Durability performance of silica fume Self-Compacting Concrete

Abstract

The main objective of this research is to investigate the influence of silica fume on the characteristics of SCC in fresh, hardened states and durability performance. Five mixes produced: four of them contain different percentages of SF and the last one is control mixture without SF. Fresh properties were measured by three tests: - slump flow cone to measure flowability for concrete, L-box test to measure the concrete ability for passing and Screen stability to measure segregation resistance. The mechanical property was determined by measuring compressive strength, tensile and flexural strengths. Durability performance was determined by measuring sulfate resistance, chloride resistance, RCPT and permeability of specimens. The microstructural analysisfor the consolidated concrete was determined by SEM. The results of the tests indicate that there is a noticeable improvement on the mechanical and durability performance of SCC by increasing the percent of SF to about 16% as a percent ofcement weight.Furthermore, the enhancement inpermeation properties was more significant when SF percent increased to 20% of cement weight.The