Experimental durability evaluation of self-compacting concrete with limestone filler (invited paper)

Although SCC is a very promising cementitious material, the actual application of SCC might be somewhat riskful due to a lack of knowledge concerning its actual durability. The degradation mechanisms of a cementitious material are greatly influenced by the permeability of the material for potentially aggressive media and there is an important interaction between ‘pore structure’, ‘transport mechanism’ and ‘degradation’. The permeability itself is strongly influenced by the pore structure of the material. Furthermore, the ongoing degradation process might have an influence on the pore structure of the material. As the pore structure might be different for SCC in comparison with traditional concrete, due to the difference in composition, some changes in durability behaviour might occur . At this moment however, it is unclear how significant these differences will be with regard to the concrete practice. A fundamental bottle neck in this discussion is the lack of fundamental insight in the transport behaviour of potentially aggressive media in SCC. As the concept of SCC is totally different from traditional concrete, traditional models cannot be extrapolated as such without any verification. This is already illustrated by the experimental and theoretical investigation of hydration, carried out at the Magnel Laboratory for Concrete Research. According to (1) the hydration models valid for traditional concrete have to be altered when applied to SCC.