Evaluating Strength and Electrical Properties of Steel Fiber Reinforced Bottom Ash Lightweight Aggregate Concrete

This study analyzes the strength and electrical properties of concrete utilizing bottom ash lightweight aggregates. Lightweight coarse aggregates have a smaller density than normal coarse aggregates due to internal pores and these properties lead to both reduced density and reduced strength of lightweight aggregate concrete. Meanwhile, the mixing of steel fibers into lightweight aggregate concrete not only satisfies the air dry density values from ACI 318-19 code, but also improves maximum load and ductility. Metallic contents in lightweight coarse aggregate improved the electrical conductivity of concrete, and steel fibers crossed each other to form effective conductive paths. Additionally, due to rising electrical conductivity, both lightweight coarse aggregate and steel fibers improved the shielding effectiveness (SE), and when the steel fibers were incorporated, the SE increased by at least 23 dB. This resulted in the lowest electrical resistivity and best SE in LA-ES15-SF, which simultaneously incorporated lightweight coarse aggregates and steel fibers.