Mechanical properties of concrete elaborated with igneous aggregates

Intrusive and extrusive igneous stones are natural sources of aggregates in volcanic regions. This article describes the mechanical properties of concrete elaborated with these two types of coarse aggregates. Portland cement Type I was used to prepare four different admixtures: two with crushed intrusive volcanic gravel, one with and the other without accelerating additive; and two with extrusive volcanic gravel, one with and the other without superplasticizer additive. The four admixtures, cured on a saturated bed of sand, had a slump of 100 mm. Tests of compressive strength, splitting tensile strength, modulus of rupture and dynamical elastic modulus were performed on the concrete specimens at ages of 3, 7, 14, 21, 28 and 45 days. All of these concretes proved to possess excellent mechanical behavior. This is important because it means that it is possible to lower the overall cost of concrete by using cheap and abundant aggregates.