INVESTIGATIONS ON SELF-COMPACTED SELF-CURING CONCRETE USING LIMESTONE POWDER AND CLINKERS

Self-Compacting concrete is a type of concrete that gets compacted under its self-weight. It's commonly abbreviated as SCC and defined as the concrete which can placed and compacted into every comer of a formwork; purely means of it's self-weight by eliminating the need of either external energy input from vibrators or any type of compacting effort. Self compactability and stability are susceptible to ternary effects of chemical and mineral admixture type and their content. In this study, the effect of replacing the cement, coarse aggregate and fine aggregate by limestone powder (LP) with silica fume, quarry dust and clinkers respectively and their combinations of various proportions on the properties of SCC has been compared. Fresh properties, flexural and compressive strengths and water absorption properties of Concrete were determined. The use of SF in Concrete significantly increased the dosage of superplasticiser (SP). At the same constant SP dosage (0-8%) and mineral additives content (30%), LP can better improve the workability than that of control and fine aggregate mixtures by (5 % to 45 %). However, the results of this study suggest that certain QD, SF and LP combinations can improve the workability of SCCs, more than QD, SF and LP alone. LP can have a positive influence on the mechanical performance at early strength development while SF improved aggregate-matrix bond resulting from the formation of a less porous transition zone in Concrete. SF can better reducing effect on total water absorption while QD and LP will not have the same effect, at 28 days.