Plastic-viscosity based mix design and the effect of limestone powder on material performance of self-compacting concrete

Abstract

The advantages of using self-compacting concrete (SCC) in comparison to traditional vibrated concrete are widely acknowledged. One of the key challenges in producing consistence SCC mix lies in the ability to control its performance both in fresh and hardened states. There are several methodologies currently used for mix proportion design of SCC to achieve better quality and strength. This paper investigates the consistency of a plastic-viscosity based mix proportioning method by exploring the fresh state flow properties and hardened state compressive strengths of SCC mix produced using Portland limestone cement (PLC). For this purpose, SCC design mixes with target compressive strengths between 30 MPa and 70 MPa are tested. It was revealed that while using the chosen PLC type, the mix proportioning method which is based on the estimation of plastic-viscosity failed to achieve the predicted compressive strength in the case of target mix strength 60MPa and above.  This paper aims to propose a procedure to mitigate this discrepancy by demonstrating that the quality and performance of the self-compacting concrete produced using plastic-viscosity based mixed design can be influenced by the cement type used and this can also affect the target compressive strength achieved by the concrete mix.