Influence Of Admixtures and Water/Binder Ratio Upon the Strength of Self-Compacting Concrete

Abstract

Self-Compacting concrete is a special type of concrete that has spread widely over the past three decades due to its distinctive properties. such as good compactness and not require for compaction or vibration; in addition to providing the required strength. However, the spread of this type of concrete is still limited and requires more researches. This research aims to study the effect of the water to binder ratio on the properties of self-compacting concrete produced using local materials with the stability of the plasticizer ratio in all mixtures.

Seven mixtures were prepared, one of which is an ordinary concrete mixture and the remaining six are self-compacting concrete mixtures with variable water/binder ratios from 0.489 to 0.28 and fixed plasticizer ratio equal to 1% of the cement weight. The results showed the possibility of using local materials to produce a self-compacting concrete mix design. For the ratio of w/b = 0.308 (water / binder ratio), it was possible to obtain a characteristic cylindrical compressive strength (F’c) equivalent to 52MPa at the age of 28 days, while providing the required fresh properties of self-compacting concrete.
It was also found that the ratio of the compressive strength (F’c) after 7 days to the resistance after 28 days is inversely proportional to the value of the ratio of water to the binder from 71% to 84%.