A comparative study of the mechanical properties, fracture behavior, creep, and shrinkage of chemically based self-consolidating concrete

Abstract

This study presents the results of an experimental investigation that compares the mechanical properties, fracture behavior, creep, and shrinkage of a chemically-based self-consolidating concrete (SCC) mix with that of a corresponding conventional concrete (CC) mix. The CC and SCC mix designs followed conventional proportioning in terms of aggregate type and content, cement content, air content, water-cementitiuos materials (w/cm) ratio, and workability. Then, using only chemical admixtures, the authors converted the CC mix to an SCC mix with all of the necessary passing, filling, flowability, and stability requirements typically found in SCC. The high fluidity was achieved with a polycarboxylate-based high-range water-reducing admixture, while the enhanced stability was accomplished with an organic, polymer-based viscosity-modifying admixture. The comparison indicated that the SCC and CC mixes had virtually identical tensile splitting strengths, flexural strengths, creep, and shrinkage. However, the SCC mix showed higher compressive strengths and fracture energies than the corresponding CC mix.

Keywords

admixture / conventional concrete (CC) / creep / fracture mechanic / mechanical Properties / self-consolidating concrete (SCC) / shrinkage

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Acknowledgements

The authors gratefully acknowledge the financial support provided by the BASF Company and the National University Transportation Center at Missouri University of Science and Technology. The authors would also like to thank the support staff in the Department of Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering and Center for Infrastructure Engineering Studies at Missouri S&T for their efforts. The conclusions and opinions expressed in this paper are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official views or policies of the funding institutions.

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2014 Higher Education Press and Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg