High-performance Self-compacting Concrete Research Articles

Rheological properties of high-performance SCC using recycled marble powder

Due to the impacts of cement manufacturing and depletion of the natural aggregates for concrete production, recycling of construction and demolition waste materials has become an alternative replacement to natural materials that lower their consumption and satisfy the environment. One of these alternatives is replacing cement with recycled materials from marble, ceramic, granite, and concrete wastes or even replacing the coarse aggregate with crushed marble and other stone wastes. Marble, granite, and natural stone wastes rapidly increase each year due to unmanaged waste disposal processes and the incremental increase in construction potential. Marble slurry, which comes from washing and cleaning marble surfaces, shows a filler effect by giving the concrete a denser and homogenous structure. This study evaluates the marble filler effects on the rheology in the fresh state of self-compacting concrete (SCC) through four SCC mixes by incorporating 10% marble powder (MP) and 33% fly ash (FA) as a partial ordinary Portland cement (OPC) replacement. Tests on paste and mortar were conducted to assess the suitability of the marble dosage on the water content and the superplasticizer amount. Spread flow and V-funnel tests were assessed. The results showed that mixes with MP required additional mixing water to ensure the same workability. Regardless of the high viscosity and air content, the overall developed marble SCC mixes reduced the cement quantity by up to 11% and provided excellent rheological properties like that of the reference mix. Besides the economic benefits, this transformation of waste to valuable materials involves environmental advantages and sustainability promotion.

Metaheuristic optimization of machine learning models for strength prediction of high-performance self-compacting alkali-activated slag concrete

Metaheuristic optimization of machine learning models for strength prediction of high-performance self-compacting alkali-activated slag concrete

Corrosion Studies on Ternary Blended High Performance Self-Compacting Concretes Containing Fly Ash and Graphene Oxide

Effective utilization of industrial byproducts as mineral admixtures and filler materials in cement concrete has been a practice to develop sustainable construction materials. The use of mineral admixtures like fly ash, silica fume, ground granulated blast furnace slag etc. as a partial replacement of cements have proved to improve the performance characteristics of concrete through reduced porosity and improved mechanical characteristics through pozzolanic effect and filler effect. Moreover, extensive research in the recent period has been mainly focused to study the effect of nano-additions in concrete. The present work was focused to assess the performance of ternary blended high performance self-compacting concretes with varied quantities of graphene oxide additions. Control concrete of M60 grade was designed in correspondence to IS-10262:2019 containing fly ash, and three other concretes mixes were formulated with 0.03%, 0.06% and 0.09% addition of Graphene Oxide (By weight of total cementitious material). The specimens were cast and tested at different ages to determine rheological, mechanical and durability characteristics by evaluating slump flow, Compressive Strength, Split Tensile Strength, Absorption- Desorption characteristics, Rapid Chloride Penetration Test values and resistance to accelerated corrosion cracking. Moreover, the specimens were assessed for corrosion resistance by conducting a cyclic wet – dry test, where parameters like UPV & depth of chloride penetration in concrete were measured. Results depict the fact that addition of Graphene Oxide improves the durability characteristics to a great extent. The optimum results for most of parameters were obtained at 0.06% of Graphene Oxide addition in comparison to remaining mix proportions.

An Evaluative Review of Recycled Waste Material Utilization in High-Performance Concrete

The disposal of waste materials and their adverse effects on the environment have become a worldwide concern, disturbing the fragile ecological equilibrium. With growing awareness of sustainability in the construction industry, it is of great importance to recycle waste materials for producing high-performance concrete (HPC). This aligns with the twelfth Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) of the United Nations, emphasizing responsible production and consumption, especially concerning the production of HPC using waste materials and energy-efficient methods. The review evaluates the purposeful utilization of recycled waste materials to improve the engineering characteristics of HPC, taking into consideration pertinent literature. It encompasses a comparative evaluation of strength development, water absorption, microstructures, and x-ray diffraction (XRD) analyses of HPC manufactured with different types of recycled waste materials. The key result of the review showed that using incinerated bottom ash (IBA) below 25% and incorporating 40% copper slag can enhance HPC’s mechanical performance. Additionally, recycled coarse aggregate (RCA) can replace up to 50% of conventional aggregate in self-compacting HPC with minimal impact on durability properties. In HPC cement substitution research, fly ash, silica fume, and metakaolin are prominent due to their availability, with fly ash showing remarkable durability when used as a 15% cement replacement. This thorough review offers valuable insights for optimizing the utilization of recycled waste materials in the development of environmentally friendly HPC. Doi: 10.28991/CEJ-2023-09-11-020 Full Text: PDF

High-performance self-compacting concrete with recycled coarse aggregate: Soft-computing analysis of compressive strength

The growth of cities and industrialization has led to an increase in demand for concrete, resulting in resource depletion and environmental issues. Sustainable alternatives such as using recycled concrete aggregate (RCA) and industrial waste have been proposed to meet construction material demands while adhering to building codes and promoting sustainability. However, compressive strength (CS) is a crucial property of concrete, and the design parameters have different effects on CS for various grades. Recently, researchers have focused on partially replacing natural coarse aggregate (NCA) with RCA in concrete to achieve sustainability goals. This study aims to examine the influence of design parameters (w/c: water-cement ratio, w/b: water-binder ratio, A/c: total aggregate-cement ratio, FA/CA: fine-coarse aggregate ratio, SP: superplasticizer, w/s: water-solid ratio and RCA%) on concrete CS and address controversies in the insights gained from pairwise comparisons using Pearson's correlation coefficient (PCC) analysis. Additionally, five techniques (M5P, RF, SVM, LR, and ANNs) were used to predict the CS of high-performance self-compacting concrete (HP-SCC) with RCA, and the results were compared with an ANNs-based model as was the commonly used one in literature. The approaches were assessed based on their accuracy measured using correlation coefficient (CC), mean absolute error (MAE), Root Mean Square Error (RMSE), Mean absolute percentage error (MAPE), Scatter index (SI), and comprehensive measure (COM) indicators. Accordingly, the analysis indicated that SVM-PUK-based model is the most appropriate and effective technique to predict the CS of HP-SCC for the given datasets, with CC = 0.894, 0.900, MAE = 1.721, 3.813, RMSE = 5.137, 6.306, and MAPE = 4.5%, 7.6% for the training and testing stages, respectively. The uncertainty analysis results were 21%, 20.7%, 19%, 22%, and 19% for M5P, RF, SVM, LR, and ANN-based models, respectively, whereby all of them were under threshold of 35%. Moreover, according to sensitivity analysis, w/c, w/b, and w/s variables influences the most on CS prediction, while the RCA(%) variable has the least impact.

Influence of Carbon Fibre Reinforced Polymer and Recycled Carbon Fibres on the compressive behaviour of self-compacting high-performance fibre-reinforced concrete

Influence of Carbon Fibre Reinforced Polymer and Recycled Carbon Fibres on the compressive behaviour of self-compacting high-performance fibre-reinforced concrete

Mechanical Properties and Crack Resistance of Basalt Fiber Self-Compacting High Strength Concrete: An Experimental Study.

Pure self-compacting concrete has many disadvantages, such as early shrinkage and cracking. The addition of fibers can effectively improve the properties of resistance to tension and cracking of self-compacting concrete, thereby the effect of improving its strength and toughness can be achieved. Basalt fiber is a "new green industrial material" that has unique advantages, such as high crack resistance and being lightweight compared with other fiber materials. In order to study the mechanical properties and crack resistance of basalt fiber self-compacting high-strength concrete intensively, the self-compacting high-strength concrete of C50 was designed and obtained using the absolute volume method with multiple proportions. Orthogonal experimental methods were used to study the influence of the water binder ratio, fiber volume fraction, fiber length, and fly ash content on the mechanical properties of the basalt fiber self-compacting high-strength concrete. Meanwhile, the efficiency coefficient method was used to determine the best experiment plan (water binder ratio 0.3, fiber volume ratio 0.2%, fiber length 12 mm, fly ash content 30%), and the effect of fiber volume fraction and fiber length on the crack resistance of the self-compacting high-performance concrete was investigated using improved plate confinement experiments. The results show that (1) the water binder ratio had the greatest impact on the compressive strength of basalt fiber self-compacting high-strength concrete, and as the fiber volume fraction increased, the splitting tensile strength and flexural strength both increased; (2) there was an optimal value for the effect of the fiber length on the mechanical properties; (3) with the increase in fiber volume fraction, the total crack area of the fiber self-compacting high-strength concrete significantly decreased. When the fiber length increased, the maximum crack width first decreased and then slowly increased. The best crack resistance effect was achieved when the fiber volume fraction was 0.3% and the fiber length was 12 mm. Therefore, basalt fiber self-compacting high-strength concrete can be widely used in engineering fields, such as national defense construction, transportation, and building structure reinforcement and repair, due to its excellent mechanical and crack resistance properties.

Fresh and Mechanical Properties of High-Performance Self-Compacting Concrete Containing Ground Granulated Blast Furnace Slag and Polypropylene Fibres

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the appropriateness of polypropylene fibres (PP) to decrease the brittleness of high-performance self-compacting concrete (HPSCC). The influence of PP fibre content on the fresh and mechanical assets of PP-fibre-reinforced HPSCC was investigated. PP fibres were applied with 0, 0.025, 0.05, 0.075, 0.125, 0.25% contents to the HPC blends with high cement replacement by ground granulated blast furnace slag (GGBS). The impact of PP fibre fraction on fresh properties of HPSCC, counting passing capability as well as filling parameters is discussed. In addition, the mechanical properties, i.e., compressive, splitting tensile, and flexural strengths, were evaluated after 7 and 28 days of specimens’ maturation in water. The higher content of PP fibres gradually reduced the HPSCC workability and improved the mechanical properties. The high performance of fresh and hardened ecological HPSCCs containing 46% GGBS instead of cement with 0.025–0.25% PP fibre content proves the great potential of using these composites in various applications in the construction industry. The advantages of the potential recycling of GGBS include, among others, the reduced use of cement in a durable material, reduced amount of waste in landfill and lower emission levels of greenhouse gases.

Performance evaluation of high-performance self-compacting concrete with waste glass aggregate and metakaolin

High-Performance Self-Compacting Concrete (HPSCC) has attracted much attention in recent decades due to its remarkable ability to fill formworks with densely packed reinforcing bars while requiring minimal or no external compaction. Because of the negative environmental impacts of cement and natural aggregates in concrete production, a much more sustainable alternative to manufacturing HPSCC is required. Recycled glass waste is one of the most attractive waste materials that can be used to create sustainable concrete compounds, which is currently a major area of study among researchers. This study aims to develop information not only about the fresh, mechanical, and durability characteristics of HPSCC, evaluate the environmental impact and correlate the crushing strength using a non-destructive approach by utilizing waste glass aggregates at replacement percentages of 0%, 10%, 20%, 30%, and 40%. To improve the performance of the produced HPSCC, Metakaolin was also added. The results of the fresh concrete tests revealed that the substitution of an optimal level of waste glass with Metakaolin provides adequate implementation in flowability, passing ability, and viscosity behaviors. Even though there is a reduction in the mechanical performance with glass aggregates, Metakaolin significantly improved strength and ductility by up to 16.12% and 15.91%, respectively. Furthermore, in most cases, the use of glass aggregates with Metakaolin significantly alters the durability properties of concrete while minimizing the environmental impact as well as the overall project cost. Finally, the NDT assessment demonstrates that the analytical equation can efficiently predict the compressive strength and promising to use for field application.

Strength and Durability Assessments of Induction Furnace Slag - Quarry Dust -Based High Performance Self - Compacting Concrete

Abstract Induction furnace slag (IFS) and quarry dust (QD) were reported as good materials in making ordinary concrete. Studies were not done on utilizing IFS and QD as constituents of high-performance-self-compacting-concrete (HPSCC). This study aims at assessing the effects of induction furnace slag and quarry dust on the strength and durability of high-performance self-compacting concrete. Strength tests including compressive, flexural, split tensile, rebound hammer tests were conducted on HPSCC. Likewise, durability tests including water absorption, total porosity and electrical resistivity tests were conducted. IFS at 0 % to 50 % (at 10 % intervals) replacement with Portland cement was used. Also, the optimum IFS content was combined with QD at 0 % to 50 % (at 10 % intervals) replacement with river sand. The results revealed an increment in strength up to 20 % IFS, 50 % QD with a rise of 15.34 % compressive strength over the control. The durability improved up to 20 % IFS, 60 % QD with a rise of 16.86 % electrical resistivity over the control. These showed that IFS and QD can be used for the production of HPSCC.

Statistical Models Supporting the High-Performance Self-Compacting Concrete (HPSCC) Design Process for High Strength.

The type of test ingredients used for obtaining self-compacting high-performance concrete (HPSCC) has been carefully selected to be universal. For this purpose, an extensive statistical analysis of the obtained results of the literature research was carried out. Then, universal and adapted to the typical range, highly fit statistical models are presented that can support the HPSCC design process for achieving high strength. For this purpose, a broad plan of statistical research was used, namely multivariate selection of sidereal points, which allowed the use of as many as five variable factors at three levels of variability. The sidereal points were equal to the respective minimum and maximum input values. Additionally, based on the analysis of variance (ANOVA) for factorial systems with the interaction of the obtained test results, the significance of the impact of the tested material factors on the compressive strength of the HPSCC tested was determined.

Experimental study of the freeze and thaw effects on the mechanical behaviour of self-compacting high-performance fibre-reinforced concrete containing active powders and/or Carbon NanoTubes

ABSTRACT In this paper, the mechanical properties of High-performance fiber reinforced cementitious composites containing active powders, such as metakaolin and fly ash, with a combination of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) and steel fibers have been investigated. The presence of active powders and their combination with micro-silica, increase the physical and mechanical properties of fibre concrete. Subsequently, by adding CNTs, the precise microstructural properties of concrete before and after 300 cycles of thawing-freezing, according to the ASTMC666 standard by scanning electron microscope (SEM) have been analysed. The results reveal that by adding active powders and steel fibres in the concrete, the volume of cavities reduces, and the bonding between concrete components increases. moreover, the addition of functionalised CNTs creates the crack bridge and prevents the propagation and growth of micro-cracks. This leads to increasing the mechanical properties of concrete before the cycles and decreasing the strength loss (bendingand compressive) after thawing-freezing cycles.

Investigations on high performance self-compacting concretes through ternary blends

The manufacturing process of cement is accompanied with emission of greenhouse gases causing global warming which is of major concern and utilization of mineral admixtures as a partial replacement of cement in concrete has proven its efficacy by improving the mechanical and durability characteristics. The following research work was focused to study the performance of high performance self-compacting concretes blended with ternary cementitious systems containing fly ash and silica fume. A methodology to obtain optimum mix proportions for ternary blended cement concretes is being presented along with the results of experimental studies directed towards the characterization of the same through evaluating mechanical & durability characteristics.

Effect of Sand to Aggregate Ratio on the Properties of Self-Compacting High-Performance Concrete

Effect of Sand to Aggregate Ratio on the Properties of Self-Compacting High-Performance Concrete

Effects of fly ash and cement content on rheological, mechanical, and transport properties of high-performance self-compacting concrete

Effects of fly ash and cement content on rheological, mechanical, and transport properties of high-performance self-compacting concrete

Two-Year Non-Destructive Evaluation of Eco-Efficient Concrete at Ambient Temperature and after Freeze-Thaw Cycles

The increasing demand for eco-efficient concrete puts pressure on the industry to innovate new alternatives for its constituent materials. Coarse recycled concrete aggregates (RA) and supplementary cementitious materials (SCMs) are considered promising substitutes for coarse natural aggregates (NA) and cement, respectively. Using destructive and non-destructive testing methods, the present work aims to evaluate the effect of RA and different types of waste SCMs on the long-term performance of self-compacting high-performance concrete (SCHPC). Twenty-one mixes that were prepared with a 0.35 water-to-binder ratio were tested for their compressive strength, surface hardness, and ultrasonic pulse velocity. These tests were conducted over a two-year period at ambient temperature and again after exposure to up to 150 freeze–thaw cycles. Study findings demonstrated the possibility of developing eco-efficient SCHPC mixes using RA and waste SCMs. In addition, correlations have been introduced for predicting the compressive strength of SCHPC.

Effect on Fresh and Harden Properties by using Fly Ash and GGBS with Fibers of High Performance Self Compacting Concrete

The study of cementations materials of supplementary on High Performance Concrete with Self Compacting is studied in this work. The High Performance Self-Compacting Concrete makes it suitable for placing in difficult sections and conditions in members with congested reinforcement the properties of fresh concrete and Harden properties in Special concrete of High Performance Self Compacting Concrete (HPSCC) studied in this work. Effect of fibers with fly ash & GGBS behavior of combined fibers sections subjected to load. The work studied has been focused on the Fly ash and GGBS effect with fibers on mix proportion and concrete in harden state Strength in Ultimate with replacement of Polypropylene fibers range 0%-1.5% in 0.5 interval and also the focusing of work with various percentage of fly Ash and GGBS combination and behavior of fiber under loading, compression strength, Split Tensile Strength & Flexural Strength. The obtained values from this study are to be useful in determining design charterstic of HPSCC with fiber (polypropylene) sections. It gets helps the mix proportion, analysis and designing of specimens with high performance to resist various loading.

Development of Variants of High-Performance Self-Compacting Concrete with Improved Resistance to the Attack of Sulfates

This paper presents experimental and analytical work of which the main objective was to support the introduction of a new technology for the production of sewer pipes. In this technology, the pipes produced consist of two differently produced parts. The direct part uses conventional vibro press compacted concrete. In the curved part, on the other hand, self-compacting concrete technology is used. The cooperating company, Prefa Brno a.s., defined possible negative effects on concrete of sewer pipes. The task of the research team and now the author’s team was to propose a procedure for the development of suitable self-compacting concrete variants and subsequently the design of a methodology to verify their durability in aqueous environments containing sulfates. To increase the efficiency of the development, the model mortar method was used in the experimental work. That is, instead of the original concrete, a model mortar derived from it was tested. The principle and procedure of derivation of model mortars are described in the paper. In total, eight variants of model mortars were tested, and at least three of them fulfilled the requirements. An optional but beneficial part of the carried out work was the derivation and practical application of the time-anchored-triangles-of-cracking graphical method developed during the research. This method is used to quickly compare the degree of attack of different silicate composites tested in a common bath inducing type III corrosion.

Prediction of the compressive strength of high-performance self-compacting concrete by an ultrasonic-rebound method based on a GA-BP neural network.

To address the problem of low accuracy and poor robustness of in situ testing of the compressive strength of high-performance self-compacting concrete (SCC), a genetic algorithm (GA)-optimized backpropagation neural network (BPNN) model was established to predict the compressive strength of SCC. Experiments based on two concrete nondestructive testing methods, i.e., ultrasonic pulse velocity and Schmidt rebound hammer, were designed and test sample data were obtained. A neural network topology with two input nodes, 19 hidden nodes, and one output node was constructed, and the initial weights and thresholds of the resulting traditional BPNN model were optimized using GA. The results showed a correlation coefficient of 0.967 between the values predicted by the established BPNN model and the test values, with an RMSE of 3.703, compared to a correlation coefficient of 0.979 between the values predicted by the GA-optimized BPNN model and the test values, with an RMSE of 2.972. The excellent agreement between the predicted and test values demonstrates the model can accurately predict the compressive strength of SCC and hence reduce the cost and time for SCC compressive strength testing.

Compressive Strength of a Prescribed Control Mix for High Performance Self-compacting Concrete

Another way of improving concrete production involves incorporating the unique features of high performance concrete with the special properties of self-compacting concrete, resulting in another type of concrete called high performance self-compacting concrete (HPSCC). Many researchers have developed diverse designed control mix for HPSCC which were obtained through several and rigorous designed trial mixes. Yet, little work has been done on prescribed control mix for HPSCC. The purpose of this paper is to establish a prescribed control mix ratio for HPSCC and to test by conducting compressive strength test. Review of the various designed control mix ratios is done in this paper. A logical prescribed control mix ratio of 1:1.02:0.95 has been established for an HPSCC with 0.36 w/c proportion, 0.02 superplasticizer/cement proportion. The compressive strength gave 36.10 MPa at 7 days curing age, 41.76 MPa at 14 days curing age and 57.29 MPa at 28 days curing age. This strength result satisfied the strength criteriaa of HPSCC, according to EFNARC It is therefore recommended that a prescribed control mix of 1:1.02:0.95 be used if the minimum crushing strength value expected at 28 days is 40 N/mm2 for an HPSCC.