Influence of mixture composition on the properties of SCC incorporating metakaolin

Abstract

This paper studies and evaluates the properties of self-consolidating concrete (SCC) containing different percentages of metakaolin (MK) by varying the mixture components and mixture proportions. In total, 32 mixtures with varied percentages of MK and mixture compositions are investigated for the effects on compressive strength, flowability, passing ability and high-range water-reducer admixture (HRWRA) demand. The percentage of MK, coarse-to-fine aggregate (C/F) ratio, coarse aggregate size, binder content and percentage of air entrained in the mixture are varied to study the influence of these variables on the fresh properties of SCC containing MK. SCC mixtures containing silica fume and SCC containing slag are also tested for comparison. The results show that increasing the percentage of MK up to 20% in SCC increases the compressive strength, viscosity, passing ability and HRWRA demand, but decreases the flowability of the mixture. In addition, the flowability of SCC mixtures improves with larger aggregate size, higher binder content and higher percentage of entrained air. The passing ability of SCC mixtures also improves with lower C/F ratio, larger aggregate size, higher binder content and the inclusion of entrained air in the mixture. The results also indicate that increasing the binder content or increasing the percentage of the entrained air has the most significant effect on improving the fresh properties of SCC mixtures.