Construction and Building Materials 47 (2013) 340–346

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Construction and Building Materials

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Effect of paste amount on the properties of self-consolidating concrete

containing fly ash and slag
Yuan-Yuan Chen a, Bui Le Anh Tuan b, Chao-Lung Hwang c,⇑
a
Department of Architecture, Hwa-sha Institue of Technology, 1, Gongjhuan Rd., Zhonghe Dist., New Taipei City, Taiwan
b
Department of Civil Engineering, Can Tho University, Campus II, 3/2 Street, Ninh Kieu District, Can Tho City, Viet Nam
c
Department of Construction Engineering, National Taiwan University of Science and Technology, 43, Keelung Rd., Sec. 4, Taipei 106, Taiwan

h i g h l i g h t s

 Effect of paste amount on the properties of concrete.

 Densified mixture design algorithm for mix proportion.
 The proper paste amount the better the workability and the less the workability loss.
 The amount of cement paste and water should be minimized as low as possible for good quality feature.

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

Article history: The objective of this paper is to compare the performance of concrete containing fly ash and slag under
Received 27 January 2013 different water-to-cementitious materials ratios and different cement paste content. The densified
Received in revised form 18 April 2013 mixture design algorithm (DMDA) was applied in the concrete mix design. Concretes designed by DMDA
Accepted 4 May 2013
with excellent flow-ability and without bleeding and segregation were obtained. The proper paste
amount the better the workability and the less the workability loss. On the basis of sufficient paste
amount condition, the study discovers that the less the cement paste amount as well as the denser the
Keywords:
blended aggregate, the lower the early-age compressive strength will be, on the contrary, the higher
Fly ash
Slag
the long-term compressive strength becomes. To design of good quality concrete, the amount of cement
Densified mixture design algorithm (DMDA) paste and water should be minimized as low as possible to obtain the high ultrasonic pulse velocity.
Paste amount Ó 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Strength
Ultrasonic pulse velocity

1. Introduction
Nowadays, five requirements including workability, safety,
durability, economy and ecology, should be put together for
success in concrete industry. First of all, using too much water
results in higher possibility of bleeding and segregation, which is
not favorable for strength development, interface strength, volu-
metric stability [1] and durability [2]. To attain better workability,
the addition of superplasticizer (SP) is one of the strategies en-
abling the use of less water [3]. Replacing cement partially with
pozzolanic materials can also lower the hydration rate. The
amount of paste needed can be minimized by controlling the gra-
dation of aggregates [4,5]. Secondly, the safety of concrete depends
on the water-to-cementitious materials (w/cm) ratio (cementitious
materials including cement and pozzolans) for medium and
⇑ Corresponding author. Tel.: +886 2 27353950; fax: +886 2 27354893.
E-mail addresses: blatuan@ctu.edu.vn (B.L.A. Tuan), mikehwang@mail.ntust.
edu.tw (C.-L. Hwang).
long-term strength and the water-to-solid (w/s) ratio for its long-
term properties. Thirdly, long-term performance is expected to
be better because of a pozzolanic reaction that converts soluble
alkali into more stable C–S–H gel [6,7]. Durability is a very impor-
tant property of concrete and many studies have found that the use
of an excessive amount of cement, and hence water, will result in
high permeability which will have a negative effect on the quality
[3,4,8]. Calcium hydroxide from the cement hydration may cause
sulfate attack, leaching and precipitation, which is harmful to the
concrete. A simple way to increase durability is to reduce the water
content and cement content. In addition, decreasing the amount of
cement used will reduce hydration heat and volume change [9].
Fourthly, as far as cement paste is concerned, the content of expen-
sive cement needed can be reduced. The life of concrete may be
prolonged because of improved durability. Another mean to
achieve economy is to employ the cheap indigenous resources
and recycling materials, such as fly ash and slag. In addition, con-
crete with good workability may make construction work easier,
thereby reducing the labor and cost involved. Last but not least,

0950-0618/$ - see front matter Ó 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.conbuildmat.2013.05.050
 Y.-Y. Chen et al. / Construction and Building Materials 47 (2013) 340–346 341

using less cement reduces energy consumption and CO2 emissions
during the production process. Taken together, it is clear that the
performance of concrete relies heavily on the appropriate amount
of paste used. To achieve better performance, chemical admixture
and pozzolanic materials as well as the low water content and low
amount of cement paste should be used. This view point seems to
be conflicted with traditional viewpoint that concrete having high
strength and better durability require low water-to-cement ratio
and low amount of water in its mix design. Therefore, the behavior
of paste amount containing pozzolanic materials should be fully
understood.
The role of paste amount on the properties of concrete has long
been a matter of interest of researchers. Most of investigators have
reported that the higher the volume of the paste, the lower the
strength of comparable concretes of identical water-to-cement ra-
tio (w/c) [10–13]. The maximum paste thickness (MPT) concept
[11] which was defined as the maximum distance between adja-
cent coarse aggregates has been used to explain the reasons for this
effect. When the amount of the paste is higher, the amount of the
aggregates is less. This leads to the higher MPT and hence the ma-
trix strength becomes lower. Recently, the effect of paste volume
and water content on the strength and water absorption of con-
crete without mineral admixtures having the same effective
water-to-cement ratio (Wef/C) ratio has been researched by Kolias
and Georgiou [10]. In 2007, Rozière et al. [13] have studied the
influence of paste volume on shrinkage cracking and fracture prop-
erties of self-compacting concrete having additive of limestone fil-
ler. Leemann et al. [14] have researched on the influence of paste
volume and binder type on the stress–strain-behavior of self-con-
solidating concrete (SCC) and conventionally vibrated concrete
(CVC) with identical aggregate type and size distribution and iden-
tical w/c but with a difference in paste volume of about 150 l/m3
and in aggregate content of about 400 kg/m3. They have concluded
that compressive strength of CVC was higher due to the higher
amount of cement paste and the lower amount of aggregate in
the SCC mixtures, even at 2-day age. However, three above studies
just have recorded the effect until the age of 28 days.
It is deemed by the classical concrete mixture proportion that
aggregates are the main skeleton of concrete, and the paste
requirement for workable concrete is determined by the gradation
of aggregate. In practice, it is found that the maximum packing
density of aggregate is advantageous for making concrete regard-
ing to workability, necessary strength, stiffness, creep, shrinkage,
of aggregate. Concrete with high amount of fly ash content requires
longer periods of time to develop strength due to the slow hydra-
tion reaction of fly ash. Only 20% of fly ash reacts after 90 days
[6]. The early-age strength (514 days) of the fly ash concrete mix-
tures with 40% of fly ash or higher were less than the control mix-
ture. However, at later age (=56 days), fly ash concrete mixtures
with 60% of fly ash and less have similar or higher compressive
strength than the control mixture [15]. The chemical composition
of slag consists mainly of calcium aluminosilicate and iron oxide.
Therefore, it can be called slag cement. Slag will act hydraulically
in concrete as a partial replacement for Portland cement. Similar
to fly ash, due to the low hydration reaction high slag cement con-
crete has low strength at early ages [6].
The aim of this research is therefore to reach a clearer under-
standing of the effect of paste volume containing fly ash and slag
in the strength and quality of concrete, from which the densified
mixture design algorithm (DMDA) [16–18] was applied for con-
crete mix-design.
2. Materials and experimental methods
2.1. Materials
Type I Portland cement, Class F fly ash (FA), and ground granulated blast-
furnace slag (GGGBS) conforming to ASTM C150, ASTM C618 and ASTM 989, respec-
tively, were used in this study. The physical properties and chemical compositions
of these materials are given in Table 1. Crushed coarse aggregate (Dmax 12.7 mm,
density 2.64, water absorption capacity 0.91% and unit weight 1507 kg/m3) and nat-
ural sand (modulus of fineness 2.95, density 2.64, absorption capacity 1.2% and unit
weight 1649 kg/m3) were provided from local quarries. The mixing water was local
tap water. Type-G superplasticizer, having 43% solid content with specific gravity of
1.18, was used to achieve the desired workability for all concrete mixtures.
2.2. Mixture proportions
The DMDA method is developed from the hypothesis that the physical proper-
ties will be optimum when the physical density is high. The major difference from
the other mixture design algorithms is that instead of partial replacement of ce-
ment, DMDA incorporating fly ash is used to fill the void of aggregates and hence
increase the density of the aggregate system. The purpose of such action is to re-
duce the cement paste content for design properties such as workability, strength,
and workability. As a result, besides physical acting as filler, fly ash acts chemically
as a pozzolanic material.
The maximum weight ratio amax of blended sand and fly ash can be expressed
as the Eq. (1):
wF
amax ¼ max a ¼ ð1Þ
wF þ wS

permeability, and durability. The idea of packing density gradually where wF and wS is the weight of fly ash and sand, kg/m3, respectively.
substitutes for the rich mixture of a large amount of cement and Then, the blended fly ash and sand mixture at a fixed ratio of amax is used to fill
the void within coarse aggregates. Using a similar process, the maximum dry, loose
has a greater importance for making flowing high performance
density of blended aggregates can be obtained from the plot of blended coarse
concrete (HPC) or SCC than others. Theoretically, under maximum aggregate and fly ash/sand mixture. The weight ratio bmax at the maximum dry,
packing density of aggregate, concrete requires only very little ce- loose density can be expressed as the Eq. (2):
ment paste to glue aggregate together for better strength. There- wF þ wS
bmax ¼ max b ¼ ð2Þ
fore, an assessment of the influence of paste amount on the wF þ wS þ wca
properties of concrete under the maximum packing density of
aggregate concept is needed in order to gain a better understand-
ing of this influence.
Table 1
The pozzolanic materials play important roles in the properties Chemical analysis and physical properties of cement and pozzolans.
of concrete from micro structure, chemical and physical point of
Items Cement Fly ash Slag
view. Fly ash has been widely used in concrete industry as impor-
tant supplementary cementitious materials and is now an impor- Fineness (cm2/g) 3310 3110 4350
tant ingredient of HPC and SCC because of the availability of fly Specific gravity 3.15 2.18 2.88

ash. Fly ash with spherical shape improves the workability of fresh Chemical composition (wt.%)
concrete due to the ball bearing effect at low addition of about 5– SiO2 22.01 51.23 34.86
Al2O3 5.57 24.31 13.52
20% and affects the volume stability of hardened concrete. A large Fe2O3 3.44 6.14 0.52
amount of fly ash is not helpful in workability without the addition CaO 62.80 6.28 41.77
of other chemical admixture due to its low density, but if at proper MgO 2.59 1.61 7.18
proportions it will be quite helpful to reduce the problems of bleed- SO3 2.08 0.61 1.74
Free CaO 1.05 – –
ing and segregation. Also due to its spherical ball in shape, fly ash
TiO2 + Na2O + K2O + V2O5 1.75 – –
buoys the aggregate, and therefore minimizes the settlement rate
342 Y.-Y. Chen et al. / Construction and Building Materials 47 (2013) 340–346

where wca is the weight of coarse aggregate, kg/m3.At the point of maximum density,
the aggregate structure of fly ash, sand and coarse aggregate is assumed to be com-
pletely packed using the hand-dry rodding method according to the ASTM C29 stan-
dard. From this, the void volume (Vv) among aggregates can be calculated and the
minimum cement paste volume (Vp) can be estimated as Eq. (3). When considering
the Vp for real concrete production, it is necessary to multiply a coefficient (n) to ac-
count for a lubricated layer (VL = S  t) on the surface of the aggregate (S) in order to
achieve the workability of concrete.
 X wi 
Vp ¼ Vv þ S  t ¼ n  Vv ¼ n 1  ð3Þ
ci
where S is the surface area of aggregates, m2; t is the thickness of lubricating paste on
the surface of aggregate, lm; Vv is the smallest void among aggregates, m3; wi is the
weight of aggregate, kg/m3; and ci is the density of aggregate, kg/m3.
Due to the difficulty in a measure of S  t, it is suggested for convenience’s sake
that various nVv coefficients be tried to obtain the required workability. Thus the
water-to-binder ratio (w/b) is calculated as following:
w w þ sp
¼ ð4Þ
b c þ wF þ wSl
where w is the water content, kg/m3; sp is the superplasticizers, kg/m3; c is the ce-
ment content, kg/m3; wF is the fly ash content, kg/m3 and wSl is the blast furnace slag
content, kg/m3.
The amount of blast furnace slag is 5% of the weight of cement. The dosage of sp
was determined through previous experiment and the workability of the concrete
from a trial batch. Mixture proportioning algorithm of the method is shown in
Appendix A.
2.3. Testing program
The mixture proportions designed by DMDA and ACI 211.1 are listed in Table 2.
The concrete mixtures in this investigation were calculated with a water-to-cemen-
titious ratio (w/cm) of 0.32 and 0.40. For DMDA method, the paste amount values
(n = Vp/Vv): 1.2, 1.4, 1.6, 1.8 and 2.0 were investigated for w/cm of 0.32, while those
of w/cm of 0.40 were 1.1, 1.3 and 1.5. For ACI method, only two mixtures (A32 and
A40) without superplasticizer and pozzolanic materials were tested for comparison.
Slump and slump flow spread of concrete specimens were controlled to meet
the SCC requirement which is 230–270 mm and 500–700 mm, respectively. Initial
and 45-min slump and slump flow were monitored. The concrete cylinders with
dimension of £100  200 mm were used for the compressive strength, and ultra-
sonic pulse velocity tests. The specimens were cured in saturated limewater at
the temperature of 23 ± 2 °C. The compressive strength test was done according
to ASTM C39. Since the degree of saturation of the concrete affects the ultrasonic
pulse velocity (UPV), all specimens were tested in the saturated surface dry condi-
tion to evaluate the test results under the same conditions. The UPV test was con-
ducted according to ASTM 597. The tests for hardened concrete were carried out at
the age of 3, 7, 14, 28, 56 and 91 days.
3. Results and discussion
3.1. Correlations between mix design parameters
Table 3 shows the relationship between mix design parameters
such as water-to-cement ratio (wef/c), water-to-solid ratio (wef/s),
fly ash to cementitious materials ratio (F/CM) and pozzolanic mate-
rials to cementitious materials ratio (P/CM). Theoretically, the
paste amount of a concrete is defined as the sum of the amount ce-
ment, water, mineral and chemical admixtures [13]. It was ob-
served that for each w/cm ratio, increasing n value leads to lower
wef/c ratio. In contrary, the greater paste amount, the higher wef/s
ratio will be. Both F/CM and P/CM ratios decrease with an increase
of n value.
3.2. Workability
Workability is the ability of concrete mixture at plastic state to
fill the form/mold without bleeding and segregation. Good work-
ability leads to the formation of a denser concrete while the unit
weight can be used to identify the densification of concrete. The
aggregate is suspended within the HPC to improve high flowability
while no bleeding and segregation problems. By addition of SP, the
surface area of aggregate could be well coated by cement paste
without sedimentation. The properties of fresh concrete including
the workability are not only an important factor affecting the plac-

Table 2
Mixture proportions, kg/m3.

Mix Paste amount (n) w/cm Water SP, % Sand Stone Cement FA GGBFS
H3212 1.2 0.32 140 3.7 988 766 318 161 17
H3214 1.4 0.32 163 2.8 929 726 388 151 20
H3216 1.6 0.32 188 1.9 869 674 459 141 24
H3218 1.8 0.32 213 1.0 810 628 529 132 28
H3220 2.2 0.32 237 0.5 750 581 599 122 32
H4011 1.1 0.40 154 2.0 921 897 219 175 12
H4013 1.3 0.40 178 1.3 870 847 280 166 15
H4015 1.5 0.4 200 1.2 818 797 342 156 18
A32 – 0.32 196 0 635 954 613 0 0
A40 – 0.40 218 0 664 875 545 0 0

Table 3
Relationship among the parameter of mixture proportions.

Mix n wef (kg/m3) wef cor (kg/m3)a wtotal (kg/m3)b Paste amount (m3/m3) wef (c) wef/s (%)c F/CM (%)d P/CM (%)e
H3212 1.2 140 150 178 0.35 0.47 6.7 32.5 35.9
H3214 1.4 163 172 198 0.39 0.44 7.8 27.0 30.6
H3216 1.6 188 195 219 0.42 0.42 9.0 22.6 26.4
H3218 1.8 213 217 240 0.46 0.41 10.2 19.2 23.2
H3220 2.0 237 239 260 0.50 0.40 11.5 16.2 20.5
H4011 1.1 154 159 186 0.33 0.74 7.3 43.1 46.1
H4013 1.3 178 181 207 0.37 0.66 8.5 36.0 39.3
H4015 1.5 200 203 228 0.40 0.60 9.7 30.2 33.7
A32 – 196 196 218 0.39 0.32 8.9 0.0 0.0
A40 – 218 218 240 0.40 0.40 10.5 0.0 0.0
a
wef cor = Effective water corrected = wef + amount of water in SP.
b
wtotal = Total water = wef cor + water absorbed by aggregates.
c
wef/s = wef/the sum of the amount of all solid materials.
d
F/CM = (weight of fly ash)/(total weight of cementitous materials).
e
P/CM = (weight of fly ash and slag)/(total weight of cementitous materials).
 Y.-Y. Chen et al. / Construction and Building Materials 47 (2013) 340–346 343

ing, vibration and finish of concrete works, but also the concrete since more amount of cement paste is required for the conven-
properties after final setting. tional concrete to acquire initial workability. This is due to a large
Slump and slump flow of fresh concretes are shown in Table 4. amount of cement used in the conventional concrete, and conse-
Concretes designed by DMDA method with excellent flow-ability quently the hydration of cement will cause significantly workabil-
were obtained. High-slump flowing concretes were achieved with- ity loss.
out bleeding or segregation. Initial slump varied between 220 mm
and 270 mm. Slump flow ranged from 385 mm to 715 mm. After
3.3. Compressive strength of concretes
45 min, the slump would be in range of 135–275 mm, and the
slump flow will be 210–730 mm. The examinations of the unit
The development of compressive strength under varied w/c ra-
weight in Table 3 reveal that the higher the unit weight, the higher
tios and paste amount is shown in Figs. 1 and 2. The results from
the amount of aggregates, and hence the lower paste amount. It
Fig. 1 show that at early stage (<28 days), the concretes in both
also shows that the higher the pozzolanic materials content of
w/cm ratio values with less paste amount and high w/c lead to
the concrete the better the workability and the less the workability
smaller early compressive strength due to the employment of a
loss. The reason is due to the good packing density of aggregate
large amount of fly ash (higher F/CM ratio) and high dosage SP. This
and proper amount of pozzolanic materials used in concrete mix-
is the result of the relatively slow pozzolanic reaction of fly ash. But
tures. In addition, fly ash addition plays an important role in com-
after 56 days, these with low paste content will gradually develop
pacting the void within aggregates and hence minimizing the
compressive strength through the pozzolanic reaction of fly ash
required paste amount for lubricating the aggregate particles. Fur-
with Ca(OH)2 from hydration of cement. This is due to the fact that
thermore, the spherical shape of fly ash act as bearing ball that re-
the addition of pozzolanic materials as filler of aggregate in con-
duces the friction force within aggregates besides the surface
crete is physically not only helpful to promote the packing density
action of SP. In comparison, the slump and slump flow of the con-
of aggregate but also chemically improves the interface transition
ventional concrete is significantly lower than that of concretes. In
zone properties through pozzolanic reaction. This reaction con-
addition, the loss on concrete workability of the conventional con-
verts calcium hydroxide (total amount about 20%) of cement paste
crete is higher than that of concretes designed by DMDA method
to form low density C–S–H gel that will contribute to long-term
performance of concrete. Therefore, after 91-day age the strength
of concretes with paste content of 0.35 m3 and 0.33 m3 is higher
Table 4 than that with 0.5 m3 and 0.40 m3 for w/cm of 0.32 and 0.40
Workability of concrete. (Fig. 2), respectively, because of the slow growth of compressive
Mixture Slump, mm Slump flow, mm Unit weight (kg/m3) strength of concretes due to the pozzolanic reaction. The trend
t0 min. t45 min. t0 min. t45 min.
conflicts with other studies. The vibrated concrete mixtures with-
out pozzolanic materials [10], owing to more cement paste amount
H3212 250 255 575 565 2408
in the mix, have quicker compressive strength, even after 28 days.
H3214 270 275 715 730 2388
H3216 250 240 570 410 2367 The opposite trend was also reported in SCC case [13,14].
H3218 245 180 425 210 2347 The study also proves that if concrete contains sufficient paste
H3220 220 135 385 255 2325 amount, the higher the unit weight of concrete is, the high the
H4011 230 225 455 450 2388
compressive strength it will have. It is because using the pozzola-
H4013 240 220 605 530 2364
H4015 255 210 675 355 2339
nic materials (fly ash, slag) properly, the density of concrete will in-
A32 75 40 370 203 2398 crease while the porosity decreases. Generally, when the weak
A40 95 45 375 203 2302 interface zone between aggregate and paste of the concrete is re-
duced, the strength of the concrete may be increased. For example,

Fig. 1. The development of compressive strength of concrete during 91 days with different water-to-cement ratios.
344 Y.-Y. Chen et al. / Construction and Building Materials 47 (2013) 340–346
Fig. 2. The development of compressive strength with various paste amounts.
under the condition of the same water to binder ratio and sufficient
paste amount, the more densified the concrete is, the higher com-
pressive strength at 28-day will be. In other words, under the same
w/cm ratio, only a small amount of cement pastes which is used to
bind and cover aggregates is sufficient to achieve a good concrete
quality. The idea to improve concrete strength by manipulating
the effect of filling and pozzolanic reaction is different from the
conventional idea by only increasing the cement paste amount.
In comparison, at the same paste amount, the mixture propor-
tion of concretes designed by DMDA method with w/cm of 0.32
has lower compressive strength than concretes without any pozzo-
lanic materials (OPC concretes) at early ages; however, at later
ages, it exceeds that of control concretes as shown in Fig. 2. The
compressive strength at age of 56 and 91 days has been 1.07 and
1.16 times higher than that of OPC concretes, respectively. The rea-
son could lie in the efficiency of fly ash and slag reactions which
Fig. 3. Variation of compressive strength with fly ash to cementitious materials
ratio (F/CM) or pozzolans to cementitious materials ratio (P/CM) for both w/cm
ratios at 91 days.
are getting meaningful following the increase of time. In the other
hand, at w/cm of 0.40, the compressive strengths of concretes de-
signed by DMDA method are lower than that of OPC concretes at
all testing ages. Concretes designed by DMDA method at the w/
cm contain high amount of fly ash as well as pozzolanic materials
and less cement used (30.2% of F/B ratio, 33.7% of P/B ratio as
shown in Table 3). Therefore, due to the low hydration rate of fly
ash and slag the compressive strength of concretes designed by
DMDA may significantly improve in the long term.
3.4. Parameters correlated with compressive strength
Based on the data in Table 3 and the results of compressive
strength, the relationship among compressive strength, w/c, w/cm
and w/s as well as paste amount can be drawn. The trend is that
the compressive strength, at early age, is inverse-proportion to
w/b and w/c ratios due to the use of the lower amount of cement
Fig. 4. Variation of compressive strength with fresh unit weight of concrete for both
w/cm ratios at 91 days.
 Y.-Y. Chen et al. / Construction and Building Materials 47 (2013) 340–346 345

Fig. 5. The development of ultrasonic pulse velocity with various paste amounts.

and the higher amount of fly ash. Therefore, the early strength is signed by DMDA method indicates that the lower the cement paste
much related to w/c and the ultimate strength is controlled by content, the higher the UPV. Generally, the sequence of UPV of each
w/cm. ingredient of normal weight concrete is coarse aggregate, sand and
Fig. 3 shows the plot of compressive strength against F/CM or P/ paste. Therefore, at the same w/cm ratio the concretes with low ce-
CM ratios through the DMDA concretes of both w/cm ratios at ment paste content will be mainly occupied by aggregates and con-
91 days. In the case of F/CM ratio, the compressive strength of con- sequently has high UPV. It also implies that high paste content will
cretes increases with an increase of F/CM ratio up to the 32.5% and encounter the risk of micro-crack in paste system that is harmful to
43.1% of F/CM ratio for w/cm of 0.32 and 0.40, respectively. The the durability of hardened concretes [19].
higher F/CM ratio also indicates that the lower paste amount, the
higher w/c ratio will be (Table 3). Taken together, it can be con-
4. Conclusions
cluded that concrete requires very little cement paste to ‘glue’’
aggregate together for better strength, thus avoiding volumetric
The technique of DMDA overcomes concrete problems through
stability problems caused by large amounts of paste. When the
aggregate gradation, and minimizes the paste content.
paste is enough to bind aggregate particles and coat the aggregate,
The concretes designed by DMDA with excellent flow-ability
under the condition of the same w/cm ratio and sufficient paste
were obtained. High-slump flowing concretes were achieved with-
amount, the higher fly ash content (higher F/CM ratio), the better
out bleeding or segregation. The proper paste amount the better
long-term compressive strength of concrete. By using DMDA meth-
the workability and the less the workability loss.
od for mix design, it shows that the optimum fly ash content can be
Under the sufficient paste amount and at the same water-to-
found easily. Both the filler and chemical effects are taken together
cementitious materials ratio, the result is that the higher the unit
for better performance of concretes. There is a similar trend with F/
weight of concrete, the higher the compressive strength will be.
CM ratio in the case of P/CM ratio. Based on this figure, the relation-
The less cement is used, the less early-term strength (528 days)
ship between these quantities is linear with very strong correlation
but the higher long-term strength (=56 days) will be.
(R2 > 0.9).
To design of good quality concrete, the amount of cement paste
The unit weight of concrete is primarily affected by that the unit
and water should be minimized as low as possible to obtain the
weight of the aggregate. Analysis of data at 91 days for both w/cm
high ultrasonic pulse velocity.
ratios in Fig. 4 indicates a trend that the unit weight of concrete in-
creases as concrete strength increases. There is a very strong rela-
tionship in this case (with very strong correlation: R2 > 0.9). That Acknowledgements
coincides with the hypothesis that under sufficient cement paste
content, the higher the unit weight of concretes, the higher com- The authors thank Chih-Ta Tsai and Sin-Da Liu for their assis-
pressive strength will be. tance in the experiments that made this publication possible. We
are grateful to fellows of CMRL group for their assistance on this
subject to help finish this research.
3.5. Ultrasonic pulse velocity

The pulse velocity methods have been used to assess the unifor-
mity and relative quality of concrete, indicate the presence of voids
and cracks, and evaluate the effectiveness of crack repairs. Fig. 5
indicates that the UPV is closely related to the paste amount. The
trend with regard to the hardening properties of concretes de-
Appendix A. Mixture proportioning algorithm of DMDA method
(1) To select proper materials.
This is an important procedure for the mixture proportioning of
high performance concrete. Basic analysis of the properties of ce-
346 Y.-Y. Chen et al. / Construction and Building Materials 47 (2013) 340–346

ment, fly ash, slag, sand, stone and SP are required for quality If the ratio-to-cementitious material ratio (w/cm) is k, and then
control.
Ww
k¼ ð12Þ
W c þ W sl þ W fly
(2) To obtain the highest density by packing and calculate the
least void in between.
W w ¼ kðW c þ W sl þ W fly Þ ð13Þ
a. To fill normal weight sand with sand and then obtain
n
W fly W sl ¼  Wc ð14Þ
a¼ ð1Þ 1n
W fly þ W cs
To substitute the Eqs. (13) and (14) into Eq. (11) and rewrite as
where a is the ratio at maximum dry loose density when coarse
W
sand is filled with fly ash; Wcs is the weight of coarse sand; Wfly is V p  k c fly
the weight of fly ash. Wc ¼ h w i ð15Þ
b. To fill coarse aggregate with blended coarse sand and fly ash
k
cw þ c1 þ 1n
n k
c þc
1
c w sl

under fixed a, and obtain

Where Ww, Wcand Wsl represent the weight of water, cement and
W cs þ W fly slag, respectively; cw, cc and csl represent the density of water, ce-
b¼ ð2Þ
W ca þ ðW cs þ W fly Þ ment and slag, respectively.
(7) To determine the amount of SP and amount of water finally.
where b is the ratio at maximum dry loose density of blended
The amount of SP is determined by its quality and the water
aggregate; Wca is the weight of coarse aggregate.
content. Under fixed amount of water and w/cm ratio, the SP dos-
c. The least void, Vv
age can be estimated according to past experience and the work-
X Wi ability of the concrete from a trial batch.
Vv ¼ 1  ð3Þ
ci
References
where ci is the density of material i, kg/m3.
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 X W i
[2] Su N, Miao B. A new method for the mix design of medium strength flowing
V p ¼ V v þ S  t ¼ nV v ¼ n 1  ð4Þ
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 a 
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1a
thermal expansion properties of hardened cement paste. Construct Build
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1b
 
W ca ¼ W cs  ð7Þ [10] Kolias S, Georgiou C. The effect of paste volume and of water content on the
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Substituting formulas Eqs. (6) and (7) into Eq. (5) and rewrite as [11] Larrard Fd, Belloc A. The influence of aggregate on the compressive strength of
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W cs ¼   ð8Þ relationship. ACI Mater J 1990;87(5):517–29.
a 1 1b
þ c1 þ 1


1a cfly cs bab cca [13] Rozière E, Granger S, Turcry P, Loukili A. Influence of paste volume on
shrinkage cracking and fracture properties of self-compacting concrete. Cem
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n¼ ð10Þ
W sl þ W c [17] Hwang C-L, Hung M-F. Durability design and performance of self-
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Substitute Eq. (10) into the Eq. (9) as [18] Chang PK, Peng YN, Hwang CL. A design consideration for durability of high-
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Ww n [19] Chen C-T. The simplified mixture proportioning model of silica fume concrete
Wc
Wc Wc 1n
Wc
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cw cc csl Science and Technology; 2012.