August  2009  

Large-scale production of SCC: A new approach to robustness

Jonhson W. Rigueira, Emilio G. Taengua and Pedro Serna

Use of self-compacting concrete (SCC) is rising because of their advantages over conventional concretes. But the possibility of large-scale SCC production with good mix reliability needs more investigations particularly for robustness of SCC mixes. Robustness of an SCC mix is the stability of its properties when the original proportion is affected by errors in weighing of ingredients. To evaluate the effect of such errors, six different SCC mixes were selected. Variations introduced were such that they simulated large-scale production errors. Also, tolerances normally accepted by codes were compared with statistical distributions of errors obtained from plant data provided by select Spanish concrete producers.



















Cost competitive steel fibre reinforced SCC for structural applications

Joaquim A.O. Barros, Lúcio A.P. Lourenço, Rajendra K. Varma and Delfina M.F. Gonçalves

A mix design for Steel Fibre Reinforced Self-Compacting Concrete (SFRSCC) was developed for application in lightweight panels as building facades. Concrete precast industry is one of the most suited industries for the use of SFRSCC, as it has the potential not only to use the mix composition but also other steps leading to make structural elements. Since precast elements' demoulding should be carried out as soon as possible for economic reasons, the influence of age on mechanical properties of SFRSCC was assessed by compression and flexural tests. Compression and monotonic cyclic tests were also performed to assess performance of the mix. To understand the full potential of SFRSCC in structural applications such as panels, prototypes were made and subjected to flexural and punching loads. The results confirmed the advantages of fibre reinforcement. Finally, a scale panel was made and tested in an industrial environment, to prove the technology transfer from laboratory to factory.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Reinforced cement concrete pipes made with SCC technology

M. Lakshmipathy, K.S. Satyanarayanan, G. Jayasree and V. Mageshwaran

Self-Compacting Concrete (SCC) is one of the High Performance Concretes with excellent strength and durability properties. However, its mix proportioning and testing methods for flow characteristics are different from those of the ordinary concrete. SCC has high powder content and a super plasticizer for enabling flow while keeping coarse aggregate in a viscous suspension. The powder is usually cement and a filler material. The relative proportion of filler in powder influences the properties of SCC both in fresh and hardened state. An attempt has been made to develop cost-effective SCC with supplementary cementitious materials such as fly ash (25%), GGBS (20%) and Silica Fume (5%) and examine its strength properties in comparison to the conventional concrete. Although much of the current research concentrates on developing SCC mixes and exploring their application in major construction projects, in this study Re-inforced Cement Concrete (RCC) pipes made with SCC are compared with conventional concrete pipes. In summary, SCC showed better homogeneity in concrete mix and the pipes made had better performance than conventional concrete pipes.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Rheological properties of SCC using direct shear box

S. Girish, C. Indumathi, Jagadish Vengala and R.V. Ranganath

The fresh properties of concrete can be characterised by its flow behaviour. Most of the tests which measure flow of concrete are empirical in nature. Rheological tests conducted using rheometers such as BML rheometer, BTRHEOM rheometer, IBB rheometer, CEMAGREF-IMG rheometer and Two-point rheometer attempt to measure yield stress and plastic viscosity. However, there is no concurrence among these test values and hence there is no instrument which is acceptable to all. Further, these rheometers are very expensive. In this study, an attempt has been made to find the rheological properties of concrete using strain controlled direct shear box. An important characteristic of direct shear box test is the very low shear rate applied on the specimen. Ten different concrete mixes with different paste contents (0.38, 0.41 and 0.43) and different max size of coarse aggregates were studied. One of the mixes was of normal concrete using coarse aggregate of max. size 10 mm and the remaining nine, Self Compacting Concrete mixes, using three different sizes of crushed stone coarse aggregate (10 mm, 8 mm and 6 mm). Three different displacement rates namely, 1.25 mm/min, 0.625 mm/min and 0.25 mm/min; were employed. Different normal stresses were applied on the specimen. Relative yield stress and relative plastic viscosity values were obtained along with the corresponding measured slump flows. The results show that direct shear box can be used to find rheological parameters (relative values of yield stress and plastic viscosity) of fresh concrete. The values obtained in this study are higher, by 10 times for yield value and 104 times for plastic viscosity, respectively, as compared to the values obtained by other rheometers. This could be due to inter-particle interference. However, the trends reported are very similar to the studies using rheometers i.e. higher the flow, lower is the yield strength and plastic viscosity. The test is static.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Study of the properties of SCC with quarry dust

M. Rame Gowda, M.C. Narasimhan, Karisddappa and S.V. Rajeeva

Granite fines or rock dust is a by-product obtained during crushing of granite rocks and is also called quarry dust (QD). This paper deals with using quarry dust as an alternative to fine aggregate (FA) in SCC and reports the strength behaviour and hardened properties of such SCCs. Although in normal concretes, introducing QD increases the water demand, in SCC, it has been successfully used for increasing the deformability and passing ability of fresh concrete. Also, it was noted that by increasing the pouring heights of an SCC, the compressive strength and splitting tensile strength of concrete were unaffected.