ECONOMIC PREREQUISITES FOR APPLICATIONS OF HIGH-STRENGTH LIGHTWEIGHT CONCRETE
The economic substantiation of usage of high-strength lightweight concrete for industrial and civil construction is presented in the work. Brief review of the world practices in the design and application of lightweight concrete with high strength is given. The primary advantages of the proposed energy efficient high-strength lightweight concretes, together with comparison with traditional concretes are summarized. Both the method of calculation of the economic efficiency based on the possibility to reduce the overall weight of the structure and to increase the buildings’ height, and the example of application of this method (taking into account area of the ground and amount of reinforcing steel) are presented. It is shown that amounts of reinforcing steel and concrete can be optimized; in addition, the extra effect caused by low thermal conductivity of the designed lightweight concrete. With the developed calculation methods it is possible to justify the application of specific raw materials during the production of concrete despite the fact that such raw materials are often of high price.