INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF SCIENTIFIC & TECHNOLOGY RESEARCH VOLUME 9, ISSUE 01 , JANUARY 2020 ISSN 2277-8616

Mechanical Characteristics Of Pumice Stone As

Light Weight Aggregate In Concrete
S.P.Sangeetha, R.Divahar, Kyrshanborlang Mawlong,Balajied Lyngkhoi, Aiporlang Kurkalang
Abstract: Light weight concrete plays a major role in construction Industry due to its unique properties when compared to ordinary conc rete.This
research explains the development of light weight concrete by replacing coarse aggregates with pumice which is a light weight material in different
proportions. In general the conventional concrete can be made light weight by using light weight aggregate or air entraining agents. In this study, a
comparison has been made between conventional concrete and concrete made with replacement of coarse aggregates with 10%, 20%, 30%, 40%,
50%, 60%, 80%, 100% of pumice respectively.The physical and mechanical properties of this concrete were investigated and compared with normal
concrete.Properties such as water absorption,grading ,compressive strength,tensile strength,flexural strength and were measured.

Index Terms: Light weight concrete, Pumice, Compressive strength, split tensile strength, aggregate, workability, density
——————————  ——————————

1 INTRODUCTION
Lightweight concrete is used for construction since Roman Ordinary Portland cement of 53- grade conforming to IS
period which is a concrete containing expanded light weight 12269, Sand complying with ASTM standard C33 for fine
aggregate which increases the volume of the mixture but aggregates,Volcanic based Pumice stone and a
lowers the dead weight. Nicholas et al(2011) has superplasticesr was used in this study. Potable water which
experimentally verified that lightweight concrete has more was free from impurities was used for mixing .The chemical
advantages over normal weight concrete like less density, composition of Pumice stone used in the study is teested in
less thermal coefficient and conductivity, resistance to fire , the laboratory and is as tabulated in table 1.
more durable, etc., Reduction in dead load by the use of
lightweight concrete not only results in decrease in cross Table 1: Chemical composition of Pumice stone
section of structural elements, but also minimises the risk of Oxides Ca Sio Al2 Fe2 Mg Na2 K2 Ti S
damages to structures during earthquake. This research (%) o 2 O3 O3 O O O O2 O3
paper explains the investigation made on concrete made Pumic
1. 67. 16. 1.9 2.2 3.8 3. 0. 1.
with Pumice as light weight aggregate. To create a good e
98 25 45 8 3 7 16 65 04
stone
cohesion between the concrete matrix, sufficient workability
has to be maintained. Lightweight concrete is usually
chosen for structural purpose where its use will lead to a Pumice stones are selected based on grading and allowed
lower the overall cost of construction an normal weight to pass through 20mm sieves and the specific gravity of
concrete. Pumice is a light weight aggregate obtained from pumice stone used was found to be 0.817. M30 grade of
volconic rock which is foamy in appearance is used for the concrete with nominal mix as per IS 456-2000 and IS
production of light weight concrete. Parhizkar et al (2011) 10262:2009 was used. The specimens were cast by
in their experimental investigation on the properties of replacing the coarse aggregates by pumice aggregates in
pumice as lightweight aggregates concretes have different percentage, such as 0%, 10%, 20%, 30%, 40%,
concluded that Pumice as lightweight concrete meet the 50%, 60%, 80%, 100% respectively. Unique code
requirements of the structural lightweight concrete. Swamy representing the percentage of replacement was assigned
et al (1984) have proved that the light weight concrete has to all specimens where LWC refers ro Light Weight
good thermal efficiency and load carrying. Kristiawan and Concrete and the numerical value stands for percentage of
Sangadji (2009) have stated in their research paper that replacement. Cube,cylinder and beams were casted and
light concretes can be used in precast and prestressed tested in the laboratory. The values of compressive
units. Though this type of units leads to higher costs strength, tensile strength and flexural strength were
compared to conventional concrete, structures as a whole calculated and compared with conventional concrete.
will have lower costs due to the reduction in dead weight,
size of foundation and usage of reinforcing bars. 3 EXPERIMENTAL INVESTIGATIONS
Preliminary investigation on water absorption, grading of
2 MATERIALS AND METHOD aggregates ,workability and drying shrinkage were
estimated prior to subjecting the specimens for loading. The
water absorption rate of of pumice stones and coarse
_____________________________________ aggregates were calculated and the water absorbtion of
Pumice stone was found to be 52% more than the coarse
 S.P.Sangeetha,Vice Principal(Academics),Aarupadai Veedu Institute of aggregates. In the present experimental investigation. The
Technology,Vinayaka Missions Research
Foundation,Paiyanoor,Tamilnadu,Email:sangeetha@avit.ac.in,Phone
grading of an aggregate helps in better workability and
number:9443559850 stability. Grading of both coarse aggregate and Pumice was
 R.Divahar Assco.Prof and Head,Civil Dept, Aarupadai Veedu Institute of carried out to compare and verify whether Pumice can be
Technology,Vinayaka Missions Research used as an aggregate. Flakiness index of the pumice
Foundation,Paiyanoor,Tamilnadu,Email:divahar.civil @avit.ac.in stones chosen as aggregates was measured by measuring
 Kyrshanborlang Mawlong,Balajied Lyngkhoi, Aiporlang Kurkalang,UG the aggregates passing through a 63 mm sized mesh and
student,AVIT,VMRF. getting retained on a mesh of size 6.3 mm. It was found to
3760
IJSTR©2020
www.ijstr.org
 INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF SCIENTIFIC & TECHNOLOGY RESEARCH VOLUME 9, ISSUE 01 , JANUARY 2020 ISSN 2277-8616

be around 11%. Lightweight concretes will have high

shrinkage when compared with conventional concrete
because of the low elastic modulus of porous aggregates.
Prisms were made to check the drying shrinkage of all
mixes. Mechanical DEMEC gauges were attached to prism
specimens for measuring the shrinkage after demoulding.
The specimens were then kept in a controlled temperature.
The change in length of the specimens to that of the original
length was measured at regular time intervals.
Superplasticser added during mixing helped in minimising
the drying shrinkage. Workability of concrete made with
Pumice stone was measured using slump cone and it was
found to be good.

4 RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS

From the results of grading analysis it was found that the
pumice aggregate compares well with normal coarse Fig.2: Compressive strength Vs time of curing
aggregate and can be utilized as coarse aggregate. The
results obtained are shown in fig 1.

Fig 3: Split tensile strength Vs time of curing

Fig.1: Grading envelope for Pumice as coarse aggregate

The dry density of all specimens cast with different

proportions of Pumice stone were measured and tabulated
in table 2.It was found that higher the replacement of
pumice stone lighter the mix and water absorption is higher.

Table 2: Density of hardened light weight concrete

Moisture Oven dried Equilibrium

Specimen density density density
3 3 3
(Kg/m ) (kg/m ) (kg/m )
CC 2426 2307 2405
LWC10 2316 2212 2288
LWC20 2298 2185 2245
LWC30 1996 1898 1923
LWC40 1996 1898 1923
LWC50 1876 1815 1868
LWC60 1725 1656 1701
LWC70 1621 1571 1598
LWC80 1551 1431 1496 Fig 4: Flexural strength Vs time of curing
LWC90 1456 1326 1418
LWC100 1225 1108 1209 5 CONCLUSIONS
Compression, flexural and split tensile strength values were
From the results, it was found that water absorption compared with conventional concrete at different
increases and density decreases with increase in Pumice replacement percentages (10%, 20%, 30%, 40%, 50%,
content. The compressive, tensile and flexural strengths of 60%, 80%, and 100%) of Pumice with coarse aggregates. It
concrete made with different proportions at different ages of was observed from the results that the Compressive, tensile
curing are shown in figures 2, 3 and 4 respectively. The and flexural strength results were comparable with
compressive strength results showed that the addition of conventional concrete upto a replacement of 50% Pumice
pumice reduces the strength of concrete beyond 50%. with coarse aggregate. But beyond that the strength
3761
IJSTR©2020
www.ijstr.org
 INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF SCIENTIFIC & TECHNOLOGY RESEARCH VOLUME 9, ISSUE 01 , JANUARY 2020 ISSN 2277-8616

gradually decreases and water absorption is also found to

be very high which may lead to a highly porous concrete.
Generally Pumice stone absorbs more water compared to
the nominal coarse aggregate, to overcome this problem,
super plasticizers were added. The 100% replacement of
normal aggregate with pumice aggregate gives least
compressive strength with more reduction in weight of
concrete. Hence upto a replacement percentage of 50%
pumice stone can be effectively used for structural purpose.
Replacement of 60% - 100% can used for only non
structural purposes .It can be concluded that since pumice
aggregates meet the properties of concrete ,it can be
effectively be used as lightweight aggregates. The concrete
which is produced with these aggregates also meets the
requirements of lightweight concrete specified by codes.
The concrete produced using Pumice stones can safely be
used for the construction of construction elements in
houses, where loads are light and high strength is not
required. Since pumice stones are abundantly available in
nature, commercially low lightweight concrete can be
manufactured using this.

6 REFERENCES
[1] B. Devi Pravallika and K. Venkateswara Rao ―The
Study on Strength Properties of Light Weight
Concrete using Light Weight Aggregate‖
IJSR,Volume 5, Issue 6, ,234-239,2016.
[2] Kristiawan SA, Sangadji S., ―Prediction model for
shrinkage of lightweight aggregate concrete‖, Asian
Journal of Civil Engineering, No. 5, 10,549-
58,2009.
[3] Khaloo AR, Ahmad SH, El-Dash KM, ― Behavior of
confined high-strength lightweight concrete
columns‖, Asian Journal of Civil Engineering,No.
1,13-35,2000.
[4] NihatKabay and FevziyeAkoz,―Effect of prewetting
methods on some fresh and hardened properties of
concrete with pumice aggregate‖, Journal of
Cement & Concrete Composites., vol. 34,503–
507,2012.
[5] Parhizkar, Najimi and Pourkhorshidi, ―Application
of pumice aggregate in structural lightweight
concrete‖, Asian journal of Civil Engineering, VOL.
13, NO. 1, 43-54,2012.
[6] Sivalinga Rao, Y.Radha Ratna Kumari, V. Bhaskar
Desai, B.L.P. Swami, ―Fibre Reinforced Light
Weight Aggregate (Natural Pumice Stone)
Concrete‖, International Journal of Scientific &
Engineering Research Volume 4, Issue 5, 2229-
5518, 2013..
[7] Roshan Peter and A. Anantha Kumar, ―
Experimental Investigation Of Floating Concrete
Structure Using Light Weight (Natural Pumice
Stone) Aggregate‖ ,IJERT, Vol. 2, Issue 2, 118 -
129,p.g.118,2016.

3762
IJSTR©2020
www.ijstr.org