The stability and durability of silt-based foamed concrete: A new type of road engineering material

•Foamed concrete with environmental and low-cost is produced.•Silt-based foamed concrete exhibits well-balanced physical and mechanical properties.•Great performance of properties for silt-based foamed concrete has proved its ability of being used in civil engineering. This paper implements four types of tests under three designed wet densities, including drying-wetting cycles test, freeze–thaw cycle test, water stability test, and dry shrinkage test, to analyze the strength change law of silt-based foamed concrete after a specified age or a number of cycles. Test results showed that compressive strength of silt-based foamed concrete was not adversely affected by external environment during 90 days’ saturation period. Phenomenon of dry and shrinkage for silt-based foamed concrete mainly occurred at the first 7 days and tended to be stable within a month, the subsequent dry shrinkage phenomenon was not significant. After 50 times of drying-wetting cycles, the loss rate of foamed concrete became small. Specimens presented great performance of drying-wetting cycles. After 30 times of freeze–thaw cycles, the compressive strength, splitting and tensile strength of foamed concrete decreased slightly. Specimens presented good performance of freeze–thaw cycles. Therefore, the stability and durability of silt-based foamed concrete are considered great and meet the needs of road engineering construction.