Environmental Effects on Heat of Hydration in Foamed Concrete

Foamed concrete has a unique set of properties including flowability, self compactability, flexibility in producing range of densities, reduced cost and good thermal insulating and fire properties and it can be used in a wide range of construction applications. However, in large volume applications such as void filling, its high volume to surface area ratio and increased thermal insulation leads to significantly higher core temperatures due to heat of hydration. This paper describes a laboratory study carried out to examine the effect of constituent temperatures on heat of hydration and the peak temperatures resulting in the concrete mass. In addition, influence of ambient, pour volume and foamed concrete density on heat of hydration was discussed.