Use of Mineral Additions in Self-Compacting Concrete

To take care of its properties in fresh state, self-compacting concrete (SCC) demands a high powder content in its composition, about 450kg/m³. The quarry dust, resultant material of the coarse aggregate production,, appear as an economic and sustainable alternative in the development of the SCC. Using the mix design for SCC developed by Tutikian [4] a study for evaluation of the SCC mechanical properties was done, where natural sand had been partially replaced by quarry - micaschist and granite - and cement replaced by silica fume and metakaolin. To compose the mix design curves, 3 different compositions had been determined - 1:3, 1:4,5 and 1:6 (cement:dry material) in 5 types of concrete - reference (without additions), silica fume, metakaolin, powder-of-micaschist and powder-of-granite. The test methods in fresh state used was Slump-flow [6], U-Box [7], Entrained air [9] and Specific gravity [8]. Cylindrical test specimen 100x200mm had been molded for tests in the hard state - compressive strength and modulus of elasticity - in the ages of 3, 7, and 28 days. Preliminary results shows that it can be possible the use of different additions in the production of great SCC. We detach the little variability of the specific gravity, as well as of the entrained air, that presented low values. For concretes with same compressive strength, the modulus of elasticity shows a variability between 5 and 60%.