Comprehensive investigation into the effect of the newly developed natural foaming agents and water to solids ratio on foam concrete behaviour

Keeping in view of sustainable development, the present study attempts to use the natural surfactants valorized and extracted from two different biological sources namely sesame seed (rich in protein) and hingot fruit (rich in saponin) in foamed concrete production. Studies on relative behavior of concrete produced using these surfactants could help the industry to gain confidence in the usage of recommended natural surfactants presenting new sight in improving the environmental impact of foam concrete. Another main facet of this work is to carry out an extensive experimental investigation on the effect of water-solids ratio on the various characteristics of foam concrete on which only very limited studies are available in literature. The role of water-solids ratio on various physical, mineralogical and mechanical properties of foam concrete have been considered for range of densities. The results show that performance of foam concrete with different foaming agents varies greatly due to creation of different void structure in concrete. The consistency of hingot foam concrete mixes is relatively higher than that of sesame foam concrete mixes due to the relatively lesser viscosity of the hingot surfactant solution. Due to the above-mentioned reason, hingot foam concrete mixes exhibit bigger size air voids when compared to sesame. Another important observation is that there is an optimum water-solids for a particular density of foam concrete which results in maximum strength. The optimized water-solids ratio derived for various mixes is justified with air void structure. The experimental outcomes proved the insight that the mechanical behaviour of porous material depends not only on porosity but also on the pore size distribution. • A novel foam concrete is made using surfactants extracted from sesame seed and hingot fruit. • Effect of water-solid ratio on various properties of foam concrete is investigated. • Interplay between microstructure and mechanical properties is studied.