The Influence of the Amount of Silica Fume on the Mechanical Property of Ultra-High Performance Concrete

Abstract

Silica fume constitutes an element of extreme importance in improving the strength and fluidity of UHPC. The adopted amount of silica fume generally is generally exceeding 25% of cement in weight but the influence of this amount on the properties of UHPC is still remaining as a domain to be investigated. Accordingly, this paper investigates the effects of the amount of silica fume on the mechanical characteristics of the fluidity, compressive strength, elastic modulus and flexural strength and on the micro structure of UHPC by means of SEM and MIP. Results revealed that adequate amount of silica fume is improving the fluidity and strength. MIP tests demonstrated that such improvement is brought by the increase of hydrates due to the pozzolan reaction and the effective densification inside concrete due to the filler. It seemed also that similar mechanical characteristics can be obtained for a volumetric ratio to cement ranging between 10 and 25%.