Freeze-thaw resistance and sorptivity of self-compacting mortar with ternary blends

Abstract

This paper investigated the influence of binary and ternary blends of mineral admixtures in self-compacted mortar (SCM) on the fresh, mechanical and durability properties. For this purpose, 25 mortar mixtures were prepared having a total binder content of 640 kg/cm3 and water/binder ratio between 0.41 and 0.50. All the mixtures consisted of Portland cement (PC), fly ash (FA) and silica fume (SF) as binary and ternary blends and air-entrained admixture wasn\'t used while control mixture contained only PC. The compressive and tensile strength tests were conducted for 28 and 91 days as well as slump-flow and Vfunnel time tests whilst freeze-thaw (F-T) resistance and capillary water absorption tests were made for 91-day. Finally, in general, the use of SF with FA as ternary blends improved the tensile strength of mortars at 28- and 91-day while the use of SF15 with FA increased the compressive strength of the mortars compared to binary blends of FA. SCM mixtures with ternary blends had lower the sorptivity values than that of the mortars with binary blends of FA and the control mixture due to the beneficial properties of SF while the use of FA with SF as ternary blends induced the F-T resistance enhancement.