Development of self-cured sustainable concrete using local water-entrainment aggregates of vesicular basalt

Abstract

The environmental and economic concerns pertaining to the construction industry have necessitated the development of sustainable concrete. Durability and strength are the two primary properties which determine the sustainability of concrete. This study evaluated the performance of self-cured concrete produced from local vesicular basalt porous aggregates. The durability indicators, porosity, permeability and pore size of the hardened concrete, were obtained from the water sorptivity (water permeability under capillary action) test, the water permeability under pressure action test and the Brunauer–Emmett–Teller (BET) surface area test and strength was evaluated in terms of compressive strength of concrete. The concrete specimens were produced with 10% porous vesicular basalt aggregate in replacement of coarse aggregate. The concrete specimens were tested at 3, 7 and 28 days. The self-curing effect on concrete strength was evaluated against water, air and membrane cured specimens, at surface/volume ratio of 26.4/40 and w/c ratio of 0.35/0.5. A 20% decrease in sorptivity coefficient, 10% increase in solid surface area and about 10% increase in compressive strength of the self-cured concrete was observed over the conventionally cured concrete. The study concludes that the addition of water-entrainment aggregates to concrete reduces water permeability, results in a finer pore structure of concrete and increases the quality and durability of concrete.