Water permeability and chloride penetrability of lightweight aggregate concrete

Experimental studies have been carried out to compare the water permeability and chloride penetrability between lightweight aggregate concrete (LWAC) of different densities and normal weight concrete (NWC). Also, the influence of presoaking of lightweight aggregate prior to casting is presented. The lightweight and normal weight concrete had 28-day compressive strength of ~40-50 MPa and had the same proportion of constituents by volume. The results show that the water permeability of the NWC is higher than that of LWAC, regardless of the density of the LWA used. For accelerated chloride penetration test, the chloride content in the first 20 mm from the surface varied slightly for the concrete with different aggregates.