). aLWFA was produced by using fly ash. A total of 16 different mixtures were designed with a constant water-binder ratio of 0.37, in which natural sands were partially replaced with aLWFA and pumice powder at different volume fractions of 5%, 10% and 15%. The artificial lightweight aggregates used in this study were manufactured through cold bonding pelletisation of 90% of class-F fly ash and 10% of Portland cement in a tilted pan with an ambient temperature and moisture content. Flowability tests were conducted on the fresh mortar mixtures beforehand, to determine the self-compacting characteristics on the basis of EFNARC. To determine the conformity of the fresh mortar characteristics with the standards, mini-slump and mini-V-funnel tests were carried out. Hardened state tests were conducted after 7, 28 and 56 days to determine the flexural strength and axial compressive strength respectively. Durability, sorptivity, permeability and density tests were conducted at the end of 28 days of curing time. The test results showed that the pumice powder replacement improved both the fresh state and the hardened state characteristics of the mortar and the optimum mixture ratio was determined as 15%, considering other studies in the literature. In the aLWFA mixtures used, the mechanical and durability characteristics of the modified compositions were very close to the control mixture. It is concluded in this study that mixtures with pumice powder replacement eliminated the negative effects of the aLWFA in the mortars and made a positive contribution.

• Computers and Concrete
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• v.32 no.3
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• pp.327-337
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• 2023

Concrete is the most widely used building material, with various types including high- and ultra-high-strength, reinforced, normal, and lightweight concretes. However, accurately predicting concrete properties is challenging due to the geotechnical design code's requirement for specific characteristics. To overcome this issue, researchers have turned to new technologies like machine learning to develop proper methodologies for concrete specification. In this study, we propose a highly accurate deep learning-based predictive model to investigate the compressive strength (UCS) of lightweight concrete with natural aggregates (pumice). Our model was implemented on a database containing 249 experimental records and revealed that water, cement, water-cement ratio, fine-coarse aggregate, aggregate substitution rate, fine aggregate replacement, and superplasticizer are the most influential covariates on UCS. To validate our model, we trained and tested it on random subsets of the database, and its performance was evaluated using a confusion matrix and receiver operating characteristic (ROC) overall accuracy. The proposed model was compared with widely known machine learning methods such as MLP, SVM, and DT classifiers to assess its capability. In addition, the model was tested on 25 laboratory UCS tests to evaluate its predictability. Our findings showed that the proposed model achieved the highest accuracy (accuracy=0.97, precision=0.97) and the lowest error rate with a high learning rate (R2=0.914), as confirmed by ROC (AUC=0.971), which is higher than other classifiers. Therefore, the proposed method demonstrates a high level of performance and capability for UCS predictions.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.49 no.6
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• pp.645-666
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• 2023

Due to the steadily declining supply of natural coarse aggregates, the concrete industry has shifted to substituting coarse aggregates generated from byproducts and industrial waste. Oil palm shell is a substantial waste product created during the production of palm oil (OPS). When considering the usage of OPSC, building engineers must consider its uniaxial compressive strength (UCS). Obtaining UCS is expensive and time-consuming, machine learning may help. This research established five innovative hybrid AI algorithms to predict UCS. Aquila optimizer (AO) is used with methods to discover optimum model parameters. Considered models are artificial neural network (AO - ANN), adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference system (AO - ANFIS), support vector regression (AO - SVR), random forest (AO - RF), and extreme gradient boosting (AO - XGB). To achieve this goal, a dataset of OPS-produced concrete specimens was compiled. The outputs depict that all five developed models have justifiable accuracy in UCS estimation process, showing the remarkable correlation between measured and estimated UCS and models' usefulness. All in all, findings depict that the proposed AO - XGB model performed more suitable than others in predicting UCS of OPSC (with R², RMSE, MAE, VAF and A_15-index at 0.9678, 1.4595, 1.1527, 97.6469, and 0.9077). The proposed model could be utilized in construction engineering to ensure enough mechanical workability of lightweight concrete and permit its safe usage for construction aims.

• Journal of the Korean Crystal Growth and Crystal Technology
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.41-46
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• 2011

The artificial aggregates (AAs) composing of 2 wastes, coal bottom ash and dredged soil (7 : 3, weight ratio) were fabricated as a function of red mud contents,0~30 wt% using direct sintering method at $1050{\sim}1250^{\circ}C$ for 10 min, and those physical properties were evaluated. Especially, in order to analyze the red mud addition effect on the bloating phenomenon of AAs manufactured, the specific gravity and water absorption were measured and studied linked with the microstructural observation results. The lightening of AAs was enhanced due to increased bloating with increasing temperature and red mud contents. The AAS sintered at $1050{\sim}1150^{\circ}C$ showed well-developed black-coring structure, but for the specimens containing red mud sintered over $1200^{\circ}C$ generated excessive liquid and gas caused by reduction of $Fe_2O_3$, thus the black-coring part was gradually burst open out of shell of AAs. Particularly, all specimens containing 30 wt% red mud was burst up when sintered over $1100^{\circ}C$. The AAs containing no red mud sintered at $1200^{\circ}C$ had a specific gravity of about 1.2 and those containing 20 wt% had below 1.0 which are characters of lightweight aggregate.