Improving performance and robustness of SCC by adding supplementary cementitious materials

One major difficulty with large scale production of self-consolidating concrete (SCC) is to consistently maintain the required high performance. In overcoming such difficulty, the robustness of the concrete mix is a key factor to be considered. Herein, it is proposed to add pulverized fuel ash (PFA) and/or condensed silica fume (CSF) to improve the robustness of SCC. To evaluate the effectiveness of adding these supplementary cementitious materials, an experimental program has been launched, in which thirty batches of concrete containing different amounts of supplementary cementitious materials and different dosages of superplasticizer were produced for testing. The workability, passing and filling abilities, and segregation stability of each batch of concrete were measured by the slump flow, U-box and sieve segregation tests, respectively. It was demonstrated that the addition of PFA and/or CSF can significantly improve the performance and, more importantly, the robustness of SCC.