Influence of fine aggregate types on the performance self flowing concrete

Abstract

Self-compacting concrete (SCC) was first developed to achieve durable concrete structures and help cast concrete into complex geometries without compromising the quality of the cast. This research is carried out to understand the influence of locally available fine aggregate types (river sand, quarry dust and offshore sand) on the properties of SCC concrete. As the fine aggregate proportion to coarse aggregate is considered important for the rheology, three different aggregate proportions from each of the fine aggregate type were investigated. In order to evaluate influence of aggregate proportions on the compressive strength, three w/c ratios was considered for each aggregate proportion, bringing the number of mixes for a fine aggregate type to nine and the total number of mixes in the investigation for the three different aggregate types to 27. As the particle size distributions of the different fine aggregate types are different to one another, a separate series with different aggregate types manipulated to confirm to a single particle size distribution was also carried out. This study was limited to single aggregate proportion and hence only nine additional mixes were resulted for the three aggregate types. The influence of fine aggregate type and proportion, on the harden properties of concrete is evaluated in terms of compressive strength and shrinkage of concrete. In addition, water requirement under constant doze of viscosity modifying agent is taken to evaluate the performance of mixes in fresh state. Results of the study indicated that quarry dust as fine aggregate has highest 28 days compressive strength for all the different water cement ratios. All fine aggregate types have recorded higher strength when the proportion of fine aggregate to total aggregate content is 60%. Offshore sand mixes recorded the lowest shrinkage and also lowest water content to achieve the conformity requirement of self-compacting concrete. Although quarry dust required less water compared to river sand, it had the highest shrinkage among the three aggregate types.