2. Context
In order to guarantee the architectural design performance of a
pavement, a regularization layer is often used (detail 3 in Fig. 1) as
a technological building solution. In most of the cases, a cement
mortar or a lightweight concrete are the materials used in this regularization
layer. This situation may occur on the pavements located
on the ground floor (Fig. 1a), intermediate floors (Fig. 1b)
or on the top floor (i.e. terraces), Fig. 1c. Associated to the regularization
layer another layer of a thermal or/and acoustic insulation
material is also commonly applied (see detail 4 in Fig. 1). In the
Portuguese context, thicknesses between 3 cm and 10 cm of the
regularization layer are the most common solutions. This thickness
depends on the location of the pavement, the type of the expected
building floor utilization, among other factors. Lightweight, insulation
capacity, durability and cost-effectiveness are some of the
expected requirements for this constructive system (i.e. regularization
and insulation layers).
Alternative solutions to the above mentioned constructive systems
have been proposed and successfully applied. Some of those
solutions use lightweight aggregates such as expanded clay, particles
of cork or particles of expanded polystyrene (EPS). This research
work intends to propose another alternative solution to
the system described above and focus on analyzing the potential
of using particles of corn cob, Fig. 2a and b, as lightweight aggregate
for concrete. An expanded clay (Fig. 2c) concrete is adopted
as reference. The analyzed material properties are the density,
the compressive strength and the thermal insulation capacity.