Mechanical properties and frost resistance of silica fume concrete

Abstract

Freeze-thaw tests were carried out on air-entrained and non-air-entrained concrete prisms containing different dosages of condensed silica fume (CSF). Six concrete mixes were made incorporating 0, 5 and 10% CSF as partial replacements for OPC. The performance of the concrete prisms exposed to 210 cycles of freezing and thawing was assessed from weight, length, resonance frequency and pulse velocity measurements of the test specimens before and after freezing and thawing. Tests were also conducted to determine the compressive and flexural strengths and the static modulus of elasticity. Although the control concrete gave better durability factors (92%) than those obtained for the CSF concrete (85%), the physical appearance of the CSF prisms exhibited less scaling.