Novel ternary blends of Type 1 Portland cement, residual rice husk ash, and limestone powder to improve the properties of self-compacting concrete

Abstract

We investigated the use of novel ternary blends of cementitious materials (TCM) (Type 1 Portland cement (OPC) with residual rice husk ash (RHA) and limestone powder (LS)) to improve the fresh and mechanical properties of self-compacting concrete (SCC). The SCC mixtures were designed using a constant water/TCM ratio of 0.28 by weight, a TCM content of 450kg/m3, and an OPC replacement percentage of 0 or 20wt.%. of TCM. We systematically investigated the fresh and hardened properties including unit weight, slump flow diameter, slump flow time, J-ring flow, V-funnel flow time, L-box, ultrasonic pulse velocity (UPV), and compressive strength. The test results clearly showed that the ternary (PC+RHA+LS) systems satisfy EFNARC requirements and produce SCC that has significantly better workability than does conventional SCC. The TCMs resulted in greater mechanical properties than was the case for the conventional SCC: with TCM replacing cement, more than 40MPa at 28days can be achieved and 13% higher compressive strength than that of conventional SCC.