Influence of GGBFS and Silica Fume on the Properties of High-Strength Self-Compacting Concrete

Abstract

Abstract When the compaction of concrete becomes challenging to carry out, Self-Compacting Concrete (SCC) is considered as an alternative to ordinary concrete. The aim of the present work is to obtain high-strength SCC by substituting Ground Granulated Blast Furnace Slag (GGBFS) and Silica Fume (SF) for cement. GGBFS and SF have been extensively employed as admixtures in recent years to produce high-strength concrete. SCC was created as a reference mix without any mineral admixtures, whereas the other mixes had varying amounts of GGBS and SF. The remaining six mixtures contained various concentrations of GGBFS from 10 to 30 percent with variations of 10% and silica fume from 5 to 15 percent with variations of 5 percentile. As workability is the primary attribute of SCC, various flowability features, including the Slump test, V funnel, and L box test were recognized. Studies on mechanical performance and durability properties were conducted. At 28 days, a ternary combination of 30% GGBS and 5% SF reaches its maximum compressive strength of 70.12 MPa. Also, when SF is replaced with 5% and GGBFS with 30% by weight of cement, the results showed better improvement in durability.