Article
Effect of Sand-to-Cement Ratio on Mechanical Properties of
Foam Concrete
Jian Liu 1,2,3, Tiange Ge 1,2, Yuedong Wu 1,2,* and Rui Chen 4
Citation: Liu, J.; Ge, T.; Wu, Y.;
Chen, R. Effect of Sand-to-Cement
Ratio on Mechanical Properties of
Foam Concrete. Buildings 2022, 12,
1969. https://doi.org/10.3390/build-
ings12111969
Academic Editor: Oldrich Sucharda
and Elhem Ghorbel
Received: 27 September 2022
Accepted: 10 November 2022
Published: 13 November 2022
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tral with regard to jurisdictional
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Copyright: © 2022 by the authors. Li-
censee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This
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(CC BY) license (https://creativecom-
mons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
Buildings 2022, 12, 1969. https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings12111969
1 Key Laboratory of Ministry of Education for Geomechanics and Embankment Engineering,
Hohai University, Nanjing 210098, China
2 Geotechnical Engineering Research Center of Jiangsu Province, Nanjing 210098, China
3 Engineering Research Center of Dredging Technology of Ministry of Education, Hohai University,
Changzhou 213000, China
4 Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Shenzhen, Harbin Institute of Technology,
Shenzhen 518055, China
* Correspondence: hhuwyd@163.com
Abstract: Foam concrete, as an important construction and building material, mainly consists of
small inner pores (produced by preformed foam) and foam walls (i.e., the concrete surrounding the
small inner pores). The effect of density and air volume quantity on compressive strength has been
investigated in many previous studies. However, the findings on the relationship between compres-
sive strength and water-to-cement ratio (Rwc) are controversial from different studies. The possible
reason may be the effect of sand-to-cement ratio (Rsc), which has not been considered in pervious
studies. In this study, a series of compressive tests on foam concrete with various Rwc and Rsc were
conducted at a fixed air volume quantity. The results show that when Rwc was 0.5–1.0, the compres-
sive strength increased along Rwc, different from the change of the concrete without foam. The en-
hance effect from the foam walls was dominant. When Rwc was larger than 1, the slurry was too thin
to preserve the bubble for the Rsc of 2. However, for the Rsc of 5, the slurry performed well and its
compressive strength remained constant, which was different from the increase stage with Rwc of
0.5–1.0. It was because of the enhanced effect caused by the decrease in the number of small holes,
which almost offset the weakening effect for the Rwc on the strength. The enhance effect due to the
decrease in the number of small holes can be normalized by the water-to-solid ratio (Rws). Except
the results in the constant stage, the compressive strength increased with the increase of Rws, irrele-
vant to the Rsc. It indicates that the sand and cement had the same function on the decrease in the
number of small holes. In order to get the same compressive strength, the cement can be replaced
by the sand in the increase stage. The research results are expected to improve the quality control
and the engineering efficiency of foam concrete.
Keywords: foam concrete; compressive strength; water-to-solid ratio; sand-to-cement ratio
1. Introduction
Foam concrete (i.e., cellular concrete) is a lightweight porous concrete that has been
applied widely to civil and traffic engineering fields such as road fills, partition walls and
heat insulation materials [1–4]. Foam concrete is typically produced of a slurry of cement
(or fly ash), sand and water. Particularly pure cement and water with the foaming agent
are recommended by suppliers [5]. The foam concrete slurry can be poured or pumped
into moulds, or directly into structural elements. After solidification, the foamed concrete
can be taken out from the mould. The solidified foam concrete mainly consists of small
inner pores and foam walls, where this kind of structure has been proved to enhance im-
pact resistance [6]. Due to the existence of the inner pores, the density of foamed concrete
ranges from 300 to 1500 kg/m3 [7,8]. The history of foam concrete can be traced back to the
www.mdpi.com/journal/buildings
Buildings 2022, 12, 1969 2 of 14

early 1920s and the production of autoclaved aerated concrete was used primarily as in-
sulation [9]. The composition, physical properties and production of foamed concrete
were studied in detail for the first time in the 1950s and 1960s [10]. Following this study,
new admixtures were developed in the late 1970s and early 1980s, which led to the com-
mercial use of foamed concrete in the building field. Kearsley has reported that the com-
pressive strength of foam concrete drops exponentially with the reduction in density [11],
whereas the compressive strength of foam concrete was less sensitive to slight change of
the water-to-cement ratio (Rwc) than traditional concrete [12,13]. Taking the difference be-
tween densities of air content and solid content into consideration, it has been found that
air volume quantity was largely dependent on dry density [14], and air voids that govern
the porosity of foamed concrete are considered to have significant influence on compres-
sive strength [15]. Various physical models were also proposed to predict the relationship
between the compressive strength and air volume quantity [16–18]. Except the effect of
air volume quantity, the Rwc was also an important factor.
For the foam concrete at a fixed air volume quantity, it is found that the compressive
strength increases with Rwc contrary to the behaviour of conventional concrete/mortar [19–
21]. This interesting phenomenon can be explained by the air-to-cement ratio (Rac). Ac-
cording to Feret’s formula [19], the strength is inversely proportional to Rwc and Rac in the
pore walls. As well known, the larger the Rwc, the smaller the volume of entrained air in
the pore walls. When Rwc ranges from 0.60 to 0.80, the volume of the entrained air is the
predominant factor on strength. However, different conclusions on the relationships be-
tween compressive strength and Rwc were given by other studies. Van et al. [22] estab-
lished the relationships between compressive strength and dry density of foam concrete
with various Rwc. When Rwc ranges from 0.4 to 0.8, the optimal Rwc was between 0.53 and
0.58. The Rwc of 1, 0.8 and 0.6 was identically used as the control variable to make the test
sample, and a new type of drilling support material was developed [23]. It was found that
0.6 was the optimal Rwc. Jones and McCarthy [24] stated that the compressive strength of
foam concrete is not influenced by the small changes in Rwc. Liu et al. [25] found that the
compressive strength first increased and then remained constant or slightly decreased as
Rwc increased. These controversial conclusions indicated that the influence of foam walls
on the compressive strength has not been fully understood. It may be because the effect
of sand-to-cement ratio (Rsc) was not taken into account.
On the other hand, a series of microscopic studies on the foam concrete with various
values of Rwc were conducted. Based on the results of scanning electron microscopy im-
ages, it was found that smaller Rwc resulted in the inner pores with a larger size in foam
concrete [25–27]. It would increase the number of the connection between the adjacent
inner pores, which would lead to the deterioration of the concrete structures surrounding
the small inner pores and thus the decrease in the compressive strength of foam concrete.
For the pore walls in the foam concrete, sand, cement and water are used and thus also
affect the connection between the adjacent inner pores. However, the effect of sand was
not taken into account based on the previous studies.
For concrete, the influence of Rsc on the mechanical properties of concrete has a criti-
cal value (i.e., between 5.00 and 6.00) [28]. When it reached the range of 0.37–0.41, the
concrete strength reaches the best work performances [29]. Different from traditional con-
crete, the relationship between strength and Rsc of foamed concrete was controversial.
When the design density was 1900–2200 kg/m3 under different Rsc, the compressive
strength was proportional to the Rsc [30]. Amidah et. al [31] indicates that the strength of
foamed concrete decreases with the increase of sand content. However, the influence of
Rwc on the condition of different Rsc has not been studied. In this study, compressive tests
on foam concrete with various values of Rwc were conducted. The measured modulus of
elasticity and compressive strength are presented and discussed. To consider the effect of
Rsc, foam concretes with low and high Rsc were chosen. Moreover, the water-to-solid ratio
(Rws) was used to investigate the dominant effect on the compressive strength of foam
Buildings 2022, 12, 1969 3 of 14

concrete [32]. The experimental results provided a reference for the study of mechanical
properties and a research idea for improving the economic benefits of concrete.

2. Materials and Experimental Program

2.1. Experimental Program
As shown in Table 1, foam concrete samples with various Rsc and values of Rwc were
used in this study. For all tests, the pore volume content remained at 42 ± 2%. The com-
monly used Rwc was 2 according to the standard of CJJ T 177-2012 [33]. In order to explore
the variation of Rwc under different Rsc, Rsc of 5 was chosen. Based on the similar wet den-
sity, Rwc was calculated. Moreover, the value of Rws is based on the given Rwc ratio and Rsc.
The Rws was defined as follows:

mw
Rws  (1)
mc  ms
where Rws is the water-to-solid ratio, mw is the mass of water, mc is the mass of cement and
ms is the mass of sand. Equation (1) was rewritten as follows:
Rwc
Rws  (2)
1  Rsc
where Rwc is the water-to-cement ratio and Rsc is the sand-to-cement ratio. Four values of
Rwc in the range 0.50–1.00 were selected for the tests with low Rsc, and five values of Rwc in
the range 0.65–1.55 for that with high Rsc. Corresponding to the Rsc, these nine tests are
referred to as 2-X and 5-X where the letter X indicates Rwc. For each value of Rwc, three
duplicate specimens of different age (i.e., 3, 7 and 28 days) were tested.

Table 1. Composition of foam concrete mixtures.

Air Volume
Wet Density Water-to-Cement Water-to-Solid
Test ID Quantities
(kg/m3) Ratio (Rwc) Ratio (Rws)
(m3/m3)
S2-0.5 1180 0.50 0.17
S2-0.65 1196 0.65 0.22
S2-0.8 1244 0.80 0.27
S2-1.0 1236 1.00 0.33
S5-0.65 0.42 1002 0.65 0.11
S5-0.75 975 0.75 0.13
S5-0.85 1001 0.85 0.14
S5-1.0 1013 1.00 0.17
S5-1.55 1045 1.55 0.26

2.2. Materials
2.2.1. Water and Cement
Tap water and P.O. 42.5 cement produced by China Anhui Conch Cement Co., Ltd.
(Wuhu, China) were chosen for the fresh slurry; the related chemical composition and
physical properties has been investigated by Huang [34]. The basic properties of the ce-
ment are listed in Table 2. The density of cement used in the paper was 3.16 g/cm3, accord-
ing to the method of ASTM C188-17 [35]. The compressive strengths at the ages of 3 and
28 days are 27 and 45 MPa, respectively.
Buildings 2022, 12, 1969 4 of 14

Table 2. Main chemical composition and physical properties of cement.

Composition Content (%) Physical Properties

SiO2 20.4 Material P.O 42.5
Al2O3 4.4 Blaine fineness (m2/kg) 338
Fe2O3 2.2 Soundness Qualified
CaO 64.9 Initial setting time (min) 90
MgO 1.3 Final setting time (min) 250
SO3 2.0 3 d compressive strength (MPa) 27.4
Na2O 0.1 28 d compressive strength (MPa) 45.0
K2O 0.3
Loss of ignition 4.4

2.2.2. Sand
A river sand was utilized as the fine aggregate of foam concrete. Its particle size dis-
tribution was obtained according to ASTM D 422-63 [36] and is shown in Figure 1. The
density of sand particles used in the paper was 2.52 g/cm3, according to the ASTM C128-
15 [37]. Its fine grain content is 2.70% with a maximum size of 5 mm. Its uniformity coef-
ficient and curvature coefficient are 2.67 and 1.04, respectively. Based on ASTM D 2487-
11 [38], the sand is divided into poorly graded sand (SP).

Figure 1. Particle size distribution of sand used in foam concrete.

2.2.3. Foaming Agent

A vegetable protein foaming agent with a density of 40 kg/m3 was chosen. This type
of foaming agent could produce air bubbles with high stability, resistant to the slurry
mixed by cement, sand and water.

2.3. Experimental Procedure

2.3.1. Sample Preparation
The method to produce the foam concrete slurry was adopted from American Con-
crete Institute [39,40], Kearsley and Wainwright [41] and Gencel and Bilir [42]. The deter-
mination of mix proportion and wet density of samples was determined according to CJJ
T 177-2012 [33]. The foam concrete samples were prepared following the procedure shown
in Figure 2. Based on Table 1, the desired masses of foaming agent, cement, sand and
water were calculated first. The cement, sand and water with these calculated masses were
then poured into a 0.15 m3 horizontal mixer and mixed at a rate of 40 rpm until the foam
concrete slurry was uniform. Subsequently, the foaming agent was diluted in a certain
proportion of water and started the foaming device. A certain amount of foam was added
to the mixer with stirring until it reached a uniform and stable state. Meanwhile, the wet
Buildings 2022, 12, 1969 5 of 14

density was weighed. If it was less than the design wet density, the foam was increased
until it arrived at the slurry design value. The wet density of foam concrete was 1200 ± 40
kg/m3 (from 1180 to 1236 kg/m3) for the Rsc of 2, but 1000 ± 50 kg/m3 (from 975 to 1045
kg/m3) for the Rsc of 5, as listed in Table 1. Finally, the fresh slurry was poured into moulds
with a dimension of 100 mm × 100 mm × 100 mm and remained static for 24 h. After
demoulding, the foam concrete was maintained at the standard condition (i.e., 20 ± 2 °C;
RH > 95%) for 3, 7 and 28 days.

Figure 2. The work process of preparing foam concrete.

2.3.2. Compressive Tests

The compressive strength tests of the foam concrete complied with the Chinese
Foamed Concrete standard (JG/T 266-2011). A compression testing machine (DNS 300,
with measurement range from 0 to 300 kN and measurement accuracy of 0.5% of the in-
dicated value, Changchun Sinotest Equipment Co., Ltd., Wuxi, China) was used to carry
out the compressive strength tests. The sample is first placed vertically on the platform of
the compression testing machine. Then, the uniform load application and distribution can
be promoted by setting a gasket cap at the end of the sample. Prior to applying the load,
it was confirmed that the loading platforms touch the top of the sample. LVDT principle
was used to control the displacement and loading rate of 1 mm/min. The strain rate of the
test was 0.05% per second for each sample, and the corresponding compressive stress-
strain curve was recorded for analysis. The elastic modulus of the sample is determined
from the slope of the stressstrain curve ranging from zero to the point whose strain is 50%
of the strain at the peak stress, according to Shao et al. [43].

2.3.3. Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) Tests

A scanning electron microscope (SEM, Rock Hill, SC, USA; JSM-7800F with 20 kV
acceleration voltage, 30 mA lasing current) was used to analyse the microstructure of sam-
ples after compression tests. The results were first binarized by software Image J (x64)
v1.8.0(National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, USA) and equivalent circle diameter
was measured for further analysis.
Buildings 2022, 12, 1969 6 of 14

3. Experimental
3.1. Damage to Samples
Figure 3 shows the photos of the damaged sample after the compressive test. For
foam concrete, local failure was observed and two cracks mainly occurred at the middle
owing to the stress concentration. There was a crack slope by about 60 degrees from the
middle to the lower left corner, causing oblique section damage. It may indicate that the
high oblique tensile stresses occurred at the corner. Another crack ran parallel to the ver-
tical side. It may be due to the bending moment caused by the oblique tensile stresses at
the top. When the crack occurred, the pressure decreased significantly. At this time, the
sample was considered to be damaged.

Figure 3. Sample after compressive test (dimension 100 mm × 100 mm).

3.2. Stress-Strain Results

Figure 4a shows the compressive stress-strain curves of foam concrete at 3 days when
Rsc is 2. As previously stated, besides these four values of Rwc, the foam concretes with the
Rwc of 0.40 and 1.15 were also tested. For the foam concrete with the Rwc of 0.40, the fresh
slurry was too stiff and thus the air bubbles produced by the foaming agent were broken
by the solid phase in the fresh slurry. However, for the foam concrete with the Rwc of 1.15,
the slurry was too thin to preserve the bubble [1]. The foam concretes with these two Rwc
are not shown in the figure. For the Rwc ranging from 0.50 to 1.00, each curve exhibited an
initial linear increase before yield point. The higher the Rwc, the steeper the curve at the
beginning. As the strain increased further, a non-linear increase occurred until the peak
stress point. The corresponding strain at peak stress ranged from 1 to 1.5%, which was
two times larger than that of conventional concrete/mortar (i.e., 0.30% from Nicolo et al.
[44]), indicating that the foam concrete could undergo large deformation and have better
impact resistance behaviour. The relatively large deformation was caused by the high air
volume quantity (i.e., 42%) of the foam concrete. Beyond the peak value, the stress de-
creased with the strain. After the strain of 2%, the compressive stress for most curves re-
mained constant. It should be noted that the peak stress also increased as Rwc increased.
The peak stress for the Rwc of 1.00 was approximately 1.7 MPa, two times that for the Rwc
of 0.50.
Buildings 2022, 12, 1969 7 of 14

(a)

(b)

(c)
Figure 4. Stress-strain curves of foam concrete at the ages of (a) 3, (b) 7 and (c) 28 days with the Rsc
of 2 at various Rwc.

Similar changes in compressive stress for various Rwc at the ages of 7 and 14 days are
shown in Figure 4b and 4c, respectively. As the age of the foam concrete increased, the
compressive stress increased. For example, with the increase of age from 3 to 28 days, the
maximum peak stress for the Rwc of 1.00 increased from 1.7 to 3.2 MPa. Similarly, the slope
of the curve in the initial linear stress-strain relationship also increased with Rwc. These
Buildings 2022, 12, 1969 8 of 14

results were caused by the increase in the degree of hydration of the cement. It indicates
that the compressive stress depended on the age of the foam concrete. However, the strain
at peak stress remained between 1 and 1.5%, indicating that the strain at the peak stress
was irrelevant to the age of the foam concrete.
Figure 5 shows the change in the compressive stress of foam concrete with the Rsc of
5. The compressive stress of foam concrete with the Rsc of 5 was much lower than that with
the Rsc of 2. For example, the peak stress of foam concrete with the Rsc of 5 only ranged
from 0.03 to 0.60 MPa, which is only approximately 20% of that with the Rsc of 2. The
decrease in the compressive stress was attributed to the decrease in the cement content.
For the slurry producing foam concrete walls, the cement content was about 28 ± 2% for
the Rsc of 2, but 14 ± 2% for the Rsc of 5. It should be noted that the available range of Rwc
was from 0.50 to 1.00 for the foam concrete with the Rsc of 2, but from 0.65 to 1.55 for that
with the Rsc ratio of 5. The difference in the range of Rwc may be due to the effect of Rsc.

(a)

(b)
Buildings 2022, 12, 1969 9 of 14

(c)
Figure 5. Stress-strain curves of foam concrete at the ages of (a) 3, (b) 7 and (c) 28 days with the Rsc
of 5 at various Rwc.

4. Discussion
4.1. Elasticity Modulus
Figure 6 shows the change of elasticity modulus at the ages of 3, 7 and 28 days in
relation to Rwc. For the Rsc of 2, the increase in the elasticity modulus with Rwc was observed
at all ages. For the age of 28 days, the modulus of elasticity was approximately 220 MPa
for the Rwc of 1.00, but only approximately 120 MPa for the Rwc of 0.50. It was reported that
the elasticity modulus value of foamed concrete was four times lower than the normal
concrete [7]. Similar experimental results were also found by Brady et al. [45]. When the
density was in the range of 500–1600 kg/m3, the elastic modulus was between 1.00 and 12
kN/m3, respectively. Different from the Rsc of 2, the elasticity modulus with the Rsc of 5
first increased as Rwc increased from 0.65 to 0.85 and then remained almost constant. How-
ever, there was no observed trend that the elastic modulus of concrete remained almost
constant. It was because the sand content was not considered in previous references
[46,47]. Moreover, the magnitude of the elasticity modulus with the Rsc of 5 was lower
than that with the Rsc of 2. For 28 days, the maximum of elasticity modulus for the Rsc of 5
was approximately 70 MPa, which is only 33% that of the Rsc of 2.

Figure 6. Relationship between modulus of elasticity and water-to-cement ratio (Rwc).

Buildings 2022, 12, 1969 10 of 14

4.2. Compressive Strength

Figure 7 shows the change of compressive strength at the ages of 3, 7 and 28 days in
relation to Rwc. Similar to the changes of the elasticity modulus, the compressive strength
with the Rsc of 2 increased monotonously with Rwc. Meanwhile, Van et al. [22] studied the
Rsc between 0 and 2, and the compressive strength after 28 days was 0.35–1.36 MPa, which
was consistent with the trend of this paper. The effects of the Rwc were also reported by
Tam et al. [19] and De Rose and Morris [48]. It was due to the decrease in the number of
small holes on the foam walls. The enhance effect from the foam walls was dominant.
Figures 8 and 9 show the microscopic images of small holes in foam concrete at the ages
of 28 days with the Rsc of 2 and 5 [19]. These photos are taken by a special camera which
can magnify the pore about 300 diameters. For foam concrete with Rsc of 2, when the Rwc
increases from 0.50 to 1.00, the number of small holes decreases by 57.14% and the average
diameter decreases by about 66.94%. For foam concrete with Rsc of 5, when the Rwc in-
creases from 0.65 to 1.55, the number of small holes decreases by 75.00% and the average
diameter decreases by about 66.06%. As Rwc increases, the number and the diameter of the
small holes both decrease, irrelevant to its Rsc. It results in the better structure of the pore
walls for larger Rwc and thus the larger compressive strength. However, different changes
in compressive strength were observed for the Rsc of 5. As Rwc increased, the compressive
strength of foam concrete with the Rsc of 5 first increased when Rwc varied from 0.65 to 0.85
and then remained almost constant when Rwc was larger than 0.85. This type of change in
the compressive strength was also reported by Liu et al. [25]. It indicates that Rwc at inflec-
tion point should be chosen when the small holes on the walls of the foam has been de-
creased to low levels.

Figure 7. Development of compressive strength based on different sand-to-cement ratio (Rsc).

Figure 8. Microscopic images of small holes at the ages of 28 days with the sand-to-cement ratio (Rsc)
of 2 at the water-to-cement ratio (Rwc) of (a) 0.50, (b) 0.65 and (c) 1.00.
Buildings 2022, 12, 1969 11 of 14

Figure 9. Microscopic images of small holes at the ages of 28 days with the sand-to-cement ratio (Rsc)
of 5 at the water-to-cement ratio (Rwc) of (a) 0.65, (b) 0.85 and (c) 1.55.

The compressive strength is plotted with elasticity modulus for the Rsc of 2 and 5 at
all ages in Figure 10. For a fixed air volume quantity, the compressive strength increased
as a power function with an increasing elasticity modulus, regardless of Rwc and Rsc. Sim-
ilar results were also reported by Jones and McCarthy [7]. It indicates that the elasticity
modulus just depended on the compressive strength. It also indicates that the compressive
strength could be used to investigate the mechanical properties of foam concrete.

Figure 10. Relationship between compressive strength and modulus of elasticity.

4.3. Water-to-Solid Ratio

As previously stated, the changes of the elasticity modulus and compressive strength
with the change of Rws was caused by the number of small holes in foam concrete. In order
to analyze the effect of the quality of foam concrete slurry on the small holes, Rws was used
to consider the effect of Rsc in this study. Figure 11 shows the relationship between the
compressive strength and Rws of foam concrete excluding the results when the constant
compressive strength at the Rsc of 5. For each age, the compressive strength increased with
Rws. The larger the Rws, the smaller the increase rate was. It was noted that the Rsc in most
cases ranged from 0 to 2 according to the previous studies [19,25,26], indicating that the
cement was enough. In this condition, the compressive strength mainly depended on Rws
as follows:
Buildings 2022, 12, 1969 12 of 14

Figure 11. Relationship between compressive strength and water-to-solid ratio (Rws).

fc   * log(10 * Rws ) (3)

where fc is compressive strength and β is a constant representing the age. It should be

noted that the change of compressive strength was irrelevant to the Rsc when Rws was more
than about 0.11. For a fixed Rws, the compressive strength remained constant when cement
was replaced by sand. It indicates that the Rsc should be designed as large as possible. The
Rws was used to consider the effect of Rsc on the compressive strength of cement slurry and
a mathematical formula was proposed. This provides a reference for future study of me-
chanical properties.

5. Conclusions
According to the measured compressive test results, the following conclusions may
be drawn.
1. For the case Rsc of 2, the compressive strength increased along the Rwc direction when
Rwc was in the range of 0.5–1.0. It was due to the decrease in the number of small
pores on the foam wall, resulting in the enhancement of the foam walls. When Rwc
was larger than 1, the slurry was too thin to hold the bubbles.
2. Compared with Rsc of 5, the slurry performed well and its compressive strength re-
mained constant, different from the increase stage with Rwc of 0.5–1.0. It was due to
the enhance effect owing to the decrease in the number of small holes that almost
offset the weaken effect due to the Rwc on the strength.
3. The enhance effect due to the decrease in the number of small holes can be normal-
ized by Rws. Except the results in the constant stage, the compressive strength in-
creased with the increase of Rws, irrelevant to the Rsc. It indicates that the sand and
cement had the same function on the decrease in the number of small holes. In order
to get the same compressive strength, the cement can be replaced by the sand in the
increase stage.
4. In the future, the thermal properties could be considered and suitable models could
be chosen to study the effect of Rsc on the thermal properties of foam concrete. In
addition, sand content maximization needs to be explored for more cost-effective
concrete.

Author Contributions: Conceptualization, J.Liu., Y.Wu. and R.Chen.; methodology, J.Liu., R.Chen.
and Y.Wu.; software, T.Ge. and R.Chen.; validation, T.Ge., R.Chen. and Y.Wu.; formal analysis,
J.Liu., T.Ge., R.Chen. and Y.Wu.; investigation, J.Liu. and R.Chen.; resources, Y.Wu. and T.Ge.; data
curation, J.Liu. and T.Ge.; writing—original draft preparation, J.Liu., T.Ge. and R.Chen.; writing—
review and editing, Y.Wu. and R.Chen.; visualization, T.Ge.; supervision, Y.Wu.; project admin-
istration, J.Liu.; funding acquisition, J.Liu.. All authors have read and agreed to the published ver-
sion of the manuscript.
Buildings 2022, 12, 1969 13 of 14

Funding: This research was funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China, grant
number No. 51608152, and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central University
(B210202034, B200204036 and B200204032).
Institutional Review Board Statement: Not applicable.
Informed Consent Statement: Not applicable.
Data Availability Statement: The data presented in this study are available in article.
Acknowledgments: The authors would like to acknowledge the financial support from a research
grant (No. 51608152) provided by the National Natural Science Foundation of China and the Fun-
damental Research Funds for the Central University (B210202034, B200204036 and B200204032).
Conflicts of Interest: The authors declare no conflict of interest.

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