STRENGTH AND TIME-DEPENDENT DEFORMATIONS OF SILICA FUME CONCRETE FOR USE IN BAHRAIN

The present work contains the results of an investigation of high-strength concrete mixes with and without silica fume used recently in the Arabian Gulf region. The study investigates the efficiency of silica fume in influencing the compressive strength, drying shrinkage and compressive creep of high-strength concrete at constant laboratory conditions. The silica fume and plain concrete mixes used in this investigation had the same workability and water to cement ratio achieved by using a superplasti-cizing admixture. The results indicate that the compressive strength of silica fume concrete is 18.3% higher than plain concrete at an age of about 1 month. Shrinkage and creep of plain concrete were considerably reduced by using silica fume, given a 1 month reduction in strain of 34.9% and 18.5% for shrinkage and creep, respectively, leading to a reduction in the total deformation of 20.8%. Thus, concrete made with silica fume as a part of the cementitious material is useful for various concrete structural applications, especially for prestress concrete members where prestress losses are mainly influenced by creep and shrinkage, and an increase in concrete strength at an early age is desirable.