European Journal of Scientific Research

ISSN 1450-216X Vol.51 No.3 (2011), pp.424-432

EuroJournals Publishing, Inc. 2011
http://www.eurojournals.com/ejsr.htm

Study on Behavior of Foamed Concrete under

Quasi Static Indentation Test
Mohd Zairul Affindy Abdul Rahman
Faculty of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Universiti Tun Hussein Onn Malaysia, Johore, Malaysia
E-mail: zairulaffindy@yahoo.co.uk
Ismail Abdul Rahman
Faculty of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Universiti Tun Hussein Onn Malaysia, Johore, Malaysia
E-mail:ismailar@uthm.edu.my
Ahmad Mujahid Ahmad Zaidi
Faculty of Engineering, National Defense University of Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
E-mail:mujahid@upnm.edu.my
Abstract
Foamed concrete is lightweight materials that have been widely used in
construction industries. Foamed concrete strength is normally measured by using the
standard of testing ASTM C39 and BS 1881: Part 116:1983. Result from the test shows
that foamed concrete only achieved low compressive strength. However, the standard
method to obtain the compressive strength of foamed is not appropriate due to the standard
testing was developed based on normal concrete test criteria. The standard test cannot
capture the real behavior of foamed concrete due to the brittle failure. Several standard
compressive tests have been conducted to obtained compressive strength, but these entire
tests were failed due to the early crack initiation and the brittle collapse of the samples.
Therefore, the standard test is applicable to foamed concrete due to the combination of
brittle and soft elements (of foamed concrete) where the micro cracks can easily produce
under compressive load. When the compressive load is applied, these micro cracks will
propagated and will cause brittle collapse to the sample. Quasi-static indentation test is
proposed as a new method to capture the behavior of foamed concrete under compressive
load. This study aims to investigate the behavior of foamed under indentation test.
Indentation test method consist of applying a compressive axial load using head of indenter
to moulded cylinders at a rate which is within a prescribe range until failure occurs. In
general, the Stress-strain behavior of foamed concrete can be divided into three regimes,
i.e.; elastic regime, plateau regime and densification regime.

Keywords: Foamed concrete, brittle collapse, micro cracks, indentation test

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Study on Behavior of Foamed Concrete under Quasi Static Indentation Test

425

1. Introduction
Foamed concrete is low-density material, which comprises a cement-based mortar. Foamed concrete is
a possible alternative of lightweight concrete for producing intermediate strength capabilities with
excellent thermal insulation, freeze-thaw resistance, high-impact resistance and good shock absorption.
The most important consideration in foamed concrete is about the compressive strength. Under the
conventional testing method, what can be highlight here is about the failure mode of the sample. For
normal hardened concrete, the failure zone appears and involved the whole length or height of the
sample. But this is not happened to foamed concrete sample, which the failure zone just happened on
the top part of the sample. Foamed concrete has a combination of brittle and soft element where micro
crack can easily produce under compressive load. When compressive load is applied, these micro
cracks will propagate and caused brittle collapse to the sample. Based on this situation, it believed that
it does not give and capture the details behaviour of foamed concrete due to the early crack initiation.
Foamed concrete behaviour should be similar to the cellular material behavior.

2. Previous Research
Currently to measure the strength of foamed concrete is using standard unconfined compressive test.
The compressive test is based on the ASTM C39 standard or BS 1881: Part 116:1983 (testing for
hardened concrete). From the conventional test, the strength of foamed concrete achieved only low
compressive strength. This happened due to the early crack initiation and brittle failure of the sample.
The strength achieve is lower compared to the real strength where when the load reached to 90% of the
ultimate value, slight crack may hear on the top part of the sample and its very clearly seen that most of
the cracks were emcompass on the top part of cylinderical sample. The sample collapsed with the
cracks occur in the top part of the cylinder and the compressive test does not make the collapse
extended through the whole length of the cylinder [1]. For the normal concrete failure, the failure zone
under compressive load involves the whole length or height of the sample.
To capture the true compressive strength, a new method called Quasi Static Indentation Test
is introduced. Indentation test normally tested to the cellular material like aluminum foam. When look
at foamed concrete, its also one of the cellular material which has a combination of soft and brittle
elements. Foamed concrete has experience the similarity to cellular material behavior and it should
capture the stress-strain cellular material curve [2] as in figure 1. Foamed concrete under unconfined
compressive test not completely experienced three phase regime i.e.: elastic regime, plateau regime and
densification regime. It is found that standard compressive test is not suitable to capture the strength of
foamed concrete where the compressive strength achieved is low [3].
Figure 1: Stress-strain curve of cellular material

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Mohd Zairul Affindy Abdul Rahman, Ismail Abdul Rahman and Ahmad Mujahid Ahmad Zaidi

Foamed Concrete contains a large amount of voids where material that contains large amount
of voids that can be divided into two groups based on their proportion of solid phase. The porous
material can be measured by a dense matrix containing a fair amount of pores but remain less than
around 30-40% which is conventional approximate limit separating porous from cellular materials. The
cellular material can be measured by material that contain a higher amount of pores and can no longer
be described as matrices including voids [4]. It is clear that foamed concrete is one of cellular material
and is made up of an interconnected network of solids structures which forms the edges and faces of
cells. Using the technique by introducing bubbles into the slurry (mix of cement and water), the
bubbles are allowed growing and stabilizing and then solidifying the whole structure by cross-linking.
The assembly of the cell with solid edges or faces, packed together so that they filled the space. The
most important feature of a cellular solids is its relative density */s; that is, the density of the cellular
material, *, divided by that of the solid from which the cell are made, s [5]. The compressive stressstrain behavior can be divided into three regimes, elastic regime, plateau regime and densification
regime [2].
Indentation test is considered as quasi static because it uses the low velocity along the process.
Besides that, the inertia effects were neglected in this test. In the indentation test, the nominal stress
and strain are calculated as:
= P/A
(1.1)
= h/h
(1.2)
Where:
P = applied load
A = the cross-sectional area of the indenter
h = displacement of the indenter
h = length of the cylinder sample
The important parameter of a cellular material is its relative density */s; that is, the density of
the cellular material, *, divided by that of the solid from which the cell are made, s [5]. The
compressive stress-strain behavior can be divided into three regimes, elastic regime, plateau regime
and densification regime [2]. Based on the stress-strain curve, the plateau regimes are starts from the
crush strain, y or crush stress, y. These crush strain or crush stress representing the initiation of the
new deformation mechanism of the cell wall or the cell wall failure and end at a critical strain, cd
which is representing the onset of densification. Cellular material is completely compacted when the
strain reaches a complete densification strain, d, which cause a steep increase in the slope of the stressstrain curve. Onset of densification of cellular solids represents the start of the cell wall interaction,
which enhance the compressive resistance of a cellular solid. Commonly method to determine the
onset strain of densification is based on the energy absorption efficiency curves. Base on this method,
it gives unique and consistent result. The energy absorption efficiency is defined by equation[6];

(1.3)
( ) = 1 ( ) ( )d
y
based on the uniaxial stress-strain curve of the cellular material. The new method to calculate the
energy absorption efficiency may lead to a slight increase of the onset strain of densification and slight
decrease of the plateau stress which is defined by equation[6];
cd
(1.4)
pl = ( )d cd y
y

Where y is the strain at the yield corresponding to the start of the plateau regime [6].

3. Sample Preparation
In this study, foamed concrete is made of a combination of fine sand, cement, water and foam. The
target density for this foamed concrete is within the range of 700 kg/m3 - 1000 kg/m3. The entire
samples were plain foamed concrete. Below is the proposed design mix based on example of 1m3

Study on Behavior of Foamed Concrete under Quasi Static Indentation Test

427

design mix of foamed concrete as in Table 1. The production process of foamed concrete is presented
in Figure 2. The samples were molded in 150mm in diameter with 100mm in height cylinder in as in
Figure 3. 6 samples were prepared and test using indentation test.
Table 1:
No
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10

Mix design for foamed concrete

Subject

Dry density (Kg/m3)

Wet density (Kg/m3)
Sand: cement: water
Cement (Kg)
Dry sand (Kg)
Water (Kg)
Slurry density (Kg/m3)
Foaming Agent (Liter)
Water (Liter)
Foam (Liter)

Quantity
799
940
1:1:0.6
18.66
18.66
11.18
2005
0.039
1.33
28.78

Figure 2: Manufacturing of foamed concrete

Figure 3: Foamed concrete sample

4. Research Method
4.1. Quasi Static Indentation Test
Indentation test is a mechanical testing process designed to determined the properties of foamed
concrete by puting an indenter in the surface of a foamed concrete sample. Indentation test is

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Mohd Zairul Affindy Abdul Rahman, Ismail Abdul Rahman and Ahmad Mujahid Ahmad Zaidi

developed to determine the properties of materials that, due to their configuration, could not be tested
using other conventional methods.
The mechanics of indentation test are simple in principle. The indenter defined geometry is
forced into the surface of sample by using compressive test machine. This test procedure practice will
be the same as specified in ASTM C39-Compressive Strength of Cylindrical Concrete Specimens. The
indenter head is designed as flat nose indenter as in Figure 4. The penetration depth will be set to up to
maximum 100mm. Here the consideration will be the size of indenter where the size used is 20mm
which is the minimum of 10 times more than size of cell. The sample diameter will be 150mm in
diameter and 100mm thickness as shown in figure 3. Size of indenter is produced to give the natural
confinement to the sample. Indentation test will give the maximum load based on the indenter size and
depth of penetration. Under indentation test, the displacement is control by the forced applied to the
indenter. The force is set to 3mm/minute to the Universal Testing Machine, UTM. The force is applied
continuously and indenter as it penetrates into the sample until it reaches the maximum load whereby
the sample is failed as in Figure 5.
Before start the indentation test, plug-in the designed head of indenter based on the size
required into the universal testing machine. The indentation tests are made as soon as practicable after
28 days air curing. Wipe clean the bearing faces of the upper and lower bearing block of universal
testing machine and of the test specimens. Then place the specimen on the lower bearing block.
Carefully align the axis of the specimen with the center of thrust of the spherically seated upper block.
Then bring the upper block to bear on the specimen. Adjust the load to obtain uniform setting. Apply
the load at a loading 0.05mm/second. Apply the load (at designed rate) until the specimen fails. Record
the maximum load and depth of penetration of indenter.
Calculate the indentation strength as the average of six specimens. The data is generated
automatically from the UTM machine during the indentation test process are stored together in the
memory of computer. The result consists of maximum load, depth of penetration and another
parameter which is considerable to the test. The most universally accepted property determined from
this test is linear elastic, other properties such as yield stress and strain-hardening characteristics can
also be observed, the most important thing is we can observed the 3 regimes which is elastic regime,
plateau regime and densification regime.
Figure 4: Quasi static indenter

Figure 5: Indentation Test

Study on Behavior of Foamed Concrete under Quasi Static Indentation Test

429

5. Result
5.1. Indentation Test
Mechanical properties are tabulated in Table 2. Based on the statistical data on initial crushing stress
and strain, plateau stress and strain of densification, it shows that the group of sample have crush stress
between 1.81 Mpa to 3.03 Mpa while the crush strain constant at 3 %. Then the maximum critical
strain reached up to 43.97 % and the minimum critical strain only 12.59 %. Plateau stress is calculated
based on equation 1.3 and equation 1.4. From the result, average of the plateau stress is about 5.29
Mpa. The maximum plateau stress is about 6.43 Mpa and the minimum is about 4.01 Mpa. It can be
explained that from Figure 6, when the load was applied to the sample, it experiences the linear
elasticity at low stresses where it slowly compresses by the indenter. The cell structure or air void in
the foamed concrete was stretching slowly. When the cells start to stretching, it is followed by a long
collapse plateau. Plateau mean brittle crushing of cell structure or the air voids in the foamed concrete
structure. During this period, all the air voids almost completely collapsed and further the strain
compresses of the structure. After the air voids structure collapse, the loading compressed and rapidly
increasing the stress. The slow loading was increase because the collapse plateau truncated by a
densification regime.
Before the sample failed, it achieved compressive strength more than the standard compressive
test. It reached the maximum of 7.23 N/mm2 and minimum of 4.76 N/mm2, while the average
compressive strength is about 5.93 N/mm2. This indicates that foamed concrete has a higher
compressive strength under indentation test and this happened in the densification regime. It is clearly
shows that under indentation test, foamed concrete experienced the plateau regime and densification
regime.
Table 2:

Sample

Result under indentation test

Density
Kg/m3

IN1
IN2
IN3
IN4
IN5
IN6

700 - 900

Crush Stress
y
Mpa
1.810
2.118
2.735
2.854
3.033
2.357

Crush Strain
y
%
3.000
3.000
3.000
3.000
3.000
3.000

Plateau Stress
pl
Mpa
5.349
4.015
6.433
4.682
5.782
5.506

Figure 6: Stress-Strain Curve under indentation test

Critical
Strain cd
%
37.340
24.000
43.976
19.417
13.124
12.599

Plateau Stress
Average
pl

5.294

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Mohd Zairul Affindy Abdul Rahman, Ismail Abdul Rahman and Ahmad Mujahid Ahmad Zaidi

Figure 6 shows that sample 3 shows the long plateau regime before enter densification regime
compared to other sample. Some of the sample have short plateau regime before enter the densification
regime. This is happened because of the distribution of the cell of voids in the sample. But all sample
experience all the three phase and from the graph, it can concluded that the distribution of the air voids
in the sample can influence the critical strain. When critical strain is low, the plateau stress was
reducing.
From stress-strain curve, the value of the energy absorption efficiency depends on the direction,
in which the compressive stressstrain curve is obtained. Here the crush strain, y and crush stress, y
can be determined. Then using this data, energy absorption efficiency curves were calculated and
plotted as efficiency-strain curve as in Figure 7. The energy absorption efficiency is defined by
Equation 1.3. From efficiency-strain curve, the maximum efficiency of the sample and the critical
strain, cd can be determined. Then From the data, Plateau stress is calculated using Equation 1.4.
Figure 7: Efficiency curve under indentation test
EFFICIENCY VS STRAIN
40
35
IN-1

Efficiency

30

IN-2

25

IN-3
20

IN-4

15

IN-5

10

IN-6

5
0
0

10

20

30

40

50

Strain%

5.2. Mode of Failure

After foamed concrete sample was indent using 20mm diameter head of indenter, it seems that the
sample experienced localized deformation. From six samples that was test; it can be observed that the
failure happened when it reached the densified zone as in Figure 8.
From the observation, it can be highlight that there is three main finding occur after the
indentation test. Figure 8 shows the diagram of deformation of the sample under indentation test. The
finding is tear line, the densified zone and the undeformed zone. Tear line is caused of the head of
indenter indent into the sample to compressed the cell structure. This is happen due to the less of lateral
spread in deformation and closed to zero Poisson ratio. The shape of densified zone is situated directly
below the head of indenter. Densified zone is where all the cell structure is dense due to the
compression load. At densified zone, it also observed that hemi spherical shape appeared and at the
outside of densified zone, still remains in good condition.
The sample is failed when it reached to the densified zone. Using Morphology analysis, all the
cell structure is dense due to the rupture of the cell as in Figure 9.

Study on Behavior of Foamed Concrete under Quasi Static Indentation Test

Figure 8: (a)-(b) Macrograph of the plain foamed concretes sample subjected to indentation
(a) Cross-section front view

20mm

Undeformed zone
Tear line

Densified zone

(b) Top view

431

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Mohd Zairul Affindy Abdul Rahman, Ismail Abdul Rahman and Ahmad Mujahid Ahmad Zaidi
Figure 9: (a)-(b) Morphology of the cell before and after experienced indentation test
(a) Cell before indentation test

(b) Cell rupture after indentation test

6. Summary
Indentation test is proposed due to the standard compressive test does not capture the true behavior of
foamed concrete. Based on observation of unconfined condition and confined condition compressive
test, it shows that foamed concrete under compressive test just give low compressive strength due to
early crack failure. From indentation test, the strength increase and behave like cellular behavior
material. It is clearly that foamed concrete is a soft and brittle material. Under indentation test, it
provides natural confinement where it can prevent from early crack initiation and propagate to make
the sample failed due to brittle collapse. The stress-strain curve show foamed concrete behaves like
cellular material behavior. It is important to know every stages of the regime experience under
indentation test to get to know the potential application can be developed based on each regime. More
research should be conducted to developed more data based for foamed concrete. Next study will focus
on the effect of the density of foamed concrete under indentation test and influence of the size of the
indenter.

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[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]

[5]
[6]

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