An investigation of the effects of limestone powder and Viscosity Modifying Agent in durability related parameters of self-consolidating concrete (SCC)

•The SCC durability seems to be comparable to CC for equal cement paste qualities.•Powder-SCC yielded better than its equivalent CC. VMA showed an adverse effect.•Diffusion, absorption and resistivity were found to be strongly related.•SCC durability is linked with cement paste quality and distance among aggregates.•The higher the MPT, the better the durability responses of SCC mixes. This work aims to analyse and compare a number of durability related parameters including diffusivity, absorption and electrical resistivity in conventional concrete (CC) and self-consolidating concrete (SCC). Three different types of SCC were mix-designed containing different additions such as limestone powder (LSP), Viscosity Modifying Agent (VMA) and hybrid type. Two water to cement ratios were selected for this study. Eight different concrete mixes including 6 SCC and 2 CC were then fabricated and the specimens were water cured at 22°C. Results showed a better performance of SCC with powder addition while compared to CC mixtures, although a weaker performance of SCC-VMA types in comparison with CC was found. Hybrid types of SCC showed weaker performance in chloride diffusivity and porosity, although better results have been shown in resistivity. Correlation between the different durability-related parameters was studied and strong regression were extracted. Finally, the results found were correlated with the maximum paste thickness (MPT) concept which seems to demonstrate the durability parameters of SCC is linked not only with the quality of the cement paste but rather with the distance among embedded aggregate particles.