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V. KIRAN KUMAR

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E-mail:kiran_603@yahoo.com

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IV/IV B-TECH
CIVIL ENGINEERING

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aD Presenting on

Fa EFFECT OF SIZE OF AGGREGATE ON

MECHANICAL PROPERTIES OF
SELF COMPACTING CONCRETE
 ABSTRACT

Self-Compacting Concrete (S.C.C) is a concept in which the ingredients of the

concrete mix are proportioned with addition of suitable chemical and mineral admixtures
so that the concrete flows without segregation and compacts by its own weight without
any external or internal vibration. To achieve the warranted workability and compressive
strengths, compositions were designed to obtain a SCC of 30 MPa strength based on
Nan- Su method of mix design and following Okamura’s and EFNARC guidelines using
mineral admixtures like fly ash. An experimental programme has been carried out on
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SCC mixes with different sizes of aggregate ranging from 20 mm to 8 mm to study the

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effect of size of aggregate on mechanical properties of SCC. Reasonable improvement

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in the compressive strengths was observed when SCC was developed with 12.5 mm size

INTRODUCTION

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Self-Compacting Concrete (S.C.C.) has been described as “the most revolutionary

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development in concrete technology ”. S.C.C is a concept in which the ingredients of the
concrete mix are proportioned with addition of suitable chemical and mineral admixtures

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so that the concrete flows without segregation and compacts by its own weight without

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any external or internal vibrators. When the construction industry in Japan experienced a

F decline in the availability of skilled labour in the 1980s a need was felt for a concrete that
would overcome the problems of defective workmanship like compaction which effects
durability of concrete. This led to the development of S.C.C The concept was proposed
by Professor Hajime Okamura of Kochi university of Technology, Japan in 1986 as a
solution to the growing durability concerns of Japanese Government and later developed
by Professor Ozawa at the university of Tokyo. Since then S.C.C. has generated
tremendous interest among the research scholars, engineers and concrete technologists.
 The highly fluid nature of S.C.C makes it suitable for placing in difficult
conditions and in sections with congested reinforcement. The other main advantages of
using S.C.C are reduction in construction time and cost of labour, eliminating the need
for vibration, reduction in noise pollution, better surface finish, safer working
environment etc.

Self compacting concrete mixes contain relatively large quantity of powder

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(material of particle size smaller than 0.125mm) materials as these are needed to maintain

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sufficient plastic yield strength of the fresh concrete to reduce bleeding and segregation
.It also requires high performance super plasticizer to ensure sufficient fluidity and flow

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for sufficient length of time without experiencing a large slump loss. Viscosity modifying

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agents or admixtures are also added to ensure stable and fully cohesive mixtures. To

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achieve fluidity, homogeneity Okamura focused on three different aspects:

Reduction of coarse aggregate content in order to reduce the friction, or the

concrete.
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frequency of collision between the particles and increasing the overall fluidity of

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Increasing the paste content to further increase fluidity.

Managing the paste viscosity to reduce the risk of aggregate blocking when the

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concrete flows through obstacles.
To achieve this, a large quantity of finely divided inorganic material such as inert or

a apozzolanic or latent hydraulic material are added. India has an abundant supply of Fly

F Ash with its source widely distributed across the country in the form of several thermal
power stations. As fly ash has very good pozzolanic reactivity, it is taken as one of the
filler material in S.C.C. The other materials used as fillers are Ground granulated blast
furnace slag (G.G.B.S), Silica fume, rice husk ash etc.
In this paper a few of the experimental studies that are taken up to study the effect of
different sizes of aggregates and mineral admixture like fly ash on M30 grade SCC are
presented.
 MATERIALS

Cement

Ordinary port land cement of confirming to IS-12269. having specific gravity of 3.15.

Fine Aggregate

Natural river sand confirming to IS-383 zone III having specific gravity 2.63

Coarse Aggregate

Crushed granite angular aggregate of

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sizes 20mm, 16mm, 12.5mm, 10 mm & 8mm passing confirming to IS 383 having

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specific gravity 2.67.

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Mineral admixture

Fly Ash confirming to IS 3812-1981

Chemical admixtures
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Super plasticizer Conplast

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Water

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Confirming to IS 456 .

a aMIX PROPORTION

F To start with a SCC mix of strength 30 MPa was designed based on Nan Su
method of mix design, and was further modified by fine tuning the relative proportions
of fine and coarse aggregate , filler material like fly ash along with super plasticizers. The
guide lines given by Professor Okamura&Ozawa1995, Takada1998, Gibbs1999,
Boral2001, Nan. Su 2001, Subramanian2002 and EFNARC 2002&2005 were taken as
references and final SCC mix proportions were arrived.
 GUIDE LINES FOLLOWED FOR THE DESIGN OF SCC MIX PROPORTION

Coarse aggregate 28.16% of total volume of mix

Fine aggregate 44.5% of mortar volume
53.4% of total aggregate
Paste 55.5% of mortar volume
Powder 52% of paste volume
Water/Powder 0.39 by weight or0.84 by volume.

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Super plasticizer 0.5-2.0 % bwc

MIXING OF INGREDIENTS
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Cement , fine aggregate and fines were mixed and then coarse aggregate was

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added and mixed. Thoroughly Then 75 % of water was added and mixed together Then
25 % of water with Super plasticizer was added , mixed together for 5minutes. Different

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trail proportions were mixed in the laboratory and the optimum percentage of super
plasticizer for the mix for each size of coarse aggregate was determined. Thus SCC was

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produced in the laboratory for each size of coarse aggregate 20mm,16mm, 12.5mm,10

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mm and 8mm with optimum dosage of super plasticizer and fly ash without any

a asegregation

F TESTING OF SCC IN FRESH STATE

To be called as SCC the fresh concrete must have the following characteristics
Adequate fluidity, High resistance to segregation, Appropriate plastic viscosity and
sufficient deformability. These characteristics are fully described by the following
properties.
 Filling Ability : Ability to completely fill all the spaces.
Passing Ability : Ability to flow through tight places and around reinforcement.

Segregation Resistance : Ability for SCC to remain homogeneous during transportation

and placing.

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The following tests were conducted in the laboratory on fresh SCC to find Filling

shown in the table 1A.

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ability, Passing ability and Segregation resistance. The prescribed limits of the tests are

Slump flow test and T 50 cm test:

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The slump flow is used to assess the horizontal free flow of SCC in the absence

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of obstruction. The diameter of the concrete circle is the measure for the filling ability of

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the concrete. The T 50 time is the secondary indication of flow. In this the time taken for
the spread of concrete for 50 cm is noted which also indicates the filling ability.

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V Funnel and T5 min. Tests:

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In this V funnel test Concrete is poured in a V funnel ,the trap door is opened
and the concrete is allowed to flow out under gravity. Time taken for emptying is noted.

Fa This flow time is a measure for filling ability of SCC. In the T 5 min test the V Funnel is
filled with concrete, the trap door is opened after 5 minutes and time taken for emptying
is noted . If the concrete shows segregation then the flow time will increase significantly.
 This is a measure for Segregation resistance.

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V FUNNEL TEST

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L Box Test:

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to blocking by reinforcement. n
This test assesses the flow of concrete and also the extent to which it is subjected

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The apparatus consists of L shaped box with vertical and horizontal sections

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separated by a movable gate, in front of which vertical lengths of reinforcement bars are

Fa fitted. The vertical section is filled with concrete , then the gate is lifted to let the
concrete flow in to the horizontal section. When the flow is stopped the height of the
concrete at the end of the horizontal section is expressed as a proportion of that remaining
in the vertical section (H2/H1).This indicates slope of concrete when at rest . This is an
indication of passing ability.
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The horizontal section of the box can be marked at 200mm and 400mm from the

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gate and the times taken for the concrete to pass these points are measured.. These are

Tables 2&3.
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known as T20 and T40 times and are an indication for filling ability. Results are shown in

TESTING OF SCC IN HARDENED STATE

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After testing SCC in fresh state , Cubes of 10 cm size, Cylinders of 15cm

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diameter and 30cm height and prisms of 10 cm X 10 cm X 50 cm were cast and tested at
28 days in compression and tension as per IS 516 and the results are tabulated

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DISCUSSION OF TEST RESULTS

Fa 1. SCC produced with different sizes of aggregates separately with Fly Ash
shown slump flow values between 650& 700 which is a good range for flow
ability. The Time for 50 cm spread of concrete in the slump cone test i.e. T 50 time
lies between 3 to 5 sec. This shows, SCC produced with different sizes of
aggregate and fly ash show acceptable value s of T 50 time shown in table2,3.
2. V Funnel Test results shown Good range of values for the SCCs produced with
different sizes of aggregate with mineral admixture and satisfy the limits
prescribed by EFNARC specifications shown in Table1A.
 3. L Box Test results shown Good range of values for the SCCs produced with
different sizes of aggregate with mineral admixture and satisfy the limits
prescribed by the EFNARC specifications shown in Table1A.
4. SCC could be produced with different sizes of aggregates and with mineral
admixture shown in tables 1 with out the addition of VMA.
5. The compressive strengths of SCC produced with different sizes of aggregate at 3
days 7 days and 28 days are shown in tables 2.1. SCC produced with 12.5 mm
size aggregate has shown marginal improvement in strengths when compared to

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other sizes of aggregates. Also for 20 mm, 16 mm & 8 mm sizes of aggregates
have not developed the required compressive strength of 30 MPa at 28 days.

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6. Similarly 12.5 mm size aggregate have shown moderately good results when
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compared to the mixes with other sizes of aggregate.

CONCLUSIONS

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1. The study has demonstrated that SCC of acceptable Fresh Concrete Properties can

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be produced with different sizes of aggregates ranging from 20mm to 8mm with
mineral admixtures like Fly Ash without the addition of VMA and with proper

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proportioning of filler material. This reduces the cost of production of SCC.
2. The study has shown that the compressive strength of SCC at 28 days depends on

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size of aggregate.

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3. The size of aggregate also effects the tensile strength of SCC at 28 days.

F REFERENCES
1. Okamura, H. and Ozawa, K., Mix-Design for SCC, concrete library of JSCE,
Pp.107 – 120, 1995.
2. Ozawa, K. Santa, N. and Okamura H., Evaluation of self compactability of fresh
concrete using the Funnel test, concrete library of JSCE, No.25 Pp. 59 – 75, 1995.
3. Okamura H. Self Compacting High Performance Concrete – Concrete
International, Vol. 19, No.7, July 1997.
 4. EFNARC European Federation of Producers & Contractors of specialist products
for Structures.
5. Nansu, Kchsu, H.W.Chai, A simple mix design method for Self Compacting
Concrete, Cement & Concrete Research, 2001.
6. Gruneovald and Walraven 2001 parameter study on the influence of steel fibres
and coarse aggregates content on the fresh properties of SCC. Cement & Concrete
research Vol. 31, 2001.
7. Subramanians & Chattapadyaya.D, Experiments for mix proportioning of Self

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Compacting Concrete Indian Concrete Journal, Jan, 2002.
8. Okamura and Masahiro ouchi SCC : Journal of advanced concrete technology
Japan Vol. 1 No.1 April, 2003.

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9. Jagadish Vengala, Sudarshan MS, Experimental Study for obtaining Self

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Compacting Concrete, Indian Concrete Journal, Aug, 2003.

Concrete,Indian

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10. Manu Santhanam & S.Subramaniam, Current developments in Self Compacting

11.Concrete Journal, June, 2004

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TEST RESULTS OF SCC
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EFNARC Specifications Table 1A

a aName of the test Property Unit Min. Max.

F Slump flow
T 50cm Slump Flow
V- Funnel
Filling Ability
Filling Ability
Filling Ability
mm
sec
sec
650
2
6
800
5
12
V- Funnel 5sec Seg. Resistance sec 6 15
L- Box Passing Ability H2/H1 0.8 1.0
 Table 1: SCC mixes with fly ash
Designation cement C.A F.A Fly –Ash Water S.P
Kg. Kg Kg Kg Kg % bwc

F 240 700 900 240 198.5 2.50

Table 2: Fresh Concrete properties of SCC using Fly Ash

Size of Dosage
Slump Cone Test
Horizontal T 50 - Time for
V Funnel Test L Box Test

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Aggre. of S.P. T 5 min in
(mm) %
Slump
(mm)
time in
Sec
complete
discharge Sec
Sec

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20.0 2.5 670 5.0 8.0 10.0 0.80
16.0 2.5 680 4.0 8.0 10.0 0.82
12.5 2.5 695 3

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10.0 2.5 700 3.0 6.5 8.0 0.83
8.0 2.5

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690

E 3.7 6.5 8.5 0.82

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Table 2.1:Hardened Concrete properties of SCC using Fly Ash

D Cube Compressive Strength in Tensile Strength in

Size of Modulus of

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Aggregate in
N/mm 2 N/mm2 (split
tension) 28
rupture in N/m2

F mm

20.0
3 days

12.0
7 days

13.6
28 days

26.5
days
2..829
28 days

3.2
16.0 12.5 15.0 28.1 2.5 3.2

12.5 13.3 16.0 30.4 2.829 4.2

10.0 13.0 15.5 30.0 2.829 3.6
8.0 13.0 14.7 27.1 2.0 3.4