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Construction and Building

Construction and Building Materials 22 (2008) 19631971

MATERIALS
www.elsevier.com/locate/conbuildmat

Performance of self-compacting concrete containing y ash

J.M. Khatib
*
School of Engineering and the Built Environment, University of Wolverhampton, Wulfruna street, Wolverhampton, WV1 1SB, UK Received 19 June 2006; accepted 12 July 2007 Available online 24 September 2007

Abstract The inuence of including y ash (FA) on the properties of self-compacting concrete (SCC) is investigated. Portland cement (PC) was partially replaced with 080% FA. The water to binder ratio was maintained at 0.36 for all mixes. Properties included workability, compressive strength, ultrasonic pulse velocity (V), absorption and shrinkage. The results indicate that high volume FA can be used in SCC to produce high strength and low shrinkage. Replacing 40% of PC with FA resulted in a strength of more than 65 N/mm2at 56 days. High absorption values are obtained with increasing amount of FA, however, all FA concrete exhibits absorption of less than 2%. There is a systematic reduction in shrinkage as the FA content increases and at 80% FA content, the shrinkage at 56 days reduced by two third compared with the control. A linear relationship exists between the 56 day shrinkage and FA content. Increasing the admixture content beyond a certain level leads to a reduction in strength and increase in absorption. The correlation between strength and absorption indicates that there is sharp decrease in strength as absorption increases from 1 to 2%. After 2% absorption, the strength reduces at a much slower rate. 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Absorption; Fly ash; Self-compacting concrete; Shrinkage; Strength

1. Introduction There has been an increase in using self-compacting concrete (SCC) in recent years and a number of papers have been published [16]. SCC was rst developed in Japan in the late nineteen eighties to be used in the construction of skyscrapers [1]. The introduction of SCC represents major technological advances, which leads to a better quality concrete and an ecient construction process [7]. SCC allows the construction of more slender building elements and more complicated and interesting shapes [8]. The production of SCC allows the pumping of concrete to a great height and the ow through congested reinforcing bars without the use of compaction other than the concrete self-weight. As a result, the use of SCC can lead to a reduction in construction time, labour cost and noise level on the construction site [7,9].
*

Tel.: +44 1902 32 2282; fax: +44 1902 32 2743. E-mail address: j.m.khatib@wlv.ac.uk.

The use of chemical admixtures is always necessary when producing SCC in order to increase the workability and reduce segregation. The content of coarse aggregate and the water to binder ratio in SCC are lower than those of normal concrete. Therefore SCC contains large amounts of ne particles such as, blast-furnace slag, y ash and lime powder in order to avoid gravity segregation of larger particles in the fresh mix [1012]. The strength and drying shrinkage of SCC is similar to those of conventional concrete at the same water to cement ratio [12]. Compared with traditional concrete, SCC shows a lower permeability and absorption by capillary action, which might be attributed to the less porous zone and renement of pore structure [13]. It is well established that the use of y ash (FA) in concrete increases the workability and contributes towards long-term strength. The incorporation of FA reduces the need of superplasticiser necessary to obtain a similar slump ow compared with the concrete containing only cement as binder [14]. The strength and shrinkage of SCC containing

0950-0618/$ - see front matter 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.conbuildmat.2007.07.011

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J.M. Khatib / Construction and Building Materials 22 (2008) 19631971 Table 2 Details of mixes Mix No. Proportions (% by mass of binder) PC M1 M2 M3 M4 M5 M6 M7
a b c

high volume FA were found to be similar to that of normal concrete. Also the shrinkage was not noticeably dierent from that of traditional concrete. The results were based at varying water to binder ratios [6,9]. The present work investigates selected properties of SCC containing FA at constant water to binder (PC+FA) ratio of 0.36. The properties comprised workability, density, compressive strength, absorption, ultrasonic pulse velocity and drying shrinkage. The dosage of chemical admixtures was maintained constant for all FA mixes. 2. Experimental 2.1. Materials The constituents of mixes were Portland cement (PC), y ash (FA), water, ne aggregate and coarse aggregate. The PC and FA complied with EN 197-1 and EN 450, respectively. The ne aggregate used conformed to class M of BS 882: 1992, and 10 mm nominal size crushed and washed was used as coarse aggregate. The only admixture (AD) used to produce self-compacting concrete was a liquid based on a modied synthetic carboxylated polymer. The AD conformed to Types A and F Admixtures of BS 5075 Parts 1 & 3 and EN 934-2:2000 with a relative density of 1.08. Composition of PC and FA are given in Table 1. 2.2. Mix proportions

Content (kg/m3)

FA 0 0 0 20 40 60 80

PC 500 500 500 400 300 200 100

FA 0 0 0 20 40 60 80

Water 180 180 180 180 180 180 180

Faga 876 876 876 845 813 782 751

Cagb 876 876 876 876 876 876 876

ADc (%) 0.6 0.7 1.0 0.7 0.7 0.7 0.7

100 100 100 80 60 40 20

ne aggregate. coarse aggregate. admixture, % by mass of binder.

dierent dosages of admixtures (AD) were used for these control mixes. The dosages of AD were 0.6%, 0.7% and 1.0% (by mass of PC) for mixes M1, M2 and M3, respectively. In mixes M4-M7, PC was partially replaced with 20%, 40%, 60% and 80% FA (% by mass of binder), respectively. The binder (b) consists of PC and FA. The dosage of AD for these mixes was 0.7% (by mass of binder). The water to binder (w/b) ratio for all mixes was maintained constant at 0.36 and no adjustment to the water content was made for mixes containing FA. 2.3. Casting, curing and testing

A total of 8 mixes that were employed to examine the properties of self-compacting concrete (SCC) with and without y ash (FA). Properties investigated were, workability using the ow table, density, compressive strength, absorption, ultrasonic pulse velocity and length change. Details of mixes are given in Table 2. The control mixes M1M3 had a proportion of 1 (PC): 1.75 (ne aggregate): 1.75 (coarse aggregate) without the inclusion of FA. Three

Table 1 Composition and properties of bindera PCb SiO2 (%) Al2O3 (%) Fe2O3 (%) CaO (%) MgO (%) SO3 (%) Na2O (%) K2O (%) Insoluble residue (%) Loss on ignition (%) Free lime (%) Specic surface area (m2/kg) Residue retained on 45 lm sieve (%) Initial set (min)
a b c

FAc 50.5 24.7 7.4 2.6 1.5 0.8 0.8 3.0 356

20.2 4.2 2 63.9 2.1 3 0.14 0.68 0.37 2.81 2.37 368 15.16 115.0

PC+FA. Portland cement. y ash.

Cubes of 100 mm in size and prisms of dimensions 75 mm 75 mm 300 mm were used for the determination of density, compressive strength, absorption, ultrasonic pulse velocity (V) and length change. For each mix, 18 cubes and 2 prisms were prepared. Before casting, the workability test using the ow table was conducted according to BS 1881, Part 105: 1984. The table had dimensions of 700 mm 700 mm and these are the minimum recommended dimensions [15,16]. Specimens (cubes and prisms) were then cast in steel moulds and were not subjected to any compaction other than their own self-weights. The specimens were kept covered in a controlled chamber at 20 2 C for 24 h until demoulding. Thereafter, cubes were placed in water at 20 C. The prisms, however, were left to air cure in a controlled chamber at 20 C and 60% RH. The cubes were used to determine the density, compressive strength and absorption while the determination of V and length change were conducted on the prisms. Testing was determined at 1 day, 7, 28 and 56 days. Also, length change was determined at additional testing dates. The method for determining the density, compressive strength, V, and length change was according to BS1881, Part 114:1983, Part 116: 1983, Part 217: 1983 and Part 206: 1990, respectively. For the determination of water absorption, cubes were taken from the curing tank at the desired curing age and placed in an oven at 100 C until a constant mass was

J.M. Khatib / Construction and Building Materials 22 (2008) 19631971

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achieved. This took about 3 days. The cubes were left to cool in an air-tight container. The dry mass of specimens was determined before they were immersed in water for half an hour. The absorption was then calculated as the ratio of water mass absorbed to that of dry mass of sample and expressed as a percentage. 3. Results and discussion 3.1. Workability All mixes exhibited high workability, in that the ow spread (i.e. diameter) for all mixes is in excess of 700 mm except for the control mix M1 where a spread of 635 mm is obtained where a relatively low dosage of AD is added (Table 2). These values are higher than those indicating elsewhere [6,9]. Slump ow of 650 50 mm is required for SCC [15], and all the mixes under investigation fall in this category. Visual examination of mixes containing FA suggest that there is further increase in workability, as demonstrated by the ease of ow in the moulds, compared with the control at the same dosage of admixtures (i.e. 0.7%). It is well established that the use of FA in concrete reduces the water demand for a given workability. Therefore, concrete containing FA will cause an increase in workability at constant water to binder ratio.
Table 3 Density of mixes (kg/m3) Mix M1 M2 M3 M4 M5 M6 M7 % FA 0 0 0 20 40 60 80 % AD 0.6 0.7 1.0 0.7 0.7 0.7 0.7 Density (kg/m3) 2272 2423 2432 2416 2380 2365 2307

3.2. Density Table 3 presents the density values for all mixes at dierent curing times. each density values represents the average density at the various curing times. For the control mixes (M1M3), an increase in AD content resulted in an increase in density. This can be attributed to the better compaction and reduction in voids in concrete containing high AD content due to the higher ow obtained. At the same AD content, the incorporation of increasing amounts of FA in concrete causes a systematic reduction in density, mainly resulting from the lower density of FA compared with PC. Although the mix proportions of SCC are dierent than those of traditional concrete, it is worth noting that the density values of SCC are similar to those of traditional vibrated concrete [17], indicating the good compaction of SCC. 3.3. Absorption The inuence of varying AD content on absorption is shown in Fig. 1 (mixes M1M3). There is a decrease in absorption with the increase in curing period and this decrease is substantial between 1 day and 28 days. As can be expected the prolonged curing period (56 days) led to lower absorption compared with that obtained at 28 days of curing. Using an optimum dosage of AD (e.g. 0.7%) causes a decrease in absorption compared with a relatively low (0.6%) or high (1.0%) dosage of AD. The use of low dosage of AD may cause an increase in void if compaction was not used, and at high AD content segregation might lead to an increase in absorption. Fig. 2 shows the inuence of incorporating FA in concrete on absorption at a constant AD content of 0.7%. There is substantial decrease in absorption between 1 day curing and the other curing times (28 & 56 days). The increase in curing time from 28 to 56 days, results in further

1day 28 days
2.5

Absorption (% by dry mass)

56 days

1.5

0.5

0 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9 1 1.1

% Admixture
Fig. 1. Inuence of admixture dosage on absorption.

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J.M. Khatib / Construction and Building Materials 22 (2008) 19631971

Absorption (% by dry mass)

1 day

28 days 56 days

0
0 20 40 % FA 60 80

Fig. 2. Inuence of FA content on absorption (AD = 0.7%).

reduction but at a much slower rate compared with those obtained between 1 day and 28 days of curing. There is systematic increase in absorption with increasing FA content however, at 56 days all FA mixes including the 80% FA mix exhibited absorption values of less than or equal to 2%, which is considered to be a low water absorption [18]. The low absorption is an indication of good compaction achieved by the concrete self-weight. The compaction is expected to be better especially in the presence of FA due to the increased workability. Generally, the absorption values for all mixes are lower than those reported in another investigation [19]. 3.4. Compressive strength The eect of dierent dosages of AD on concrete strength for the control mixes (M1M3) is shown in Fig. 3. Using either a relatively low or high dosage of
90

AD reduces the strength, whereas using an optimum dose of AD (e.g. 0.7%) causes an increase in strength. As suggested earlier, low dosage might lead to the creation of pore if concrete is to be compacted under its own self-weight only, whereas high dosage might lead to segregation. This can justify the relatively high strength obtained when a medium dose of AD (0.7%) is added to the concrete. Fig. 4 shows the inuence of FA incorporation on concrete strength at a constant addition of AD (0.7%). Concrete containing 40% FA shows higher 56 days strength than the other FA mixes including the 20% FA mix, where a high strength of approximately 70 N/mm2 at 56 days is obtained. Generally and at the same water to binder ratio, there is strength reduction for concretes containing FA compared with that of the control. However, and even at high FA content (60%), a long-term high strength of about 40 N/mm2 is achieved at the same water to binder ratio. Higher strength would be expected in the FA mixes if the

1 day
80 70

7 days 28 days 56 days

Strength (N/mm2)

60 50 40 30 20 10 0
0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 % Admixture (by mass of binder) 0.9 1 1.1 '

Fig. 3. Inuence of admixture dosage on strength.

J.M. Khatib / Construction and Building Materials 22 (2008) 19631971

90

1967

1day
80 70

7 days 28 days 56 days

Strength (N/mm2)

60 50 40 30 20 10 0 0 20 40 60 80

% FA
Fig. 4. Inuence of FA content on strength (AD = 0.7%).

w/b ratio was lowered to achieve similar workability to that of the control. The trend is similar to results obtained elsewhere on SCC containing FA [20]. Correlation between strength and water absorption for all mixes (M1M7) is shown in Fig. 5. As can be expected, an increase in strength is associated with a decrease in water absorption. There is sharp decrease in strength as the absorption increases from 1% to 2%. For absorption beyond 2%, there is a much slower reduction in strength with the increase in absorption. 3.5. Ultrasonic pulse velocity (V) Table 4 presents the V values for all mixes at dierent curing times. The trend in V is similar to that of compressive strength. Using medium dosage of AD causes an increase in V as compared with low and high dosage of AD. Also the 40% FA mix show the largest value of V compared with the 20% FA mix and the other FA mixes

Table 4 Ultrasonic pulse velocity for all mixes (m/s) Mix M1 M2 M3 M4 M5 M6 M7 % FA 0 0 0 20 40 60 80 % AD 0.6 0.7 1.0 0.7 0.7 0.7 0.7 1 day 4219 4392 4298 3958 4011 3517 2126 7 days 4525 4608 4539 4367 4464 4071 3641 28 days 4566 4710 4623 4367 4601 4184 3750 56 days 4518 4724 4546 4412 4525 4167 3755

for the same AD addition. Generally there is decrease in strength with the increase in FA content. The strength versus V values are plotted in Fig. 6. An exponential relationship exists between strength (y) and V (x). That is: y = 0.003e0.00217x with an R2 of 0.97 indicating a strong correlation. This agrees with correlations obtained elsewhere [21]. The relationship seems to be independent of the FA content.

90 80 70

Strength (N/mm2)

60 50 40 30 20 10 0 0 1 2 3 4 5

M1 M2 M3 M4 M5 M6 M7

Absorption (%)
Fig. 5. Relationship between strength and absorption.

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J.M. Khatib / Construction and Building Materials 22 (2008) 19631971

Strength (N/mm2)

60 50 40 30 20 10 0 2000

M1 M2 M3 M4 M5 M6 M7 Best Fit

y=0.003e 0.00217x R2=0.97

2500

3000

3500

4000

4500

5000

V (m/s)
Fig. 6. Relationship between strength and V.

3.6. Length change The eect of using dierent amount of AD on shrinkage is shown in Fig. 7. The results suggest that low AD dosage increases shrinkage, whereas a decrease in shrinkage occurs at high AD content. A substantial increase in shrinkage

takes place during the rst 28 days of hydration, after which period there is little change in shrinkage. Fig. 8 displays the shrinkage proles for the control mix M2 and for mixes containing FA (M4M7). As for the results in Fig. 7, most of the shrinkage occurs during the rst 28 days. After that, there is little change in shrinkage

Time (days)
0 0 10 20 30 40 50 60

0.6%AD
-50

0.7%AD 1.0%AD

-100

Length Change (microstrain)

-150

-200

-250

-300

-350

-400

-450

-500

Fig. 7. Inuence of admixture dosage on shrinkage.

J.M. Khatib / Construction and Building Materials 22 (2008) 19631971

1969

Time (days)
0 0 10 20 30 40 50 60

-50

0% FA-control 20% FA 40% FA 60% FA 80% FA

-100

Length Change (microstrain)

-150

-200

-250

-300

-350

-400

-450

-500

Fig. 8. Inuence of FA on shrinkage (AD = 0.7%).

up to at least 56 days. Increasing the amounts of FA results in a systematic reduction in shrinkage. At high FA content (60%) the 56 days shrinkage is reduced to half and with very high FA content (80%) the shrinkage is about one third compared with that of the control. This is better illustrated in Fig. 9, where the 56 days shrinkage data are plotted against FA content. There is a linear relationship between FA content and shrinkage. If a straight line is t-

ted to the data an equation in the form of y = 3.5x 425 is obtained with an R2 = 0.98 indicating a strong correlation. The trend in shrinkage is similar to those reported elsewhere, however, and despite of the high binder content in the present investigation the shrinkage values are much lower for comparable aggregate contents [6]. This could be attributed to the high CaO (13.4%) content of FA used in the other investigation [6], as opposed to 2.4% CaO used

% FA
0 -50 0 20 40 60 80

Shrinkage (microstrain)

-100 -150 -200 -250 -300 -350 -400 -450 -500

y = 3.5003x - 425.42 R2 = 0.9803

Fig. 9. Shrinkage versus FA content at 56 days curing.

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J.M. Khatib / Construction and Building Materials 22 (2008) 19631971

10 20 30 40 50 60 70 M1 80

56-day Shrinkage (microstrain)

-50 -100 -150 -200 -250 -300 -350 -400 -450 -500

M2
M3 M4 M5 M6 M7

y=-4.47x-105.8 R2=0.66

Trend Line

28-day Strength (N/mm2)

Fig. 10. Relationship between shrinkage and strength at 56 days curing.

Table 5 Estimation of shrinkage of SCC concrete Mix Mix ID e* = bt /[a+t] a M1 M2 M3 M4 M5 M6 M7

*

b 525 483 444 467 350 214 188

Correlation coecient (R2) 0.99 0.99 0.99 0.99 0.99 0.99 0.99

the control. The a values increase as FA content increases up to 40% before it starts to decrease beyond FA contents of 40%. However, the b values decreases with the increase in FA content. 4. Conclusions and recommendations The following conclusions are based on the results of the present investigation: 1. High percentage of FA can be used to produce SCC with an adequate strength. Using of up to 60% FA as PC replacement can produce SCC with a strength as high as 40 N/mm2. 2. Although the absorption increases with increasing FA content, the absorption values of SCC containing high volume (80%) of FA is below 2% at 56 days of curing. 3. Incorporating increasing amounts of FA in SCC reduces the drying shrinkage. and there is linear change in shrinkage with the increase in FA content. Replacing cement with 80% FA can reduce the shrinkage by two third.

0% FA 0% FA 0% FA 20% FA 40% FA 60% FA 80% FA

7.99 4.06 7.17 12.10 13.87 5.70 8.53

e is shrinkage in microstrain.

in the present work. The shrinkage values obtained for SCC are higher than those obtained for traditional vibrated concrete [6,17]. Fig. 10 correlates the 56 day shrinkage with 28 strength data. An increase in strength is associated with an increase in shrinkage. Persson [9] reported a parabolic relationship between the 28 day strength and long-term shrinkage with an R2 of 0.58 where there is an increase in shrinkage as the strength increases up to a certain point before it start decreasing. In this work, it is found that a linear correlation gives y = 4.47x105.8 with an R2 of 0.66 (Fig. 10), whereas a parabolic correlations gives y = 0.009x2 5.19x 94.9 with an R2 of 0.66. The change in shrinkage with time can be described by the following equation [17]: e bt ; where e is the shrinkat age value in microstrain at time t in days, a is a constant related to the initial slope and b is another constant related to ultimate shrinkage values and other factors including environmental conditions, specimens size and strength. Fitting the above equation to the experimental data, values of a and b were obtained for each of the mixes. These values are presented in Table 5 with their correlation coecients (R2). R2 for all mixes is 0.99 indicating a strong correlation. The values of b are higher than those reported elsewhere [17], partly due to the relatively high cement content for

Acknowledgements The authors would like to thank Mr Creed for conducting the experimental programme and the concrete laboratory technical sta Mr Skelton and Mr Harwood for their assistance. References
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