Manufacture of Low Cost Foam Concrete Using Detergents

Abstract

When it comes to construction industry, the methods employed for the purpose of insulation of different structures is of great importance. While there are some orthodox methods for this purpose such as use of mud or laying of burned bricks etc, these add substantial amount of dead load to the structure resulting in much expensive over-designed structures. One of the solutions to this problem came back in 1930 when in Sweden foam concrete was first developed. Although the word concrete is almost inappropriate for it since no coarse aggregate is used (Neville 2000). During the course of time, foam concrete has become one of the most important material for the insulation of heat and sound used in roofs and floors. Foam concrete is a type of porous concrete. According to its features and uses it is similar to aerated concrete. The synonyms are aerated concrete, lightweight concrete and porous concrete. Foam concrete is created by uniform distribution of air bubbles throughout the mass of concrete.