Development of a cement-based lightweight composite

This article addresses a mix design methodology for the development of a cement-based lightweight composite. A lightweight material produced from recycled glass is used as the lightweight aggregates. The mix design is developed applying the packing theory using the modified Andreasen and Andersen model to obtain the optimal target grading curve of all the solids in the mixture. The properties of the designed composites, including the flowability and relative viscosity in fresh state, and the porosity, strength and thermal properties in hardened state are investigated. The porosity of the developed composites is studied by both modeling and experiments. Results indicate that there is a certain amount of internal closed pores in the composites, which contributes positively to a better thermal insulation property. The combined study on both mechanical and thermal properties of the composites shows a good balance. The developed composites have a quite low thermal conductivity while still retaining sufficient strength.