PSI - Issue 70

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ScienceDirect

Procedia Structural Integrity 70 (2025) 263–270

Structural Integrity and Interactions of Materials in Civil Engineering Structures (SIIMCES-2025) Mechanical Performance of Cellular Lightweight Concrete Incorporating Sand, M-Sand, and Copper Slag as Fine Aggregates with Protein-Based Foam and Hybrid Fibers C. Raghu Rami Reddy a,* , H. Sudarsana Rao a , Vaishali.G.Ghorpade a a Department of Civil Engineering, JNTU Anantapur,515002, India Abstract The need for cutting-edge technologies in the manufacturing of lightweight concrete is growing in the worldwide building sector. Cellular Lightweight Concrete (CLC) is prized for its low structural weight and superior thermal insulation qualities. This study investigates the mechanical performance of CLC at three target densities:800, 1000, and 1200kg/m³. The study makes use of a protein-based foaming agent, three different kinds of fine aggregates (natural sand, M-sand, and copper slag), glass, steel, and polypropylene fibers (at a 0.6% volume percentage), and a super plasticizer called polycarboxylate ether (PCE). In comparison to natural sand mixes, experimental data show that CLC mixes including M-sand and copper slag exhibit noticeably higher compressive, split tensile, and flexural strengths. The highest strength improvements are observed at the 1200kg/m³ density. The incorporation of fibers improves tensile and flexural properties, with steel fibers providing the greatest enhancement in strength, followed by glass and polypropylene fibers. Specifically, the multi-Fiber mix achieves the highest compressive Copper slag mixes show 20% higher strength than sand-based mixes, and M-sand mixes exhibit 10% better performance than sand-based mixes. The study confirms that optimizing fine aggregate selection and fiber reinforcement can substantially improve CLC's structural performance, making it available alternative for lightweight construction applications. Future studies should focus on long-term durability, shrinkage properties, and thermal insulation behaviour of fiber-reinforced CLC to explore its potential in broader engineering applications. © 2025 The Authors. Published by ELSEVIER B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0) Peer-review under the responsibility of International Conference on Structural Integrity Organizers

Keywords: Cellular Light weight Concrete; M-Sand; Copper Slag; Multi-Fiber Reinforcement; Mechanical Properties;

* Corresponding author. Tel.: +91-9100820869; E-mail address: raghu332@gmail.com

2452-3216 © 2025 The Authors. Published by ELSEVIER B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0) Peer-review under the responsibility of International Conference on Structural Integrity Organizers 10.1016/j.prostr.2025.07.052