Arabian Journal for Science and Engineering https://doi.org/10.1007/s13369-017-2990-4 RESEARCH ARTICLE - CIVIL ENGINEERING The Effect of Curing Conditions on Permeation of Self-Compacting Lightweight Concrete with Basaltic Pumice Aggregate Tahir Gonen 1,2 · Salih Yazicioglu 3 Received: 12 September 2017 / Accepted: 16 November 2017 © King Fahd University of Petroleum & Minerals 2017 Abstract This paper introduces an experimental research about the influences of the curing type on accelerated carbonation, capillary water absorption and permeability of a range of different self-compacting lightweight concrete (SCLC) mixtures in comparison with those of chosen conventional vibrated lightweight concrete (LC) and self-compacting concrete (SCC). Seven different concrete compositions are considered: four SCLC, two SCC and one LC mixtures. All of the SCLC mixtures and one of the SCC and one LC mixture with a constant powder dosage of 550 kg/m 3 was designed to be containing 440 kg/m 3 of cement and 110 kg/m 3 of fly ash. The other SCC mix was designed to have lower cement dosage for similar strength characteristic. Basaltic pumice aggregate of the SCLC was replaced with expanded perlite aggregate by 10, 20 and 30%. All mixtures were cured by two different curing types. Among the permeability properties of the samples, permeability, capillary water absorption and carbonation properties were measured. The results showed that the production of SCLC mixture as the result of the use of basaltic pumice and expanded perlite seems to be possible. The density of SCLC with basaltic pumice and expanded perlite was about 1900 kg/m 3 , while the density of SCC was 2300 kg/m 3 . Generally, permeation properties of SCLC such as carbonation and capillary water absorption got worse, since the porous aggregate was used. However, SCLC’s compressive strength per density was more efficient than SCC’s. Keywords Self-compacting · Lightweight aggregate · Carbonation · Capillary water absorption 1 Introduction Quality of concrete may decrease because of inadequate compacting and curing [1]. There is a plenty of researches available for developing the concrete property. One of the significant progress have been began self-compacting con- crete (SCC) for the concrete industry in recent years. SCC was firstly developed by Japanese researchers in 1990 [2– 8]. SCC should respond to two objectives. The first one is filling formwork by its own weight, and the other one is compacting without the help of any device. These concretes show high performance. In general, these concretes have high B Tahir Gonen tahirgonen@gmail.com 1 Department of Civil Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Usak University, Usak, Turkey 2 Vocational School, Kyrgyzstan Turkey Manas University, Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan 3 Department of Civil Engineering, Technology Faculty, Gazi University, Ankara, Turkey strength and high impermeability. SCC need excess cure due to low water/binder ratio and high amount of powder [9–12]. Since the pumice aggregate has a high-water absorption rate, internal curing during hydration in such type of impermeable concrete has a positive effect on durability properties [11– 13]. Using lightweight aggregate in the production of SCC, on the other side, can reduce the self-weight of the structures which can ensue in smaller-sized structural members. SCC incorporated with light weight aggregate will have higher quality compared to normal weight concrete due to reduced risk of segregation of lightweight aggregate [13–18]. Basaltic pumice has been used in many countries around the world in construction sector such as mineral admixtures in the cement, aggregate in the production of lightweight concrete, and it is a natural aggregate of volcanic origin [19]. Also, basaltic pumice is heavier and harder than other pumice kinds. The use of basaltic pumice as aggregate in the produc- tion of self-compacting concrete may be a good approach to produce easy workable, economic, strength, lightweight and environmentalist concrete. Yasar et al. [20] reported that 123