New approach to determine the plastic viscosity of self-compacting concrete

Abstract

The rheology of concrete is best measured with the use of a rheometer. The slump flow test gives a good indication of the flowability of the mixture and is therefore still used extensively to judge the workability of SCC mixtures. However, this test presents some defects. The objective of this paper is to develop a new methodology for measuring the workability of a SCC. In this article, we have proposed a correlation between the plastic viscosity of concrete, the time and the characteristics of the flow final profile from the V-funnel coupled to a Plexiglas horizontal channel. The proposed approach, verified by experimental results, represents a simple, economical and usable tool on building site, and it allows to characterize rheologically the SCC from its flow. The comparison between our approach and the experimental values of the plastic viscosity shows that, in a laboratory or on site, instead of using a rheometer we can use our approach to characterize the rheological behavior of a SCC.

Keywords

rheology / viscosity / V-funnel / flow profile / rheometer / behavior

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