Insulating and Strength Properties of an Aerogel-Incorporated Mortar Based on UHPC Formulations

Abstract

With the increasing attention towards energy-efficient and zero emission buildings, improvement to concrete properties is becoming more and more significant in construction and building sectors. One such area is to enhance the thermal properties, while maintaining maximum strength of the material. Here, attempts were made to address this challenge by formulating mortar composites with low thermal conductivity while targeting a minimum compressive strength of 20 MPa at 28 days. For this purpose, aerogel was utilized in an ultrahigh performance concrete (UHPC) formulation to create new aerogel-incorporated mortar (AIM). It was found that AIMs possessing 50 vol% aerogel registered a compressive strength of 20 MPa, while displaying a thermal conductivity of ~ 0.55 W/(mK). By adding more aerogel to reach 70 vol%, while the thermal conductivity of the concrete decreased by ~ 20 %, a sharp decrease in strength to 5.8 MPa was observed. This represents only 1/30 of the original strength of the UHPC mortar. Further addition of aerogel till 80 vol% showed negligible compressive strength, attributing to the imbalance of the particle-matrix ratio in the mortar system, causing a decrease in adhesion of the binder-aggregates.