dripping of paste gives slightly lower strength than that
obtained from the equation.
5. Conclusions
For cement paste, flow of paste is stabilized after mixing
at 50 rpm for 30 s and at 200 rpm for another 240 s with or
without the use of admixture. WR marginally reduces W/C
while SP significantly reduces W/C. The reduction is more
with an increase in dosage. The viscosity and yield stress of
paste is significantly affected by admixtures. SP is very
effective in increasing viscosity and yield stress of paste.
Cement paste with high viscosity and flow of 150–
230 mm suitable for making porous concrete is obtained
with W/C of 0.20–0.25, 1% SP and sufficient mixing.
In making porous concrete, top surface vibration of 10 s
with vibrating energy of 90 kN m/m2 is effective in compacting
porous concrete. This produces variation in void
ratio slightly less than 10% between top and bottom portions
of cylinder. Within the range of cement flow of
150–230 mm and void ratios of 15–25%, good porous concretes
with relatively high strength are obtained using high
flow cement paste with low void ratio or low flow cement
paste with high void ratio. The use of high void ratio with
low flow paste produces porous concrete with relatively
low strength. At the other end, the use of the low void ratio
with high flow paste produces relatively high strength porous
concrete. However, dripping of paste and very low void
at bottom surface may result.
The characteristics of compressive strength of porous
concrete can be expressed by the equation of strength
and void ratio of porous brittle material. This relation is
useful for estimating strength of porous concrete.
of stress and crack formation [23,24]. Examination
of fracture pattern of concrete sample failed under compressive
strength test reveals that the fracture surfaces are
almost entirely in cement paste. As paste behaves like a
brittle material, the relationship between compressive
strength and void ratio of a porous brittle material suggested
by Ryshkewitch [25] and Duckworth [26] can therefore
be used for porous concrete.
r ¼ r0 expðbVÞ ð2Þ
where r is compressive strength (MPa), r0 is compressive
strength at zero void (MPa), V is void (%) and b is experimental
constant.
The strength and the air void of series P pastes were
found to be 135 MPa and 1.0%. The fitting of the curve
as shown in Fig. 9 results in the values of r0 = 152 MPa,
b = 0.084 with the goodness of fit of R2 = 0.96. Therefore,
if the quality of coarse aggregate and paste can be controlled,
the strength characteristic of porous concrete can
be estimated. It should be noted here that, concrete with