Statistical mixture design for carbide residue activated blast furnace slag foamed lightweight concrete

•Carbide residue activated blast furnace slag foamed lightweight concrete was designed.•A statistical mixture design approach was proposed.•The proposed models were validated using analysis of variance, residual analysis and confirmed by the experiments.•The model was used to optimize the mixture for various purposes. Carbide residue activated blast furnace slag is a relatively new kind of eco-friendly construction materials. This work addresses the design of foamed lightweight concrete as road embankment material using such material. A statistical mixture design approach was adopted to assess the influence of each ingredient as well as the interaction between these on the spreadability and compressive strength and thus allowing mixture design. The fitted models were validated using analysis of variance, residual analysis and confirmed by the experiments. Afterwards, the proposed models were used to optimize the mixture. The mixture with the highest compressive strength and the maximum content of carbide residue that allows the mixture to meet the required properties were obtained, respectively.