As an economical and eco-friendly construction material, coral aggregate concrete (CAC) plays an increasingly important role in emerging marine engineering applications. CAC fully utilizes local raw materials on remote islands. Due to the porous structure and low-strength characteristics of coral aggregates, CAC exhibits unique characteristics compared to ordinary concrete. This paper presents a state-of-the-art review of the properties of CAC, including (1) the physical properties of coral aggregates; (2) the mechanical properties of CAC under uniaxial and multiaxial compression; and (3) the durability of CAC especially its chloride ion resistance and performance under drying-wetting cycles. To overcome the challenges of steel corrosion in marine environments, fiber-reinforced polymer (FRP) has been indicated to be a promising material for applications in CAC construction. The latest studies on the combination of FRP and CAC are reviewed, including the use of FRP tubes and bars.

Coral aggregates can replace natural aggregates in marine construction, substantially reducing construction costs and shortening construction period. This paper investigates the compression behavior of coral aggregate concrete (CAC) under uniaxial and triaxial loading, wherein lightweight aggregate concrete (LAC) and normal aggregate concrete (NAC) are used for comparison. The investigated variables include concrete type, concrete strength, lateral pressure and principal stress ratios. The results indicated that the compression behaviors of CAC were different from those of NAC but similar to those of LAC because coral aggregates are more porous and have lower strength than normal aggregates. Based on the test results from this paper and literature studies, constitutive models were suggested for CAC under uniaxial and conventional triaxial compression. Moreover, a failure criterion for LAC proposed in the literature was deemed applicable to CAC under active or passive confinement. The suggested models correlated well with the test results.