University of Tehran Faculty of Engineering

A thesis submitted to the Gratuate Students Office In Partial Fulfillment of the requirments for The degree of M.Sc. in Civil Engineering

Study on the Effect of Silica Fume on Improvement of RCC Pavement Mechanical Properties

Author: Mohsen Sharify (2001)

Abstract: Roller Compacted Concrete (RCC) is relatively new material in dams and pavement construction that has attracted considerable interest because of its economical and technical benefits. RCC is used in construction dams in many countries. So, for construction of pavement there are many reports for application RCC, specially in North America. In this thesis the effort of silica fume on improvement of RCC pavement mechanical properties is investigated. This research is according to ACI 325.10 R-99 standard. Mixture proportioning is done by evaluation of consistency tests. Also, for fabricating of test specimens used from modified vibrating table according to ASTM C1170-91 and ASTM C117-92 compression strength, tensile strength, flexural strength and elasticity modulus is measured. In this thesis, experiments were designed for two amounts of cements (250 and 300 kg/m ) and with different amount of silica fume (0, 5, 10 and 15 percent) as alternative for cement.The specimens for flexural strength were 75x15x15 cm and another were cylindrical 30x150 cm in all experiment. For curing, the specimens were held in water at 20C for 28 days. Tests results show that incorporation of silica fume causes significant improvements in the mechanical properties of RCC pavement. The magnitude of strength increase varied from 15 to 40 percent for a 10% cement replacement by silica fume. Therefore, with regarding to kind of the aggregate and the cement material the results satisfy the ACI standard.
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