Cellular concrete (LDCC) is an exceptionally lightweight concrete made of cement, water & preformed foam, ranging from 20lb/cuft to 90lb/cuft. CJGeo owns and operates approximately 600CY/hour of cellular grout generation capacity. This includes dry batch plants (make up to 200CY/hour onsite directly from bulk cement), wet batch plants (make up to 75CY/hour material onsite from ready mix supplied paste), and in house cement trucking capacity. We focus on geotechnical and utility applications of cellular concrete, such as mass lightweight/load reducing fills, annular space grouting, and pipe abandonment. CJGeo primarily works from Maine to Miami to the Mississippi.
Composition
Most LDCC is a mixture of cement, water and preformed foam. Supplementary cementitious materials such as slag and fly ash may be used, and at high densities, fine aggregate may also be used in mixes.
It’s best to think of LDCC as similar to traditional concrete, except that the fine and course aggregate are replaced with preformed foam bubbles. The bubbles prop up the paste while the paste cures, and do not contribute long term to the material in place after set.
Typical Physical Properties
Cellular concrete can be placed at densities as low as 20lb/cuft, and as high as 90lb/cuft. Density and strength are generally positively correlated. 20lb/cuft material breaks around 30psi at 28 days, and 90lb/cuft material will break over 2,000psi at 28 days.
Generation method, the use of SCM, aggregate, w:c ratio and other factors can have significant impacts on the strength of any particular mix. If you have a specific need, please reach out to us to discuss your particular mix design needs. CJGeo can provide design assistance to help determine minimum strength and other physical characteristics, evaluate projects from a constructibility perspective, and help plan for success.
Foaming Agents
As a factory-certified installer for Aerix Industries, CJGeo uses the following preformed foams to generate our CJFill lines of LDCC:
Historically, foaming agents drove placement designs. Traditional preformed foams use organic proteins, which can denature from the heat of hydration, and pop, causing dimensional stability issues. However, with synthetic foaming agents and high shear colloidal mixing, historic limits on lift heights, which may have been as thin as 1 foot are not necessary. CJGeo routinely places LDCC in lifts up to 20′ thick.
Cellular Concrete’s Value Proposition
It’s significantly easier to move air bubbles than aggregate. In the utility grouting market, CJGeo’s ability to pump cellular grout thousands of feet at a time, at very low pressures, significantly reduces time onsite, risks, and costs associated with abandonment and annular space grouting performed using traditional aggregate-based grouts.
Because of its very low unit weights, cellular concrete is an excellent material for mass lightweight fills. As a self-supporting mass once cured, embankments of cellular concrete can stand on their own, reducing, and even eliminating lateral earth pressure on walls. For axial load reduction, cellular concrete can easily save 100lb/cuft of dead load when compared to soil, at least 50lb/cuft of dead load when compared to expanded shale and lightweight aggregate, and is similar in unit weight to foamed glass aggregate, while not requiring any compaction, or massive onsite stockpiles. Unlike EPS geofoam, cellular concrete will not dissolve if exposed to petroleum products.
Alternative Names
Cellular concrete can be called any number of names, many of which vary by region and application. They include:
- Low Density Cellular Concrete (LDCC)
- Lightweight Cellular Concrete (LCC)
- Low Density Controlled Low Strength Material (LD-CLSM)
- Lightweight Foamed Concrete (LWFC)
- Pervious Cellular Lightweight Concrete (PCLWC)
- Foamed Concrete Fill (FCF)
- Cellular Lightweight Concrete (CLWC)
- Low Density Foamed Concrete (LDFC)
- Lightweight Foam Concrete Fill (LFCF)
- Lightweight Insulating Concrete (LWIC)
- Cellular Grout
- Foamed Concrete
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