PRODUCTION AND EFFECTS OF SELF-COMPACTING CONCRETE ON VARIOUS PROPERTIES OF CONCRETE

Self-compacting (SCC) concrete is an innovative building material, which offers various advantages in construction process due to its outstanding characteristics. Both, the quality and productivity of the concrete members can be improved by using SCC. SCC essentially represents a technological shift in the production of concrete. There are obvious benefits in the use of SCC, including the reduction in noise and pollution, manual labour, energy consumption, increased speed and ease of placement. Filling ability, passing ability and resistance to segregation are the key properties of SCC. To get more knowledge about the properties of fresh and hardened SCC, an experimental work was carried out. In this experimental work, the properties of fresh, hardened and reinforced concrete of normal concrete mix and SCC were compared. Eight reinforced concrete beams with web reinforcement were cast. Testing variables was shear span to effective depth ratio (a/d). Two sets of four beams each were made for normal concrete and SCC separately. The cross-sectional dimensions were kept constant for all the beams i. e 6 x 12. However, length of the beams varied from 5 feet to11 feet. The control specimens (Concrete Cylinders of size 6” x 12”) were cast for each beam and tested at age of 7 and 28 days. For development of Self Compacting Concrete, Glenium-110 with the dose of 0.8% was used. Mix and w/c ratios were kept constant in both the cases. Mix was of 1:2:4 ratio and w/c was 0.5. No significant change in compressive strength was noted. Slump in case of normal concrete was achieved from 38mm to 24mm, but for same w/c ratio, Slump of SCC collapsed totally. To achieve the same workability of normal concrete as that of SCC, w/c ratio has to be increased upto 0.9 i.e 80% higher, which ultimately reduces the compressive strength of concrete.