Fresh and hardened-state properties of self-compacting lightweight concrete reinforced with steel fibers Thiago Melo Grabois a , Guilherme Chagas Cordeiro b,⇑ , Romildo Dias Toledo Filho a a Civil Engineering Department, COPPE, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, P.O. Box 68506, 21941-972 Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil b Laboratory of Civil Engineering, Universidade Estadual do Norte Fluminense Darcy Ribeiro, Av. Alberto Lamego, 2000, 28013-602 Campos dos Goytacazes, RJ, Brazil highlights  Self-compacting lightweight concrete was produced with steel fibers.  Structural efficiency factor for self- compacting lightweight concrete was assessed.  Thermal characterization was performed to characterize self- compacting lightweight concretes.  The use of lightweight and porous expanded clay aggregates was essential to obtain low values of autogenous shrinkage. graphical abstract article info Article history: Received 8 June 2015 Received in revised form 8 November 2015 Accepted 9 December 2015 Keywords: Self-compacting lightweight concrete Concrete reinforced with steel fibers Expanded clay Mechanical behavior Thermal characterization abstract This paper presents the results of a comprehensive experimental characterization on the fresh and hard- ened state of self-compacting lightweight concrete (SCLC) reinforced with steel fibers. Two classes of SCLC were produced containing either coarse or coarse and fine lightweight aggregates. Steel fibers were used as reinforcement in fiber volume fraction of 0.5%. Slump flow, inverted slump flow and ‘‘V” funnel tests were performed to characterize the self-compacting behavior of the concretes. The mechanical behavior was evaluated by means of compression, tensile and flexural tests. Thermal characterization was performed by specific heat, thermal diffusivity and conductivity tests. Autogenous and drying shrink- age tests were also carried out in the study. The results showed slump flow within 600–700 mm without segregation even for fiber reinforced SCLC mixes. All mixes have shown 28-day compressive strength above 30 MPa and density within 1700–1900 kg/m 3 . The fiber reinforcement has increased the mechan- ical properties under direct tensile and bending tests. Adequate thermal insulation properties were ver- ified when compared to normal-weight concrete. Moreover, autogenous shrinkages were around 150 microstrain. Finally, concretes containing coarse and fine lightweight aggregates presented higher drying shrinkage than those only coarse lightweight aggregate. Ó 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction Lightweight concrete (LC) has been increasingly adopted in sev- eral structural applications due to its economic and technical potentials, such as reduced dead weight of components, low han- dling costs combined with good mechanical and durability proper- ties [1]. In the early 90s, the development of self-compacting concrete (SCC) enabled the execution of concrete structures with- out the need for vibration due to its flowability and self- consolidating capabilities [2]. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.conbuildmat.2015.12.060 0950-0618/Ó 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. ⇑ Corresponding author. E-mail address: gcc@uenf.br (G.C. Cordeiro). Construction and Building Materials 104 (2016) 284–292 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Construction and Building Materials journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/conbuildmat