Construction and Building Materials 25 (2011) 42944298

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Construction and Building Materials

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/conbuildmat

The relationship between porosity and strength for porous concrete

C. Lian a,, Y. Zhuge b, S. Beecham a
a b

School of Natural and Built Environments, University of South Australia, Adelaide, South Australia, Australia Faculty of Engineering and Surveying, University of Southern Queensland, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia

a r t i c l e

i n f o

a b s t r a c t
As for many porous media, the strength of porous concrete is signicantly affected by the porosity of its internal structure. This paper describes the development of a mathematical model to characterize the relationship between compressive strength and porosity for porous concrete by analyzing empirical results and theoretical derivations. The suitability of existing equations for porous concrete is assessed and a new model is then proposed. The new model, which was derived from Grifths theory, presents a better agreement with the experimental data for porous concrete. It is demonstrated that the proposed model could provide a better prediction of porous concrete compressive strength based on the material porosity. 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Article history: Received 19 November 2010 Received in revised form 5 April 2011 Accepted 23 May 2011 Available online 14 June 2011 Keywords: Porous concrete Compressive strength Porosity

1. Introduction It is well known that the mechanical behavior of a building material is predominately dependent on its composited structure. The presence of pores can adversely affect the materials mechanical properties such as failure strength, elasticity and creep strains [1]. Porous concrete, which differs from conventional concrete, has a large volume of air voids. Currently it is mainly utilized in permeable pavements and inltration beds [2]. For maximizing the benet of its permeability, several studies have been conducted to reveal the relationship between pore features and the hydraulic or acoustic conductivity of porous concrete [3,4]. But as a construction material, porous concrete also needs to be able to withstand trafc loads. It is also important to determine how its mechanical performance is affected by the presence of pores. In a previous experimental investigation [5], the compressive strength of porous concrete has been tested. This testing could be used as an index to characterize the mechanical capacity of porous concrete in this study. On the other hand, the pore structure of a porous material can be characterized by a number of parameters including pore size, pore connectivity, pore surface roughness and pore volume fraction (porosity). Of these, the porosity is regarded as the primary parameter of porous material microstructures [6]. Normally the strength of a porous material is inuenced by porosity, the other parameters listed above having less inuence. Thus, in this study the porosity is chosen as an independent variable to relate to the material strength. The objective of this study is to establish a quantitative relationship between porosity and compressive strength of porous concrete.
Corresponding author. Tel.: +61 8 83029941; fax: +61 8 83025721.
E-mail address: chunqi.lian@unisa.edu.au (C. Lian). 0950-0618/$ - see front matter 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.conbuildmat.2011.05.005

The inuence of porosity on the strength of cement paste has already been investigated [79]. In these studies, hydrated cement paste was considered the main source of pores within conventional concrete. However, porous concrete contains a higher fraction of large macroscopic pores which are required to achieve sufcient hydraulic conductivity. Therefore, the suitability of the existing relationships between porosity and strength developed for normal concrete need to be examined and extended for porous concrete. This is the purpose of the work described in this paper.
2. Experimental study 2.1. Mix compositions The compositions used to prepare porous concrete in this study consisted of coarse aggregates, ordinary Portland cement and water. However, admixtures such as quarry sand, silica fume and superplasticizer were also used in some of the mixes to produce a strength variation. Two groups of samples were developed. The mixture proportions for each were summarized in Table 1. The rst group was produced with only coarse aggregate, cement and water. Quartzite, limestone and dolomite were used as coarse aggregates and three gradings were selected (G1: 13.24.75 mm; G2: 9.56.7 mm; G3: 9.54.75 mm). The second group was made with additives including 7% silica fume and 0.8% superplasticizer by weight of cement and some quarry sands as ne aggregates. For this second group, dolomite was used as the coarse aggregate. In this second group, the water to cement ratio was incrementally changed from 0.30 to 0.38. In this way, samples of different strength and porosity were obtained. The preparation and mixing procedures are discussed in [5]. 2.2. Compressive strength The compressive strength of porous concrete was determined through sample tests according to AS1012.9-1999. The samples were cylinders of 100 mm diameter and 200 mm height. After 24 h the samples were removed from the steel moulds and moist cured until the day of testing. The curing condition complied with AS1012.8.1-2000. Prior to testing, the samples were weighed to determine the den-

C. Lian et al. / Construction and Building Materials 25 (2011) 42944298 Table 1 28-Day mix proportioning and compressive strength of porous concrete. Sample number Mix proportions Coarse aggregate W/C ratio 0.36 0.36 0.36 0.36 0.36 0.36 0.36 Percentage of sand 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Compressive strength (MPa)

4295

cement hydration process: 0.25 is taken as the ratio of hydration water to cement by weight, so the non-evaporable water mass is 0.25 times the anhydrous cement mass Pc; and the volume of this water reduces to approximately 0.75 of the original volume after chemically hydrating the cement [9]. Thus, the total porosity can be calculated as:

Group 1 (no additives) 11 Q-G2 12 Q-G3 13 L-G2 14 L-G3 15 D-G1 16 D-G2 17 D-G3

p1
11.8 15.5 15.5 14.0 15.5 15.8 19.0

qb ; qt

where p is the total porosity and qb is the bulk density of the sample. 2.3.3. Relationship between effective porosity and total porosity In this study, silica fume was employed in Group 2 to improve the strength of porous concrete and consequently the gravity of qc was slightly adjusted. For calculating qc, the relative gravity for cement and silica fume was taken as 3.15 and 2.2 respectively. Hence, qc = (1 + 0.07)/(1/3.15 + 0.07/2.2) = 3.063 for Group 2. The measured effective porosity and estimated total porosity for each mix are shown in Fig. 1. The relationship is approximately linear. The best tted regression line for the data is given by:

Group 2 (7% silica fume and 0.8% plasticizer by weight of cement) 21 D-G3 0.38 18 23.3 22 D-G3 0.36 18 33.2 23 D-G3 0.34 18 46.2 24 D-G3 0.32 18 40.5 25 D-G3 0.30 18 40.3 26 D-G3 0.30 15 43.0 27 D-G3 0.28 18 24.3 Note: (1) Q quartzite; L limestone; D dolomite; (2) the percentage of sand was based on the weight of coarse aggregate.

p 1:28pe 18:11:
2

The R value of 0.947 shows a good correlation between measured effective porosity and estimated total porosity. A similar relationship was also determined by Ghafoori and Dutta [10] but with different coefcient values. This could be attributed to the different mix proportions and compaction energy applied in making the samples.

sity. The samples were then sulphur capped and the unconned compressive strengths were tested at 7 and 28 days. The 28-day results were taken as representative values of compressive strengths of porous concrete and the tested average values for each batch are listed in Table 1. 2.3. Porosity Ghafoori and Dutta [10] stated that the majority of pores in porous concrete are formed by the spaces left between coarse aggregates and they distinguished between porosity and air void content. In their research, the fraction of measureable voids migrated by uids in their experiments was termed porosity and the sum of measureable voids between aggregates plus entrained or entrapped air in the cement paste was termed air content. In other words, the porosity of porous concrete could be dened differently. In this study, for clarity, the measureable voids are dened as the effective porosity since this relates to permeability and the overall air content is accordingly dened as total porosity. 2.3.1. Effective porosity The effective porosity was determined by testing the volume of water displaced by samples. The sample was rstly oven dried at 110 C and then immersed in water for up to 24 h. By measuring the difference in the water level before and after immersing the sample, the volume of water repelled by the sample (Vd) can be readily determined. Subtracting Vd from the sample bulk volume (Vb) yields the volume of open pores. This volume was then expressed as a percentage as an effective porosity percentage: pe = (Vb Vd)/Vb 100%. 2.3.2. Total porosity The strength of concrete is affected by the volume of its overall voids [9]. In the complex microstructure of concrete, the pores can be present from the nano-scale to the macro-scale. The difculty of accurately testing the total porosity of porous concrete arises from its unique microstructure. Compared with the pores within cement paste, the interconnected voids between coarse aggregate are larger by several millimetres. Although it is well known that the method of mercury intrusion porosimetry (MIP) is effective for observing the pore conguration in normal concrete, the large amount of connected voids within porous concrete will cause dripping and leakage of mercury if pressure is applied. Thus, the method of MIP is not feasible for porous concrete. Vacuum sealing apparatus is more appropriate to test a relatively accurate porosity for porous concrete in laboratory research [11]. However, in practice, setting up such a delicate apparatus is challenging for concrete manufacturers and a simpler method is preferred. In the literature, Kearsley and Wainwright [12] have successfully used the Hoff equation [13] to estimate the total porosity of foam concrete. Similarly, Zheng [14] has presented an equation to estimate the total porosity of porous concrete, which was analogous to the Hoff equation, but incorporated the aggregate proportions for porous concrete. This is shown in the following equation:

3. Existing models for cementitious materials Before creating a quantitative model to characterize the relationship between porosity and compressive strength for porous concrete, it is worth noting that the inuence of porosity on strength has been investigated for several engineering materials, such as ceramics, metals, plaster and rocks [1]. The research presented in this paper focuses developing a mathematical model between total porosity and compressive strength of porous concrete. Historically, four general types of model have been developed [19,20] for cement-based materials, as summarized in Table 2. In Eqs. (a)(c), the porosity (p) and the corresponding strength (f) of a porous material are related through a parameter, r0, which is the material strength when porosity is zero. In Eq. (d), p0 is the porosity when the material has zero strength. Chindaprasirt et al. [21,22] have demonstrated that the exponential relationship (type c in Table 2) proposed by Ryshkevitch [17] was valid for describing porous concrete. Fig. 2 shows how an exponential regression equation can be tted to the data from the present study. From Fig. 2, the tted exponential curve yields the equation: r = 231 exp (0.09p), with an R2 value of 0.90, which is lower than the value of 0.96 obtained by Chindaprasirt et al. [22]. This may be

qt 100
q

100 P c 0:25P c qw ; Pc q 0:25Pc 0:75

c

where qt is the theoretical density, Pc is the cement to aggregate ratio by weight, qc is the specic gravity of cement, qw is the unit weight of water and q is the aggregate apparent density. It can be seen that this equation was derived by understanding the

Fig. 1. Relationship between measured effective porosity and estimated total porosity.

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Table 2 Empirical models relating porosity and strength of cement-based materials. Equations (a) (b) (c) (d) Mathematic law Linear Power Exponential Logarithmic Constant b n c k Derivation Derived by Hasselmann [15] originally for glass Derived by Balshin [16] for powder metals Proposed by Ryshkevitch [17] for ceramics and rocks Proposed by Schiller [18] for non-metallic brittle materials

r = r0
(1 bp) r = r0 (1 p)n r = r0 exp (cp) r = k ln (p0/p)

because they tested the strength of hardened cement paste used in the porous concrete and also the neness modulus of aggregates. These values were used to calibrate the equation constants. This paper tries to theoretically calibrate the model for situations when the strength of the hardened cement paste is not available. 4. Proposed model 4.1. Theoretical derivation Grifths model of fracture [23] is usually taken as a classic theory to explain how the mechanical performance is related to porosity. Grifth found that the critical stress incurs crack propagation within a brittle material and can be expressed by:
Fig. 3. The proposed model for compressive strength versus porosity.

r 2Ec ; r pa

where r is the stress at the fracture (Pa), E is the elasticity modulus (Pa), c is the fracture surface energy (J/m2) and a is the half length of an internal crack (m). When considering this criterion for a porous material, the effective value of E and r need to be determined. This is because the presence of pores affects both elasticity and fracture energy. The elasticity and fracture energy are both reduced compared to the pore-free solid material. After mixing well and compacting the porous concrete, the cement paste wraps around the aggregate and behaves as one unit with air voids. Therefore all the pores, including both the large interconnected voids between aggregates and the small ones in the paste, are taken as defects that can lead to fracture of the porous concrete. The failure stress of the paste matrix can be determined by Eq. (4). Various equations have been developed to describe the inuence of pore content on Youngs Modulus and surface energy for

different materials [24,25]. In the present study, two different methods were considered when choosing the appropriate empirical equations for E and c to use in Eq. (4). Firstly, Rice [26] observed the reduction of Youngs modulus as E = E0 exp (tp), where E0 is the elastic modulus of the material at zero porosity with t as a constant. He also determined the fracture energy of pores as: c = c0 exp (qp), where c0 is the fracture energy at zero porosity and q is a constant. This showed the variation of the fracture energy would be the same as that of the Youngs modulus in terms of porosity. If these empirical relationships are assumed for porous concrete, the following relationship can be derived from Eq. (4):

r r 2E0 eqp c0 etp 2E0 c0 mp mp e r ke ; pa pa

where k and m are constants. This equation is similar to the empirical one which was observed by Chindaprasirt et al. [22]. Kendall et al. [27] proposed an alternative method. They applied a different function of Youngs modulus: E = E0 (1p)3 with fracture energy c = c0 exp (tp) into a fracture criterion formula and the predicted failure stress was compared with the test results from their study of concrete made

Fig. 2. Relationship between compressive strength and total porosity.

C. Lian et al. / Construction and Building Materials 25 (2011) 42944298 Table 3 Analytical and experimental data for modeling. Sample number 11 Cement to aggregate ratio 0.22 0.22 0.22 0.22 0.22 0.22 0.22 0.22 0.22 0.22 0.22 0.22 0.22 0.22 0.22 0.22 0.22 0.22 0.22 0.22 0.22 0.25 0.25 0.25 0.25 0.25 0.25 0.25 0.25 0.25 0.25 0.25 0.25 0.25 0.25 0.25 0.25 0.25 0.25 0.25 0.25 0.25 Specic gravity of binder 3.15 3.15 3.15 3.15 3.15 3.15 3.15 3.15 3.15 3.15 3.15 3.15 3.15 3.15 3.15 3.15 3.15 3.15 3.15 3.15 3.15 3.06 3.06 3.06 3.06 3.06 3.06 3.06 3.06 3.06 3.06 3.06 3.06 3.06 3.06 3.06 3.06 3.06 3.06 3.06 3.06 3.06 Aggregate density (103 kg/m3) 2.65 2.65 2.65 2.65 2.65 2.65 2.74 2.74 2.74 2.74 2.74 2.74 2.70 2.70 2.70 2.70 2.70 2.70 2.70 2.70 2.70 2.70 2.70 2.70 2.70 2.70 2.70 2.70 2.70 2.70 2.70 2.70 2.70 2.70 2.70 2.70 2.70 2.70 2.70 2.70 2.70 2.70 Sample density 1831 1734 1763 1880 1800 1840 1985 2105 1947 1960 1920 1900 1940 1940 1900 1863 1895 1880 1920 1980 1920 2080 2060 2040 2120 2120 2140 2240 2240 2240 2160 2200 2140 2180 2180 2140 2140 2140 2200 1960 1960 1920 Total porosity (%) 30.90 34.57 33.48 29.06 32.08 30.57 27.55 23.17 28.94 28.46 29.92 30.65 28.15 28.15 29.63 31.00 29.81 30.37 28.89 26.67 28.89 22.96 23.70 24.44 21.47 21.47 20.73 17.02 17.02 17.02 19.98 18.50 20.72 19.24 19.24 20.72 20.72 20.72 18.50 27.39 27.39 28.87 Compressive strength (MPa) 12.00 12.00 11.50 17.50 14.50 14.50 15.50 19.50 11.50 15.50 13.00 13.50 17.00 16.50 13.00 15.00 17.00 15.50 17.00 22.50 17.50 30.50 31.50 28.00 34.50 32.00 33.00 49.00 46.50 43.00 39.50 42.00 40.00 41.00 41.00 39.00 42.00 44.00 43.00 23.00 26.50 23.50 Y 4.97 4.97 4.89 5.72 5.35 5.35 5.49 5.94 4.88 5.48 5.13 5.21 5.67 5.61 5.13 5.42 5.67 5.48 5.67 6.23 5.72 6.84 6.90 6.66 7.08 6.93 6.99 7.78 7.68 7.52 7.35 7.48 7.38 7.43 7.43 7.33 7.48 7.57 7.52 6.27 6.55 6.31 x1 0.37 0.42 0.41 0.34 0.39 0.36 0.32 0.26 0.34 0.34 0.36 0.37 0.33 0.33 0.35 0.37 0.35 0.36 0.34 0.31 0.34 0.26 0.27 0.28 0.24 0.24 0.23 0.19 0.19 0.19 0.22 0.20 0.23 0.21 0.21 0.23 0.23 0.23 0.20 0.32 0.32 0.34 x2

4297

0.31 0.35 0.33 0.29 0.32 0.31 0.28 0.23 0.29 0.28 0.30 0.31 0.28 0.28 0.30 0.31 0.30 0.30 0.29 0.27 0.29 0.23 0.24 0.24 0.21 0.21 0.21 0.17 0.17 0.17 0.20 0.19 0.21 0.19 0.19 0.21 0.21 0.21 0.19 0.27 0.27 0.29

12

13

14

15

16

17

21

22

23

24

25

26

27

with polymers. In light of this, a combined functional model based on this approach is proposed for porous concrete as shown in the following equation:

Squaring both sides and taking the natural logarithm of each side:

s 2E0 1 pm c0 enp r ; pa
where m and n are new material constants for porous concrete.

2 ln r m ln1 p np ln A;
which now can be regarded as a linear equation of the form:

Y mx1 nx2 c; with Y 2 ln r; x1 ln1 p; x2 p and c ln A:

8 9

4.2. Examination of the proposed model To assess the validity of the proposed model, a regression analysis was performed on Eq. (6) based on the available experimental data. The proposed model was shown in Fig. 3. It can be seen from the gure that Eq. (6) is complicated as a combined format of power and exponential relations. Thus, in order to utilize a linear least-squares regression technique, Eq. (6) has to be rearranged: 0 c0 First of all, 2E pa A is assumed, regardless of the possible different pore sizes formed in different samples. Then:

The values of Y, x1 and x2 are calculated in Table 3. 4.3. Results and discussion The multiple linear regression run by least square method generates the best tted plane and parameters, as shown in Fig. 4. The regression results are: m = 5.96 and n = 10.01 when c = 10.61 for Eq. (8), which is: Y = 5.96x1 10.01x2 + 10.61. The coefcient of determination R2 for this equation is estimated to be 0.99 and the standard error of estimated Y is 0.306. This indicates that the model could describe the correlation between compressive strength and porosity for porous concrete with acceptable

r A1 pm enp :

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(3) With a large set of data on porosity and tested compressive strength, a new model using Grifths fracture theory has been proposed. It has been shown that the proposed model provides a stronger relationship between the compressive strength and the porosity of porous concrete, with a model regression statistic R2 of up to 0.99. This represents a significant improvement over the simple exponential equation. Other statistics also veried that this semi-empirical model could predict the compressive strength of porous concrete based on the material porosity.

Acknowledgment The authors would like to express their special thanks to Mr. David Carver for his technical assistance during the experimental work. References
Fig. 4. Relationship between Y and X1, X2. [1] Li L, Aubertin M. A general relationship between porosity and uniaxial strength of engineering materials. Can J Civ Eng 2003;30:64458. [2] Beecham S. Water sensitive urban design, a technological assessment. J Storm Indus Assoc 2003;17:513. [3] Neithalath N, Weiss J, Olek J. Characterizing enhanced porosity concrete using electrical impedance to predict acoustic and hydraulic performance. Cem Concr Res 2006;36:207485. [4] Kuang X, Sansalone J, Ying G, Ranieri V. Pore-structure models of hydraulic conductivity for permeable pavement. J Hydro 2011;399(3):14857. [5] Lian C, Zhuge Y. Optimum mix design of enhanced permeable concrete an experimental investigation. Constr Build Mater 2010;24(12):266471. [6] Yavuz Corapcioglu M, editor. Advances in porous media. Amsterdam (Netherlands): Elsevier; 1994. [7] Roy DM, Gouda GR. Porositystrength relation in cementitious materials with very high strengths. J Am Ceram Soc 1973;53(10):54950. [8] Beaudoin JJ, Ramachandran VS. A new perspective on the hydration characteristics of cement phases. Cem Concr Res 1992;22(4):68994. [9] Neville AM. Properties of concrete. England: Longman Group Ltd.; 1995. [10] Ghafoori N, Dutta S. Laboratory investigation of compacted no-nes concrete for paving materials. J Mater Civ Eng 1995;7(3):18391. [11] Huang B, Wu H, Shu X, Burdette EG. Laboratory evaluation of permeability and strength of polymer-modied pervious concrete. Constr Build Mater 2010;24:81823. [12] Kearsley EP, Wainwright PJ. The effect of porosity on the strength of foamed concrete. Cem Concr Res 2002;32:2339. [13] Hoff GC. Porositystrength considerations for cellular concrete. Cem Concr Res 1983;13:12734. [14] Zheng M. Physical and mechanical performance of porous concrete for drainage base. PhD thesis; 2004. [15] Hasselman, Fulrath. Effect of small fraction of spherical porosity on elastic moduli of glass. J Am Ceram Soc 1964;47:523. [16] Balshin MY. Relation of mechanical properties of powder metals and their porosity and the ultimate properties of porous metalceramic materials. Dokl Akad SSSR 1949;67(5):8314. [17] Ryshkevitch R. Compression strength of porous sintered alumina and zirconia. J Am Ceram Soc 1953;36(2):658. [18] Schiller KK. Strength of porous materials. Cem Concr Res 1971;1:41922. [19] Kumar R, Bhattacharjee B. Porosity, pore size distribution and in situ strength of concrete. Cem Concr Res 2003;33:15564. [20] Zhao T. Permeability of concrete. Beijing: Science Press; 2006. [21] Chindaprasirt P, Hatanaka S, Chareerat T, Mishima N, Yuasa Y. Cement paste characteristics and porous concrete properties. Constr Build Mater 2008;22:894901. [22] Chindaprasirt P, Hatanaka S, Mishima N, Yuasa Y, Chareerat T. Effects of binder strength and aggregate size on the compressive strength and void ratio of porous concrete. Int J Miner Metal Mater 2009;16(8):714. [23] Grifth AA. The theory of rupture and ow in solids. Trans Roy Soc Lond A 1920;221:63. [24] Boccaccini AR, Fan Z. A new approach for the Youngs modulus-porosity correlation of ceramic materials. Ceram Int 1997;23:23945. [25] Vandeperre LJ, Wang J, Clegg WJ. Effects of porosity on the measured fracture energy of brittle materials. Philos Mag 2004;8(34):3689704. [26] Rice RW. Mechanical properties of ceramics and composites. New York: Marcel Dekker; 2000. [27] Kendall K, Howard AJ, Birchall JD, Pratt PL, Proctor BA, Jefferis SA. The relation between porosity, microstructure and strength, and the approach to advanced cement-based materials. Philo Trans Roy Soc Lond 1983;SA310(1511):13953.

accuracy. Moreover, the F statistic is calculated as 4361.7, with an extremely small probability of 1.857E 42, indicating that the observed relationship did not occur by chance. This means that the proposed model is reliable for predicting the failure compressive strength of porous concrete. In addition, the proposed model predicts a zero strength when the material is assumed to be fully porous, conquering the limitation of the exponential function which cannot make sense when the porosity is close to 1. Therefore it offers a wider range for application. On the other hand, it is noticed that while the current proposed model is inclusive of all three aggregate types used in this study, some factors such as aggregate shape and absorption were not accounted for separately. Another constant B is suggested to be employed in the proposed Eq. (6) for future work to account for these additional factors. In this case, a general format for this future model could be:

r B 1 pm enp ;
where B could be determined when these additional factors are tested and quantied. 5. Conclusions The dependence of compressive strength on porosity for porous concrete was analysed empirically and theoretically in this paper. The following conclusions can be drawn: (1) The effective porosity of porous concrete has been measured. However, since the non-intrusive pores weaken the strength of concrete, the total porosity was estimated and then compared with the effective porosity. It has been demonstrated that the estimated total porosity has a good correlation with the measured effective porosity. This estimation method could be used when total porosity testing apparatus is not available. (2) Existing equations relating compressive strength and porosity for cement-based materials were presented and a potential equation for porous concrete has been appraised by tting to the experimental data. It has been shown that without extra knowledge of paste strength, the exponential function derived using experimental data resulted in a relatively low correlation coefcient.