Behaviour of self compacting concrete made with GGBS and RHA under axial compression and flexure

Abstract

Concrete technology has made tremendous strides in the past decade. The development of specifying a concrete according to its performance requirements, rather than the constituents and ingredients has opened innumerable opportunities for producers of concrete and users to design concrete to suit their specific requirements. One of the most outstanding advances in the concrete technology over the last decade is self compacting concrete (SCC). Self-compacting concrete is a highly flowable, stable concrete which flows readily into places around congested reinforcement, filling formwork without any consolidation and significant segregation. The hardened concrete is dense, homogeneous and has the same engineering properties and durability as that of traditional vibrated concrete. The use of SCC eliminates the need for compaction thereby saves time, reduces labour costs and conserves energy. Furthermore use of SCC enhances surface finish characteristics. Extensive studies have been made on Self Compacting Concrete with different combinations of mineral and chemical admixtures (chapter 2). However, no significant work has been done on the behaviour of SCC with GGBS and RHA as mineral admixtures. Hence, the present experimental work is aimed to study the behavior of combination of GGBS and RHA in different grades of concrete mixes: M20 (low grade), M40 (medium grade) and M60 (high grade).The main aim is to obtain specific experimental data to understand SCCand#8223;s fresh and hardened properties, to evaluate the efficiency of GGBS and RHA combination in SCC, along with the studies on its stress-strain behaviour, flexural behaviour of beams, and durability aspects. Detailed experimental investigations were carried out to understand the structural behavior of self compacting with GGBS and RHA. In this process, SCC mixes with satisfactory properties in fresh state and having more compressive strengths for different percentage replacement of cement with GGBS and RHA combination were developed.