Evaluation of Rheological and Mechanical Properties of Lightweight Concrete Containing Different Percentages of Polypropylene and Zeolite Fibers

Lightweight concrete is one of the most important and efficient materials in the modern construction industry and has a variety of applications. Proper application of lightweight concrete can have many positive influences on the construction process of concrete structures. The possibility of application in the most geographical regions, utility of natural and cheap materials, high speed, low cost compared to the large volume of operations and its ductility due to the geometric shapes of the design, good performance and very high resistance, resistant to compressive forces and tensile strength, energy absorption and cracking stability are the prominent features of lightweight structural concretes. The main purpose of this research was to investigate the rheological and mechanical properties of the lightweight concrete containing different percentages of zeolite and polypropylene fiber separately. In this research, applying laboratory method, the rheological properties of fresh lightweight concrete (soft concrete) and the mechanical properties of hardened lightweight concrete at the ages of 7 and 28 days have been evaluated. According to ASTMC 39 standard, two samples of lightweight concrete without zeolite and polypropylene at the ages of 7 and 28 days have been prepared and mechanically evaluated. Then, in continuation of preparing of the light concrete samples prepared based on ASTMC 39 standard, three mixing designs with different percentages of polypropylene fibers (0.9, 1 and 1.1%) and 3 mixing designs with different percentages of zeolite (5, 10 and 15%) , at the mentioned ages were examined and compared with the base samples in the laboratory, which resulted in the following

Lightweight concrete samples containing zeolite had a higher electrical resistance than lightweight concrete samples containing polypropylene and the highest compressive strength was related to lightweight concrete samples containing 15% zeolite. This is equivalent to 400.75 kg / cm3 at the age of 28 days.