Rheology of mortar and its influences on performance of self-consolidating concrete

Abstract

A two-part experimental program is presented in this paper. In the first part, four self-consolidating mortar mixes were designed with different compositions of cementitious materials including cement, pulverized fuel ash and condensed silica fume. For each SCM mix composition, the superplasticizer dosage was varied and a total of 30 batches of mortar were produced. For every batch of mortar, the rheology was determined by a rheometer and the workability was measured by the mini slump flow test and the mini V-funnel test. From the test results, the saturation SP dosage of each SCM mix was determined. In the second part, four self-consolidating concrete mixes were produced, each comprising a SCM mix with saturation SP dosage and a fixed coarse aggregate content. The workability, filling and passing abilities and segregation stability were measured by the slump flow, U-box and sieve segregation tests, respectively. It was found that the performance of all the SCC mixes was satisfactory. The test results suggested that using a SCM mix with saturation SP dosage as the mortar phase can produce SCC with high performance and therefore is a good starting point to optimize the performance of SCC mixes.