Construction and Building Materials 272 (2021) 121954

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Construction and Building Materials

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/conbuildmat

Modelling fresh and hardened properties of self-compacting concrete

containing supplementary cementitious materials using reactive moduli
Tianyu Xie a, M.S. Mohamad Ali b, Mohamed Elchalakani c, Phillip Visintin d,⇑
a
School of Engineering, RMIT University, Victoria 3000, Australia
b
School of Civil, Environmental and Mining Engineering, The University of Adelaide, South Australia 5005, Australia
c
School of Engineering, The University of Western Australia, Western Australia 6009, Australia
d
School of Civil, Environmental and Mining Engineering, The University of Adelaide, South Australia 5005, Australia

h i g h l i g h t s

Mix design approach for self-compacting concrete.

Approach includes influence of supplementary cementitious materials.

Approach based on application of reactive modulus of materials.

Calibrated on test database of 1577 tests from 102 studies.

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: In traditional mix design approaches for self-compacting concrete (SCC), the impact of the reactivity of
Received 23 August 2020 the supplementary cementitious materials is based on the definition of the SCM type. This is problematic
Received in revised form 25 November 2020 because the chemical composition, and therefore reactivity, of a given type of SCM is highly variable. As a
Accepted 5 December 2020
result, mix designs developed with a specific SCM may not be transferable to other locations where the
Available online 23 December 2020
SCM chemical composition is not the same. To address this shortcomings, in this study, a unified
approach to assess and model the fresh and hardened properties of self-compacting concrete containing
Keywords:
supplementary cementitious materials is developed based on the application of the reactive moduli,
Self-compacting concrete
Fresh properties
which is formulated using the fraction of key oxides (SiO2, Al2O3, Fe2O3, CaO, MgO) in a unary or blended
Compressive strength binder and the remaining key mix ingredients. An extensive test database containing the results of 1577
Reactive moduli tests from 102 studies on fresh and hardened properties of SCCs, including slump flow, J-ring flow, initial
Supplementary cementitious materials and final setting time, T500 time, V-funnel time, segregation resistance index and H2/H1 ratio measured
from L-box test together with the 28-day compressive strength is compiled to develop this approach. The
predicted fresh and hardened properties of SCC correlate well with the experimental results. Having
related the slump flow and the reactive moduli, the relationship between the slump flow and the other
fresh and rheological properties of SCCs are also established. Examples of applications are presented to
show how to proportion a SCC mix using the approach, and it is validated against test results not included
in the calibration set. The approach presented in this study should serve as a means for the reliable and
efficient proportioning of SCC a directly apply in engineering practices and can be applied directly in
practice.
Ó 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction without any additional vibration or consolidation efforts [1–3].

Self-compacting concrete (SCC), is a type of a high flowing con-
crete characterized by filling- and passing- ability and segregation
resistance. These properties allow SCC to spread under its own self-
weight, filling formwork and passing surrounding reinforcement
⇑ Corresponding author.
E-mail address: phillip.visintin@adelaide.edu.au (P. Visintin).
Self-compacting concretes are widely utilized in cast-in-situ sce-
narios for high-rise buildings and heavily reinforced structures
to: facilitate constructability and improve structural performance,
shorten the construction period, minimise labour costs, and reduce
noise pollution by eliminating the need for vibration and
consolidation.
The binder of self-compacting concretes is commonly produced
using supplementary cementitious materials (SCM) blended with

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.conbuildmat.2020.121954
0950-0618/Ó 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
T. Xie, M.S. Mohamad Ali, M. Elchalakani et al. Construction and Building Materials 272 (2021) 121954

OPC. This ensures an adequate quantity of cementitious materials 3. predict the fresh and hardened properties of self-compacting
is available to achieve the particle packing necessary to achieve concrete using the newly defined reactivity index;
the required physical, mechanical and durability-related properties 4. provide a unified approach for designing mix proportion of self-
of the concrete, and further, that the financial and environmental compacting concrete.
impacts of SCC manufacture are minimised [4,5]. Unlike OPC which
To achieve these aims in the remainder of the paper the under-
has little variation in chemical composition, the properties of SCMs
lying principles of the approach, including those of the reactivity
and their performance in concrete binders vary widely because
moduli and reactive index are introduced. A large database con-
they are often natural materials or the by-products of other indus-
taining 1577 SCC mixes using unary or blended binder is then con-
trial processes [5,6]. This variation means that mix designs devel-
structed to calibrate a model for the variation in slump flow.
oped using locally-available materials may not be transferrable
Having related the slump flow to the reactive moduli, the relation-
to other locations because of the variability in the chemical
ships between the slump flow and other fresh properties of SCCs,
makeup of the SCC binder. This is particularly the case when
including: flowability, passing ability, filling ability, ability to resist
blended binders are used. As a result, multiple trial-tests with
segregation, and yield stress are then established. The reactive
varying types and proportions of SCM replacements are required,
moduli are then applied to predict the initial and final setting time
and this process can be time-consuming and cost-intensive.
and 28-day compressive strength of SCCs. Finally, an example is
The majority of existing approaches for evaluating the hardened
presented to show how to use the method to proportion a SCC
properties of SCC and mix design methods are only based on results
mix meting a set of target properties.
of individual or limited experiment campaigns [7,8], consequently,
It is envisaged that the outcomes of this study will provide a
the widespread transferability of these models can be limited.
tool to assess and predict the fresh and hardened properties of
Moreover, the rheological properties of SCCs are simply linked with
self-compacting concrete containing SCM based on the chemical
the content of water and chemical admixtures within the mix [9,10]
composition of the available binders. This, in turns provides an effi-
meaning that the variation in mix viscosity due to the early-stage of
cient approach to proportion preliminarily mixes that can be used
chemical reaction in the mix is entirely neglected. This is significant
as a baseline for conducting further trials to refine properties. Sig-
because it has been reported that a partial replacement of OPC by
nificantly, this should reduce the need to undertake multiple-trial
SCM leads to alterations of the rheological properties because of
tests to design mix proportion of SCCs, improve the transferability
the different chemical makeups of the SCM to that of OPC.
of the research outcomes of existing and future studies on SCCs,
Owing to its pozzolanic nature but lower hydraulic reactivity
and promote and standardise the usage of SCCs. It is also worth
compared to OPC, the use of fly ash (FA) as OPC replacement in a
highlighting that although the proposed models are calibrated
SCC leads to a change in yield stress of the mix. This variation in
using extensive experimental data, unlike other data-driven
yield stress is observed to be non-linear, with a low content of
approaches, that presented here is based on the calibration of
fly ash having a small impact of yield stress, and a high dosage con-
expressions are formulated around the physical and chemical pro-
siderably increasing yield stress [11–13]. Because it’s self-
cesses that are known to occur.
cementing capacity is lower than that of OPC, the use of GGBFS
to replace OPC in SCCs was found to generally improve rheological
properties. For instance, an increased GGBFS content led to a 2. Principles of the reactivity moduli and reactive indices
decreased plastic velocity of the mix [12–15]. The rheological prop-
erties of SCC have been widely reported to be adversely influenced The typical hydration process of an OPC based cementitious
by the inclusion of SF. This is mainly because SF contains a high paste in its fresh stage can be studied using its calorimetry curve,
proportion of SiO2 (>85% by weight), which increases the water an idealisation of which is shown in Fig. 1. It can be seen from
demand [1,13,16]. Together, these findings related to FA, GGBFS the curve that at the beginning of the initial period, heat is gener-
and silica fume indicate the importance of considering the effects ated by the dissolution of cementitious materials as soon as water
of the chemical composition of each material in a blended binder is introduced to the binder, also at this stage, OPC based pastes
in addition to the overall mix proportions when predicting the begin to flow [20]. Following the introduction of water, a short
properties of fresh concrete. induction period occurs, in which compatibility of the ingredients
To address the above-mentioned shortcomings, a reliable within the paste is achieved; the paste then progressively sets and
approach with a strong physical meaning is required to analyse gradually develops its early strength in the following acceleration
and model the properties of SCCs at different stages. In the previ-
ous studies [6,17,18], the authors have shown that it is possible
to develop a single unified mix design approach to predict the
Early
hardened mechanical properties of blended OPC/SCM binders and
strength
alkali activated binders based on reactivity moduli formulated
development
Heat evolution

using the fraction of oxides (SiO2, Al2O3, Fe2O3, CaO, MgO) in each
binder material. Although previously focused only on predicting
compressive strength, it can be expected that the properties of
fresh concrete can also be modelled and assessed using reactive Sulfate balance
moduli because the rate/degree of chemical reactions and the
aggregate packing in SCC associated with binder proportion are Final setting
also a result of the chemical composition [12,19]. Hence in this
paper, the reactive moduli approach is further extended to model
the fresh and hardened properties of SCCs. The specific objectives
of this study are to: Initial setting

1. quantify the effect of binder reactivity on the slump flow of self-

compacting concrete; Hydration history (time)
2. establish the relationships between the slump flow and the
other rheological properties of self-compacting concrete; Fig. 1. Hydration history of OPC (calorimetry curve).

2
T. Xie, M.S. Mohamad Ali, M. Elchalakani et al. Construction and Building Materials 272 (2021) 121954

Table 1
Descriptions of reactivity moduli of cementitious materials.

Reactivity modulus Descriptions Type of reactivity Functions

European standard for cement and GGBFS (RM) Represent alkalinity of binders Hydraulic activity Control CaO contents and avoid free lime
formation
Silica Ratio/Silica modulus (SM) Represent calcium silicates content in Pozzolanic activity Controls the relation between silicate phases
binder (C3S, C2S) and interstitial phases (C3A, C4AF)
Alumina Ratio/Alumina modulus (AM) Represent aluminate and ferrite Pozzolanic activity Relates to the viscosity of the liquid phase
phases in binder formed

and retardation stages [20]. This process implies that the chemical The reactivity of each blended binder is then determined by
reaction (mainly hydration) in an OPC-based paste not only con- evaluating the weighted average moduli as follows:
trols the hardened properties of the concrete but also strongly Pn
influences the fresh properties. It is therefore suggested that an i¼1 ðRM i
 wr%Þ
RM ¼ ð4Þ
approach based on the reactive moduli for modelling the fresh 100%
properties of SCCs is feasible. Pn
As reported in [5,6], SCMs have widely varying chemical com- i¼1 ðAM i
 wr%Þ
AM ¼ ð5Þ
position due to differences in their types and sources. Fig. 2 illus- 100%
trates a ternary (CaO + MgO)-SiO2-(Al2O3 + Fe2O3) diagram (wr %
Pn
i¼1 ðSM i
 wr%Þ
based) that indicates the range of chemical makeups for different
types of cementitious materials that are commonly used in SCCs.
SM ¼ ð6Þ
100%
It is evident from this figure that a wider variation in chemical
In which RM represents the hydration reactivity of the overall
composition occurs for SCMs compared to the relatively narrow
blended binders, RMi, represents the hydration reactivity of each
range for OPC.
individual binder, and wr% is the weight fraction of each individual
For SCCs produced using OPC blended with SCMs, it is difficult
binder. The blended binder reactivity (c) can be defined using a
to generalize the results of individual experimental campaigns
weighted modulus comprising an indicator of hydraulic and poz-
because of the variability in the reactivity of each blended binder.
zolanic activities:
To quantify the reactivity of each individual cementitious materi-
als, Xie and Visintin [6] proposed that indices based on the relative W 1 RM þ W 2 AM þ W 3 SM
proportions of the reactive oxides: reactivity modulus (RM) (Eq. c¼ ð7Þ
w=b
(1)); silica modulus (SM) (Eq. (2)) and; Alumina modulus (AM)
(Eq. (3)) can be used. Descriptions of these moduli are summarized where W 1 ,W 2 and W 3 are the empirical coefficients.
c
in Table 1. Finally, the reactive index (RI ¼ w=b) of a unary or blended bin-
CaO þ MgO þ Al2 O3 der, is defined based on the binder reactivity (cÞ and the w/b ratio
RM ¼ ð1Þ which is known to strongly control both the strength and worka-
SiO2
bility of concretes. As the chemical reaction of OPC in concrete ini-
SiO2 tiates when the binder makes initial contact with water, it is
SM ¼ ð2Þ expected that the reactive index can also be used as a reliable
Al2 O3 þ Fe2 O3
parameter for both the fresh and hardened properties of SCCs.
Al2 O3 It is worth noting that Na2O and K2O are the two alkalis in the
AM ¼ ð3Þ chemical composition of the cementitious materials that form poz-
Fe2 O3
zolanic reactions with SiO2 and Al2O3 and subsequently influence
the fresh and hardened properties of SCC. In the present approach,
these two oxides are not included in the definition of the reactive
moduli because: 1) the quantities Na2O and K2O are rarely reported
SiO2 in current studies, leading to significant challenges in obtaining
OPC
0 100 FA-F
sufficient calibration data; and 2) only traces of Na2O and K2O exist
FA-C in the total binder of SCC (the weight fraction of each of them is
10 90
GGBFS commonly lower than 2%), compared to the non-negligible content
20 80 SF of the five selected oxides that formulate the reactive moduli.
MK
30 70 POFA
RHA 3. Experimental database of sccs with a unary or blended binder
40 60
NP
50 50 BA To identify the essential mix design parameters for SCCs with
blended binders an extensive literature review on SCCs was under-
60 40
taken to establish a database correlating the fresh and hardened
70 30 properties of a large variety of mix designs with the corresponding
Pozzolanic reactions
&
chemical composition of the binders. The complete database con-
80 Slower later strength 20
CaO
Al2O3
tained in the supplementary material includes 1577 unique SCC
+ 90
Hydraulic reactions
10 + mix designs compiled from 102 individual studies
&
MgO Faster early strength Fe 2O3
100 0
[1,2,9,10,15,21–117] covering a wide range of cementitious mate-
0.00 10.00 20.00 30.00 40.00 50.00 60.00 70.00 80.00 90.00 100.00 rials including: OPC, fly ash, silica fume, metakaolin (MK), palm
oil fuel ash (POFA), bagasse ash (BA), natural pozzolan (NP) and
Fig. 2. Ternary diagram of cementitious materials. rice husk ash (RHA) which are used as both unitary and blended
3
T. Xie, M.S. Mohamad Ali, M. Elchalakani et al.
binders. When selecting the experimental results for constructing
the database, the following criteria were applied:
1. Detailed chemical composition of binder materials must have
been provided;
2. Mix proportions of SCCs must have been reported in detail;
3. Concrete produced using superfine materials such as nano-
particles (e.g. [118,119] are considered outside of the scope of
this study;
4. SCMs must be included in the binder;
5. SCC mixes containing reactive and artificial aggregates are
excluded;
6. Fresh properties of SCCs should be measured following interna-
tional standards and those using novel or modified approaches
(e.g. [120,121]) are excluded;
7. The concrete must have been cured under a standard condition;
and
8. Compressive strength of concrete is established using the stan-
dard cubic test specimen with an aspect ratio of one or cylindri-
cal specimens with an aspect ratio of two.
The resulting database is split into three parts: detailed mix
design and associated information of the mix constituents, the
chemical composition (weight fraction of the oxides) and physical
properties (i.e. Blaine fineness and specific gravity) of the binders,
and the physical properties and specifications of superplasticizers
used in each mix.
The SCC mix designs in the database include a unitary or
blended binder, mixing water, water reducing agent (i.e. superplas-
ticizer), coarse and fine natural aggregates and micro-fillers. Note
that the physical properties and specifications of aggregates and
micro-fillers, including their type, nominal maximum size, fineness
modulus, specific gravity, and water absorption, are also collected.
The ranges of mix proportion as either as a volume ratio (vr) or as a
weight ratio (wr) are shown in Fig. 3(a) and the fresh properties of
the SCCs made from these mixes, including slump flow (S), J-ring
flow (J), initial and final setting time (Ti and Tf, respectively),
T500 time, V-funnel time, segregation resistance index (SI) and
H2/H1 ratio measured from L-box test are shown graphically in
Fig. 3(b) to (d). The physical and mechanical properties of SCCs
in their fresh and hardened stages, including yield stress, plastic
viscosity and 28-day compressive strength (fc) are illustrated in
Fig. 3(e).
The chemical composition of the cementitious materials mak-
ing up each binder is reported in terms of the weight ratio of the
critical oxides in Table A1 in the supplementary material and also
plotted in the (CaO + MgO)-SiO2-(Al2O3 + Fe2O3) diagram in Fig. 2
to show their ranges. The constituents and physical properties of
the water reducing agent used in each SCC are summarized in
Table A2 in the supplementary material. It can be seen from
Table A2 that two major types of SP are commonly used in SCC
mix, namely Polycarboxylic ether based- or Sulphonated Naptha-
lene Polymers (SNP) based- superplasticizer. The term ‘effective
water-to-binder ratio’ (w/b) shown in Fig. 3(a) is defined as the
actual amount of water in a concrete that was available for reaction
with the binders. Note that the amount water used to calculate
effective water-to-binder ratio also included the water compo-
nents of water reducing agents (i.e. superplasticizer) and viscosity
modifying agents (VMA), both of which are commonly used in a
SCC mix in high proportions to enhance the flow characteristics
of the concrete. It should be noted that the detailed formulations
of the commercially available chemical admixtures in each SCC
are scarcely reported, and as a result it is difficult to directly quan-
tify their influences (particularly their effects on particle dispersion
in fresh concrete mixes). However, superplasticizers and VMAs
typically contain 60 to 70% water (by weight) and hence where
4
Construction and Building Materials 272 (2021) 121954
the comprehensive information of the chemical admixtures are
not given, 65% of the superplasticizer and VMA weight was added
to the mixing water weight to calculate the ‘effective water-to-
binder ratio’ for the mix. It is also worth mentioning that in the fol-
lowing calibration process, micro-fillers are considered as inert and
therefore are only considered as part of the total finer aggregate
content. This assumption affects the value of the proposed mixing
parameters, namely, paste volume fraction and coarse to fine
aggregate (CA/FA) volumes ratio.
4. Unified approach for modelling and assessing fresh and
hardened properties of SCCS
For a SCC mix with OPC as the primary binder, to which other
types of SCMs are blended, the three parameters most strongly
influencing the fresh and hardened properties of SCC are:
1) Binder reactivity combined with the w/b ratio, because these
two factors drive hydration and pozzolanic reactions [5,6]
2) Paste volume, which acts to disperse solid phases (particu-
larly coarse aggregates), and therefore affects the fresh prop-
erties of the concrete and the aggregate packing offered by
the cementitious paste also influences the hardened proper-
ties of the concrete [54,122,123]
3) Characteristics of aggregates in terms of their fraction, grad-
ing and nominal maximum size. These parameters affect the
workability of the concrete in the fresh state and the homo-
geneity of the matrix of a concrete in the hardened state
[124–126]. The interactions among the coarse aggregate
particles contributes to the overall strength of a concrete
[122,127].
It should be further mentioned that not all the phases in OPC
and SCMs are reactive. However, the availability of data to quantify
the degree of reactivity of each binder is highly limited, likely
because of the time-consuming and complex nature of the neces-
sary experiments. Hence in the present study, all the materials in
SCC binder are assumed to be fully reactive. Using this approach,
the effect of the inert proportion of the binder is captured as part
of the calibration process, and this approximation is likely the
cause of some of the variation between the predicted and experi-
mental results. In the following section, the influence of each
parameter on the fresh and hardened properties of SCC is
investigated.
4.1. Unified model for modelling slump flow of SCC
In previous studies of SCC mix design the liquid proportion of
the mix has commonly been treated as the most critical factor
affecting the fresh properties of the concrete, hence prior to inves-
tigating the impact of binder on slump, the effect of the effective
water-to-binder ratio is investigated.
Fig. 4(a) shows the relationship between the w/b and the
slump flow of SCC, the global trend line fitted through this data
indicates that there is a weak correlation between the slump flow
and the w/b ratio when only these two parameters are consid-
ered. This indicates that the use of the w/b alone to model slump
flow will lead to poor predictive ability and that it cannot fully
capture the factors controlling flowability of SCC. This is mainly
due to alterations of flowability and viscosity of fresh SCC mixes
by: incorporating different supplementary cementitious materi-
als, increasing the paste volume, and reducing the amount of
coarse aggregate. This finding highlights the importance of con-
sidering the effects of binder reactivity, paste volume fraction
T. Xie, M.S. Mohamad Ali, M. Elchalakani et al. Construction and Building Materials 272 (2021) 121954

8 2000

(w.r.)
1500 (min)
(min)
4 (v.r.) 1000 (mm) (mm)

500
(w.r.) (v.r.) (w.r.)

0 0
w/b Paste volume Ca to FA Liquid to SP to binder Intial setting Final setting Slump flow J-ring flow
volume ratio podwer ratio ratio time time

(a) (b)
100 2

(s)

(s)
50 1

0 0
T500 time V-funnel time Segregation resistance L-box H2/H1 ratio
(c) (d)
400
350 (Pa·s)

300
250
(Pa)
200
(MPa)
150
(MPa)
100
50
0
Cylindrical fc
Cylindrical Cubic
7 Yield stress Plastic
28-day fc 28-day fc viscosity

(e)
Fig. 3. Statistics of the main database: a) critical mixing parameters; b) fresh properties of SCC I; c) fresh properties of SCC II; d) fresh properties of SCC III; e) hardened
properties of SCC.

and coarse-to-fine aggregate in addition to the w/b ratio when
modelling the slump flow of SCC.
Fig. 4(b) illustrates the influence of the reactive index on the
slump flow of SCCs and shows a linear correlation between the
slump flow of SCCs and RI. The slump flow is observed to
decrease slightly with increasing RI, indicating that the slump
flow of SCC is not only associated with the dispersion of solids
by the fluid phase, but is also strongly related to the rate of
chemical reaction in concrete which is in turns driven by the
mineral composition and quantity of binder (which also affects
the viscosity of paste phase). Based on a regression analysis the
coefficients W1, W2 and W3 used in RI for modelling the slump
flow are reported in Table 2. From the statistics of fit in the fig-
ures and summarized in Table 2, it can be seen that the inclusion
of reactivity moduli in the model improves its performance and
also provides a better connection with the physical phenomena
responsible for observed behaviour.
5
It is known that when in its wet state the cementitious paste
acts to lubricate solid aggregates, thereby enhancing the dispersion
of aggregates and improving the flowability of SCCs [13,128]. This
effect can be studied by evaluating the paste volume fraction in a
SCC. The influence of binder packing of aggregates on the slump
flow of SCCs is shown in Fig. 4(c), and it can be seen that the slump
flow normalized by RI increases with an increase in the paste vol-
ume fraction (PV).
In addition to RI and PV, the grading of solid phases (aggregates)
also influences slump flow because an increase in aggregate size
leads to an increase in aggregate-to-aggregate interactions (colli-
sion and friction) [125,129,130]. Fig. 4(d) shows the variation in
the slump flow normalized by RI and PV with coarse-to-fine aggre-
gate volume ratio (CA/FA) and it is observed that the slump flow
decreases with an increase in the CA/FA volume ratio. This observa-
tion is expected, and can be attributed to the detrimental effect of
the interactions among the coarser parts of the aggregates due to
T. Xie, M.S. Mohamad Ali, M. Elchalakani et al. Construction and Building Materials 272 (2021) 121954

1200 1200
Data=1466 Data=1466
Mean=1.03 Mean=1.01
Slump flow (mm) w/b SD=0.017 SD=0.015

Slump flow (mm)

AAE=0.098 AAE=0.085
900 MSE=81.3 900 MSE=76.3

600 600

300 300
0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 0 5 10 15 20
Effective water-to-binder ratio (w/b) Reactive index (RI)

(a) (b)
2 2
Data=1231
Mean=1.01
Normalized slump flow

Normalized slump flow

SD=0.014
1.5 1.5 AAE=0.082
RMSE=0.106

1 1

Data=1322
0.5 Mean=1.01 0.5
SD=0.013
AAE=0.083 8 to 11 11 to14 14-17
RMSE=0.108 17 to 20 20 to 23 >23
0 0
0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0 0.5 1 1.5 2
Paste volume ratio Coarse-to-fine aggregate volume ratio
(c) (d)
Fig. 4. Unified model for slump flow of SCC: a) relationship between slump flow and effective w/b ratio; b) relationship between slump flow and RI; c) relationship between
normalized slump flow and paste volume; d) relationship between normalized slump flow and coarse to fine aggregate volume ratio.

Table 2
Statistics of fit for models.

Method W1 W2 W3 SD Mean AAE RMSE

Slump flow 0.81 0.001 0.235 0.015 1.01 0.08 76.3
Initial setting 1.58 0.073 0.002 0.101 1.07 0.23 121
Final setting 1.58 0.073 0.002 0.085 1.06 0.21 138
fc-cyl (using w/b + ) 1.69 0.072 0.001 0.292 1.17 0.39 14.8
fc-cube (using w/b + ) 1.69 0.072 0.001 0.104 1.08 0.24 16.2

their angular nature, resulting in more collisions and friction
among the aggregate particles, which prevents the flow of SCC
[131,132].
Combining the individual observations in Fig. 4(a) to (c) yield
the unified model for predicting the slump flow of SCCs:
Slumpflow ¼ ð705  1:82RIÞð0:34PV þ 0:88Þð1:06
 0:77CA=FAÞ
The statistics of fit summarized in Table 2 indicates that the
proposed approach well reproduces the slump flow of SCCs. It is
worth mentioning that there is significant vertical scatter in
Fig. 3(a) to (c) which can be explained by the following. Firstly,
environmental conditions such as relative humidity and ambient
air flow and temperature influence the rheological properties of
SCCs - this information has rarely been reported in the published
works and hence cannot be considered in the current model. Sec-
ondly, a detailed composition of inert parts of cementitious mate-
rials, superplasticizers and VMA have scarcely been provided,
hence the effects of these constituents can only be partially mod-
elled. Finally, the physical properties of binders, coarse and fine
aggregates, including their fineness, shapes, gradings, texture,
angularity, were difficult to identify from existing studies.
Having developed an approach to predict the slump flow, it will
now be used as a baseline to establish the other critical fresh prop-
erties of SCCs, including J-ring flow, H2/H1 ratio measured from L-
box test, segregation index, T500, V-funnel time and rheology.
4.2. J-ring flow
ð8Þ
J-ring flow is measured for each SCC to evaluate its ability to
pass between adjacent reinforcement. The relationship between
J-ring flow and slump flow is shown in Fig. 5(a) and suggests a
strong linear relationship between them.
A further investigation shown in Fig. 5(b) indicates that the CA/
FA volume ratio and maximum nominal aggregate size also slightly
influences the J-ring flow, with an increase in coarse aggregate vol-
ume fraction and increasing maximum nominal aggregate size
resulting in a minor decrease in J-ring flow. These observations
indicate that the presences of coarse aggregates in a SCC mix hin-
ders the flow of the concrete and hence it is necessary to reduce
6
T. Xie, M.S. Mohamad Ali, M. Elchalakani et al. Construction and Building Materials 272 (2021) 121954

1000 5
Data=262
Mean=1.02

normalized J-ring flow

4 SD=0.042
J-ring flow (mm)
AAE=0.153
800 RMSE=0.451
3

Data=262
Mean=1.01 2
600 SD=1.02
AAE=0.054 1
RMSE=32.7 8 to 11 mm 11 to14 mm 14 to 17 mm
17 to 20 mm 20 to 23 mm >23 mm
400 0
400 600 800 1000 0 1 2 3
Slump flow (mm) Coarse to fine aggregate volume ratio

(a) (b)
Fig. 5. Relationship between: a) J-ring flow and slump flow; b) normalized J-ring flow and coarse to fine aggregate volume ratio.

the proportion of coarse aggregates in a SCC mix to attain desirable
workability, which is in agreement with the specifications of
designing the mix of SCCs [93,111,133]. As shown in Fig. 5(b), in
general, a slight overestimation of the passing ability of SCC con-
taining the coarse aggregate with larger particle size is observed
(>14 mm), while the passing ability of the SCC containing the
coarse aggregate with a smaller particle size (<14 mm) is underes-
timated. This is can be explained by the fact that the larger coarse
aggregate has a higher tendency to collide with the reinforcements
compared to its counterparts with smaller size, which subse-
quently leads to a reduction in the passing ability of SCC when
using coarse aggregate with a larger size. Note that the dispersion
of data points shown in Fig. 5(b) could be attributed to the diver-
sity of the coarse aggregate qualities in terms of their shape index,
surface roughness and strength, these properties are rarely
reported in the literature and therefore cannot be accounted for
here.
ity within a given time interval, while SCCs with slump flow lower
than 680 mm underwent different levels of blocking.
The general expression given in Fig. 6(a) shows that, below the
threshold identified (slump flow ¼ 680 mm), the H2/H1 ratio is
directly proportional to the corresponding slump flow and follows
a linear trend. The plot shown in Fig. 6(b) further indicates that the
CA/FA volume ratio also affects the H2/H1 ratio, with increasing CA/
FA volume ratio causing a slight decrease in the H2/H1 ratio. It is
known that the filling ability of SCCs mainly depends on the flow
of the concrete under its own weight [133,134]. The reduction in
the filling ability of SCCs with an increase in the CA/FA can be
explained by the fact that the increased proportion of coarse aggre-
gates increases the tendency of concrete being blocked by rein-
forcement. No significant relationship between the maximum
nominal aggregate size and the H2/H1 ratio is observed.
4.4. Segregation index

4.3. H2/H1 ratio measured from L-box test
Filling and passing abilities of SCCs can also be assessed using
the H2/H1 ratio measured from L-box test. The relationship
between the H2/H1 ratio and the corresponding slump flow is
shown in Fig. 6(a) in which it can be seen that highly-flowable SCCs
(i.e. with slump flow  680 mm) also exhibit superior passing abil-
The sieve segregation test is a method of evaluating the ability
of the paste in a SCC to prevent separation of solid particles (partic-
ularly coarse aggregates) in the mix, and the segregation index (SI)
obtained from this test is an essential indicator of the segregation
resistance ability of a SCC. Fig. 7(a) presents the relationship
between the segregation indices of SCCs with the corresponding
slump flows, in which it is observed that a highly flowable SCC

2 3
Data=782 8 to 11 mm 11 to14 mm Data=782
Mean=1.06 14 to 17 mm 17 to 20 mm Mean=1.02
Normalized H2/H1 ratio

SD=1.17 20 to 23 mm >23 mm SD=0.030

AAE=0.128 AAE=0.107
RMSE=0.122
(S 2 RMSE=0.138
H2/H1 ratio

0 0
400 600 800 1000 0 1 2 3
Slump flow (mm) Coarse to fine aggregate volume ratio

(a) (b)
Fig. 6. Relationship between: a) H2/H1 ratio and slump flow; b) normalized H2/H1 ratio and coarse to fine aggregate volume ratio.

7
T. Xie, M.S. Mohamad Ali, M. Elchalakani et al. Construction and Building Materials 272 (2021) 121954

150 8

Normalized segregation index

Data=488 8 to 11 mm 11 to14 mm Data=464
Segregation Index (%) Mean=1.15 14 to 17 mm 17 to 20 mm Mean=1.50
SD=10.71 SD=6.44
6 20 to 23 mm >23 mm
AAE=1.01 AAE=0.930
100 RMSE=11.13 RMSE=0.854

50
2

0 0
400 600 800 1000 0 1 2 3
Slump flow (mm) Coarse to fine aggregate volume ratio

(a) (b)
Fig. 7. Relationship between: a) SI and slump flow; b) normalized SI and coarse to fine aggregate volume ratio.

exhibits a reduced ability to resist particle segregation. This is (a) 14

mainly due to the presence of high proportions of liquids used in Data=707
mix designs to attain higher slump flows, which in turn results
in bleeding of water and settlement of coarse particles. As reported
in [135,136], the presence of aggregates in a SCC mix also signifi- T500 (s)
cantly affects the segregation resistance of the concrete and the
SI is relatively sensitive to aggregate properties. However, due to 7
the considerably larger variation in physical properties of coarse-
and fine- aggregates, the influences of aggregate properties on seg-
regation resistance of SCCs cannot be directly seen using the data
collected in Fig. 7(b), this is because the information relating to
the gradings and other physical properties of the coarse aggregate
are yet fully available. 0
400 600 800 1000
Slump flow (mm)
4.5. T500, V-funnel time and rheology of SCCs
(b)
The viscosity of SCCs can be determined by either measuring 0.02
the time taken for the concrete to reach 500 mm slump flow or Data=707
the time taken for the concrete to flow completely through a V-
Normalized T500 (s)

shaped funnel. Due to the wide variation in testing apparatus

(i.e. geometry of V-funnels and surface friction of flow table made
of different materials), the surrounding environment (i.e. relative
humidity and ambient temperature) and the time at which the test
was conducted following the end of water the degree of chemical
reaction in concrete cannot be tightly controlled. It is therefore dif-
ficult to estimate the exact time taken for a SCC reaching 500 mm
slump flow or that taken for a SCC to pass a V-funnel using the cor-
responding slump flow of the concrete.
Using the relevant results reported in the database, it is evident 0
from Figs. 8(a) and 9(a) that, in general, the T500 time or the time 0 0.5 1 1.5 2
measured for passing V-funnel of a SCC correlates strongly with its
Coarse to fine aggregate volume ratio
corresponding slump flow. Furthermore, as shown in Figs. 8(b) and Fig. 8. Relationship between: a) T500 time and slump flow; b) T500 time and
9(b), it is also observed that the increased CA/FA volume ratio in a coarse to fine aggregate volume ratio.
SCC mix adversely affects the viscosity of the concrete in terms of
the prolonged time used for concrete to reach 500 mm slump flow
or to completely pass the V-funnel. This finding can be simply
attributed to the increased tendency for direct frictional contact size, a SCC with higher slump flow exhibits a lower yield stress, this
and collision between coarse aggregate particles in a fresh SCC to relationship between the two properties has been previously well-
increase the resistance of the concrete to flow [27,137]. recognized [13,139]. For SCCs with a similar slump flow, their yield
The measurement of rheological properties of SCCs can be gen- stress increases with an increase in the nominal maximum aggre-
erally expressed using Bingham’s model [138], which is character- gate size due to the previously noted increase in the tendency for
ized using yield stress/shear stress (minimum stress required to direct frictional contact and collision between coarse aggregate
initiate or maintain the flow of SCCs) and plastic viscosity (to resist particles with larger size.
the flow of SCCs when the yield stress is generated). Fig. 10(a) Since the ranges of PV (0.372 to 0.411) and CA/FA volume ratio
depicts the relationship between yield stress and its corresponding (0.89 to 1.02) of the datasets used for this assessment are rather
slump flow. It can be seen from Fig. 10 that for a given aggregate narrow, the effect of aggregate characterization in term of the
8
T. Xie, M.S. Mohamad Ali, M. Elchalakani et al. Construction and Building Materials 272 (2021) 121954

(a) 100 these mixing parameters on the rheological characterization of

Data=791 SCC is identified, as shown on Fig. 10(b).
V funnel time (s)

75 4.6. Unified approach for modelling initial and final setting time of
SCCs

50 As indicated on the calorimetry curve of a cementitious paste in

Fig. 1, the initial and final setting time of the material is strongly
related to the rate of hydration and pozzolanic reactions, which
25 can be indirectly modelled using the RI. Note that hardening of
paste phase, which is driven by the chemical reaction between
mixing water and binder, predominates the setting of concrete,
0 whereas the inert phases (i.e. micro-filler, fine and coarse aggre-
400 600 800 1000 gates) have an insignificant effect on the initial and final setting
Slump flow (mm) time of the concrete, although a minor thermal effect may occur.
(b) Fig. 11(a) and (b) illustrates the variations in initial (Ti) and final
0.1 setting time (Tf) of SCCs with RI normalized using PV, respectively.
Normalized V funnel time (s)

Data=791
0.05
0
0 0.5 1 1.5
Coarse to fine aggregate volume ratio
Fig. 9. Relationship between: a) V-funnel time and slump flow; b) normalized V-
funnel time and coarse to fine aggregate volume ratio.
nominal maximum aggregate size on yield stress is simply due to
the higher internal cohesive stress required to resist the higher
direct fractional contacts of aggregates with larger particle size
and hence to drive the flow of SCCs. The relationship between
the yield stress and plastic viscosity of a fresh SCC (rheograph) is
widely adopted to assess the influential rheological parameters
[13]. As shown in Fig. 10(b), no clear trend can be seen globally
between the yield stress and plastic viscosity. However, when sort-
RI
ing the SCCs using the critical parameters proposed, including PV
and nominal maximum aggregate size, the combined effects of
It is observed that both the initial and final setting time of SCCs
increase with increasing RI, which indicates a SCC produced using
a binder with a higher reactivity and a lower w/b ratio undergoes
faster setting. Note that the significant scatter in this relationship
is due to the diversity of the surrounding environment (i.e. relative
humidity and ambient temperature) which has rarely been
reported in the literature. The coefficients for RI (i.e. W1, W2 and
W3) used for modelling the initial and final setting time of SCCs
are summarized in Table 2 and the statistics of fit presented in
the same table suggest that the proposed approach can
adequately-predict the initial and final setting time of SCCs.
2 2.5
4.7. Unified approach for modelling 28-day compressive strength of
SCCs
The reactive moduli have also been successfully applied to
model the mechanical properties of conventional concrete with
OPC blended SCMs as binders [6] and further extended to recycled
aggregate concrete with OPC blended SCMs as binders [17] to show
its reliability and universality. The same approach is now utilized
to model the hardened mechanical properties of SCCs (i.e. 28-day
compressive strength).
Fig. 12(a) to (d) shows the completed modelling process of 28-
day cubic and cylindrical compressive strength of SCCs using the
unified approach. As shown in Fig. 12(a) and (b), respectively, as
expected, there is a strong linear correlation between the reactive
index (RI) and 28-day compressive strength of SCCs, where the
general expression of the model is given in each figure for the

300 250
8 to 11 mm
14 to 17 mm 200
Yield stress (Pa)
Yield stress (Pa)

200 17 to 20 mm
20 to 23 mm 150
Increased maxium
aggregate size 100 16 to 20
100 20 to24
50 24 to 28
28 to 32
0 0
300 600 900 1200 0 100 200 300 400 500
Slump flow (mm) Plastic viscosity (Pa.S)
(a) (b)
Fig. 10. Relationship between: a) yield stress and slump flow; b) yield stress and plastic viscosity.

9
T. Xie, M.S. Mohamad Ali, M. Elchalakani et al. Construction and Building Materials 272 (2021) 121954

2000 2000
Data=170 Data=170
Mean=1.07 Mean=1.06
Initial setting time(min)

Final setting time (min)

SD=0.101 SD=0.085
1500 AAE=0.228 1500 AAE=0.207
RMSE=121 RMSE=138

1000 1000

500 500

0 0
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 0 10 20 30 40 50 60
RI/PV RI/PV
(a) (b)
Fig. 11. Unified model for initial and final setting time of SCC: a) relationship between initial setting time and RI/PV; b) relationship between final setting time and RI/PV.

(a) (b)
28-day compressive strength (MPa)

28-day compressive strength (MPa)

200 200
Cubes Cylinders
Data=885 Data=347
Mean=1.08 Mean=1.17
150 SD=0.104 150 SD=0.292
AAE=0.244 AAE=0.393
RMSE=16.2 RMSE=14.8
100 100

50 50

0 0
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40
Reactive index (RI) Reactive index (RI)
(c) (d)
Normalized compressive strength

3 3
Normalized compressive strength

Data=1232 Data=1012
Mean=0.966 Mean=0.966
SD=0.127 0.083CA/FA-0.922 SD=0.127
AAE=0.318 AAE=0.318
2 RMSE=0.419 2 RMSE=0.419

1 1

0 0
0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5
Paste volume ratio Coarse-to-fine aggregate volume ratio
Fig. 12. Unified model for 28-day compressive strength of SCC: a) relationship between cubic fc and RI; b) a) relationship between cylindrical fc and RI; c) relationship
between normalized fc and paste volume; c) relationship between normalized fc and coarse to fine aggregate volume ratio.

28-day cubic and cylindrical compressive strength of SCCs, and the phase reduces the aggregates interactions, leading to a lower com-
coefficients for RI (i.e. W1, W2 and W3) used for modelling the com- pressive strength of SCCs [122,127].
pressive strength of SCCs are presented in Table 2. The effect of Finally, as shown in Fig. 12(d), the normalized compressive
paste volume on the compressive strength of SCCs is then shown strength of SCCs using RI and PV increases slightly with increasing
in Fig. 12(c) which illustrates that the normalized compressive CA/FA volume ratio and this is attributed to the improved interac-
strength predicted using the RI initially increases with an increase tion (i.e. friction) between coarse aggregate particles in a SCC mix,
in PV and then decreases when the PV exceeds a threshold (i.e. which improves the compressive strength of the concrete. The gen-
around 0.38), where the general expression is also presented in eral expressions of the models for 28-day cubic and cylindrical
the figure. This observation is also expected and can be explained compressive strength of SCCs are then given as:
as follows: initially, the increased paste fraction offers better
f ccube ¼ ð2:76RI þ 23Þð6:4PV 2 þ 5:4PV  0:1Þð0:083CA=FA
aggregates packing, resulting in a higher compressive strength of
SCCs, after exceeding the threshold, the extensive amount of paste  0:922Þ ð9Þ

10
T. Xie, M.S. Mohamad Ali, M. Elchalakani et al. Construction and Building Materials 272 (2021) 121954

f ccylinder ¼ ð2:28RI þ 14Þð6:4PV 2 þ 5:4PV  0:1Þ

 ð0:083CA=FA  0:922Þ ð10Þ
The statistics of fit provided in Table 2 indicates that the pro-
posed approach well-reproduces the slump flow of SCCs but as dis-
cussed in Section 4.1, a small degree of the dispersion between the
experimental and compressive still exists.

4.8. Example of application

In order to provide an example of the application of the pro-

Fig. 13. Procedure of developing mix design of SCC using the proposed approach.
posed method to develop mix proportion of SCC, mix designs of
SCC with blended binders reported in references [140–142] are
used. The flow chart in Fig. 13 outlines the procedure for using
the proposed unified model to design a concrete with a prescribed
28-day compressive strength. This includes determinations of the
w/b ratio, paste volume fraction, and CA/FA ratio for a given type
and dosage of SCMs.
As shown in the flow-chart, starting with a known chemical
composition of the OPC and SCMs (provided in Table 3 for the
example mixes as reported in the recent publications on SCC
[140–142] and whose mix proportions are summarized in Table 4),
as well as an imposed SCM replacement ratio, the reactivity moduli
of each blended binder can be obtained using Eqs. (1) - (6). Follow-

Table 3
Chemical composition of cementitious materials for model validations.

Anjos et al. 2020 Falmata et al. 2019 Nagaratnam et al. 2019

OPC Fly ash Meta-kaolin OPC Fly ash Silica fume OPC Fly ash POFA
(% by weight) (% by weight) (% by weight) (% by weight) (% by weight) (% by weight) (% by weight) (% by weight) (% by weight)
SiO2 19.9 48.6 47.0 16.2 51.8 96.0 16.3 55.0 57.8
Al2O3 4.4 23.8 37.1 3.5 26.5 0.1 4.2 24.5 2.3
Fe2O3 3.5 7.9 1.3 2.9 8.5 0.6 3.5 7.1 9.6
CaO 62.9 3.1 0.1 70.9 4.8 0.1 69.0 4.2 3.6
MgO 1.8 2.1 0.2 0.8 1.1 0.2 1.7 2.0 1.4
Na2O 0.8 0.2 0.3 0.7 0.1 0.1 0.3 0.6
K2O 3.8 2.0 0.6 3.3 0.4 1.0 3.9 3.5

Table 4
Mix proportions of SCC for model validations.

Specimen Cement Fly ash GGBFS Silica Kaolinitic POFA Filler Coarse Fine Water SP
series (kg/m3) (kg/m3) (kg/m3) fume material (kg/m3) (kg/m3) aggregate aggregate (kg/m3) (kg/m3)
(kg/m3) (kg/m3) (kg/m3) (kg/m3)
Anjos et al. 2020 C500 500 880 870 200
Anjos et al. 2020 B500.FA 200 300 880 870 170
Anjos et al. 2020 B500.FAHL 200 300 25 880 870 170
Anjos et al. 2020 B500.FAM 150 250 100 880 870 170
Anjos et al. 2020 B500.FAMHL 150 250 100 25 880 870 170
Anjos et al. 2020 B400.FA 160 240 916 1034 140
Anjos et al. 2020 B400.FAHL 160 240 20 916 1034 140
Anjos et al. 2020 B400.FAM 120 200 916 1034 140
Anjos et al. 2020 B400.FAMHL 120 200 20 916 1034 140
Falmata et al. 2019 100%OPC 587.5 837 796.33 188 15.28
Falmata et al. 2019 75%PC-25% FA 440.62 146.9 837 734.5 188 11.75
Falmata et al. 2019 65%PC-25%FA-10%SF 381.88 146.9 58.75 837 713.38 188 14.69
Falmata et al. 2019 50%PC-40%FA-10%SF 293.75 235 58.75 837 675.75 188 15.86
Falmata et al. 2019 40%PC-50%FA-10%SF 235 293.8 58.75 837 651.37 188 15.69
Falmata et al. 2019 25%PC-65%FA-10%SF 146.88 381.9 58.75 837 614.27 188 16.16
Nagaratnam et al. 2019 Control 540 600 400 550 205.2 5.94
Nagaratnam et al. 2019 FA10 486 54 600 400 550 205.2 4.32
Nagaratnam et al. 2019 FA20 432 108 600 400 550 205.2 4.05
Nagaratnam et al. 2019 FA30 378 162 600 400 550 205.2 3.564
Nagaratnam et al. 2019 FA40 324 216 600 400 550 205.2 3.564
Nagaratnam et al. 2019 POFA10 486 54 600 400 550 205.2 5.94
Nagaratnam et al. 2019 POFA20 432 108 600 400 550 205.2 5.94

(continued on next page)

11
T. Xie, M.S. Mohamad Ali, M. Elchalakani et al. Construction and Building Materials 272 (2021) 121954

Table 4 (continued)

Specimen Cement Fly ash GGBFS Silica Kaolinitic POFA Filler Coarse Fine Water SP
series (kg/m3) (kg/m3) (kg/m3) fume material (kg/m3) (kg/m3) aggregate aggregate (kg/m3) (kg/m3)
(kg/m3) (kg/m3) (kg/m3) (kg/m3)
Nagaratnam et al. 2019 POFA30 378 162 600 400 550 237.6 6.48
Nagaratnam et al. 2019 POFA40 324 216 600 400 550 237.6 7.56
Nagaratnam et al. 2019 TNY10 486 27 27 600 400 550 205.2 5.94
Nagaratnam et al. 2019 TNY20 432 54 54 600 400 550 205.2 5.94
Nagaratnam et al. 2019 TNY30 378 81 81 600 400 550 205.2 5.94
Nagaratnam et al. 2019 TNY40 324 108 108 600 400 550 205.2 5.94

2 2
Data=29 Data=29
R2=0.829 R2=0.712
1.5 +10% 1.5 +10%
Mod/Exp

Mod/Exp
1 1

0.5 -10% 0.5 -10%

0 0
0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6
Effective water-to-binder ratio-exp Paste volume-exp

(a) (b)
2 2
Data=29 Data=15
R2=0.788 R2=0.732
1.5 +10% 1.5 +10%
Mod/Exp

Mod/Exp

1 1

0.5 -10% 0.5 -10%

0 0
0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 1.2 1.4 1.6 500 600 700 800
CA/FA ratio-exp Slump flow (mm)

(c) (d)
Fig. 14. Comparison between actual and designated SCC mixing factors and properties: a) w/b ratio; b) paste volume; c) CA/FA ratio; and d) slump flow.

ing this, the w/b ratio of the proposed mix can be determined using
the expressions given in Fig. 12(a) or (b) depending on the type of
specimen used for compressive strength test (i.e. cubic or cylindri-
cal strength). Next, using the established RM of the blended binder,
w/b ratio and the targeted compressive strength, the paste volume
and CA/FA ratio can be calculated using the expressions given in
Fig. 12(c) and (d), respectively. The calculated mix proportions
for the designated SCCs are reported in Table 5 and compared to
the corresponding experimental data. The comparisons, as also
graphically depicted in Fig. 14(a) to (c) indicate the proposed
method is able to properly reproduce the mix proportions of a
SCC. The designated mixing ratios are further utilized to predict
the slump flow of the SCC mixes via the models presented in
Fig. 4(b) to (d). A comparison of the designed and the actual slump
flow values are summarized in Table 5 and also illustrated in
Fig. 14(a) to (d). The statistics shown in the figure shows that the
12
slump flow values designed using the proposed approach are in
good agreement with the actual values.
5. Conclusions
This study has presented a unified modelling approach for the
prediction of fresh and hardened properties of SCCs. A comprehen-
sive database containing 1577 mix designs reported in 102 studies
and covering a wide range of parameters including binder
constituents, proportion of binders, coarse and fine aggregates,
micro-fillers, effective mixing water, superplasticizers, and binder
reactivity indices was assembled via an extensive literature review.
The effect critical mix design parameters on the fresh and hard-
ened properties of SCCs have been identified and used as the basis
of a statistical analysis to develop a unified approach using the
T. Xie, M.S. Mohamad Ali, M. Elchalakani et al.
reactive moduli in conjunction with paste volume fraction and
coarse to fine aggregate volume ratio to predict the fresh and hard-
ened properties of SCCs, including the slump flow (S), initial (Ti)
and final (Tf) setting time and 28-day compressive strength.
The developed models developed have been shown to be able to
predict the selected fresh and hardened properties of SCC and
hence have addressed the shortcomings of the existing mixing
design methods for SCC which do not consider binder reactivities
thereby increasing the scatter of predictions. In addition, by utiliz-
ing the reactivity moduli of a SCC binder, the effects of other key
mix design factors including water-to-binder ratio, paste volume
fraction, coarse-to-fine aggregate ratio and maximum aggregate
size, on the rheological properties of the concrete, including the
J-ring flow, H2/H1 ratio from L-box test, segregation index, T500
time, V-funnel time, yield stress and plastic viscosity, can also be
assessed and qualified. Following these, a SCC mixing design
approach is provided to show the examples of applying the devel-
oped unified approach. Validation of the results using the newly
published results other than those in the present database indicate
that the proposed method can properly design the SCC mix propor-
tion to achieve the targeted fresh and hardened properties.
In addition to the key findings concluded above, the collection
and the assessment of the large experimental database also high-
lighted limitations in current reporting practices for studies report-
ing mix design of SCC. That is, a lack of information regarding:

The content of reactive phase in each cementitious material,

the chemical, properties of the admixtures (water content),

the physical properties of aggregate (grading, shape, angularity)

environmental conditions (temperature and humidity) while
mixing and testing wet properties
makes it difficult to improve the accuracy of mix design
approaches. It is therefore suggested that future research should
focus on quantifying the impact of these properties.
CRediT authorship contribution statement
Tianyu Xie: Conceptualization, Methodology, Formal analysis,
Writing - original draft, Writing - review & editing, Visualization.
M.S. Mohamad Ali: Writing - review & editing, Supervision.
Mohamed Elchalakani: Conceptualization, Writing - review &
editing. Phillip Visintin: Conceptualization, Methodology, Writing
- original draft, Writing - review & editing, Visualization, Supervi-
sion. : .
Declaration of Competing Interest
The authors declare that they have no known competing finan-
cial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared
to influence the work reported in this paper.
Appendix A. Supplementary data
Supplementary data to this article can be found online at
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.conbuildmat.2020.121954.
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