Perlite Concrete

Perlite Concrete 

a variety of lightweight concrete in which the aggregate is made from expanded perlite or a similar volcanic rock, for example, obsidian or vitrophyre. The main binder for perlite concrete is cement, although such materials as lime, plaster, and synthetic resins are also used.

Perlite concrete that is used for thermal insulation has a density of 500 kg/m³ and a coefficient of thermal conductivity that ranges from 0.07 to 0.13 watts per meter-degree K (W/m•°K). Structural perlite concrete, which also has thermal-insulating properties, has a density that ranges from 600 to 1,000 kg/ m³, a strength that ranges from 3.5 to 10 meganewtons per square meter, and a coefficient of thermal conductivity that ranges from 0.15 to 0.33 W/m•°K; the structural variety of perlite concrete is used mainly for producing prefabricated enclosing members in buildings. Combined aggregates, for example, perlite with keramzit (seeKERAMZIT), are efficiently used in structural perlite concrete. The lightest perlite concretes, for example, the Soviet-made perlitoplastbeton, contain synthetic resins.

REFERENCE

Strizhevskii, M. V., N. V. Morozov, and M. T. Sedakova. Perlity i perlitobetony v industrial’nom stroitel’stve. Irkutsk, 1963.