ABSTRACT

The advancement of materials technology has led to production of higher

grades of concrete strength. The application of High strength concrete HSC in civil
engineering structures has increased significantly, with economy, superior strength,
increased stiffness and greater durability being the principal reasons for its popularity.
Beside the better quality for the basic material, production of HSC requires additional
special materials to be used such as: silica fume, metakaolin and super plasticizer and
extra quality control procedures. For many applications, the benefits gained by using
HSC concrete are more than the additional cost of the special materials and extra quality
control needed to produce them. The biggest advantages of HSC that makes its use
attractive in high rise construction are the larger strength / unit cost, strength / unit
volume, strength /unit weight and stiffness/unit cost ratios compared to normal strength
concrete.
This paper describes the way of developing high strength concrete in an
economical way. A series of mix proportions are prepared by replacing cementitious
material and fine aggregates by mineral admixtures such as silica fume, fly ash,
metakaolin and quarry dust, M sand. Mix proportioning is performed to achieve 60MPa.
Rates for different materials are analysed and the final mix proportion with least rates
are casted for cube compressive strength.

INTRODUCTION
Concrete is generally classified as Normal Strength Concrete (NSC), High
Strength Concrete (HSC) and Ultra High Strength Concrete (UHSC). There is no clear
cut boundary for the above classification. Indian Standard Recommended Methods of
Mix Design denotes the boundary of 35 MPa between NSC and HSC. They did not talk
about UHSC. But elsewhere in the international forum, about thirty years ago, the high
strength label was applied to concrete having strength above 40 MPa. More recently, the
threshold rose to 55 MPa as per IS 456-2000.
High strength concrete has been widely used in civil engineering in recent
years. This is because most of the rheological, mechanical and durability properties of
these materials are better than those of conventional concretes. High strength is made
possible by reducing porosity, inhomogeneity and micro cracks in concrete and the
transition zone. This can be achieved by using super plasticizers and supplementary
cementing materials such as fly ash, silica fume, granulated blast furnace slag, and
natural pozzolan. Fortunately, most of these materials are industrial by-products and
help in reducing the amount of cement required to make concrete less costly, more
environmental friendly, and less energy intensive.
The use of HSC for construction, especially for multi-story buildings, has
become very common in industrialized and developing countries. In Australia, where
the majority of buildings are concrete structures, almost all concrete high-rise and
medium-rise building projects utilize HSC. Australia has taken the advantage of the
benefits of high-strength concrete through its widespread use on buildings such as 120
Collins Street, Melbourne Central, the Rialto project in Melbourne, the 43- storey high
Casselden Place project in Melbourne. In Seattle USA, the strength of concrete used on
the Pacific First Centre was about 125MPa [4]. The Freedom Tower in New York City,
which will be one of the worlds tallest superstructures, is projected to be completed in
2010. The structure consists of a robust high-strength concrete core paired with a highly
redundant perimeter steel moment resisting frame. Most experience on HSC in Europe
has been gathered in Norway, with that countrys development in offshore platforms,
bridges, and highway pavements [5]. In Germany, HSC was first utilized in a high-rise
building in Frankfurt, completed in 1992. HSC with a mean strength of 100 MPa was

used in the Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur in 1998. The Eureka Tower, which is one
of the tallest buildings in Australia was completed in 2006 has utilized HSC up to 100
MPa.
Wide use of high strength concrete results in many advantages, such as
reduction in beam and column sizes and increase in the building height with many
stories. In pre-stressed concrete construction, a greater spandepth ratio for beams may
be achieved with the use of high strength concrete. In marine structures, the low
permeability characteristics of high strength concrete reduce the risk of corrosion of
steel reinforcement and improve the durability of concrete structures. In addition, high
strength concrete can perform much better in extreme and adverse climatic conditions,
and can reduce maintenance and repair costs.

Silica fume is a by-product of producing silicon metal or ferrosilicon alloys

in smelters using electric arc furnaces. These metals are used in many industrial
applications to include aluminium and steel production, computer chip fabrication, and
productions of silicones, which are widely used in lubricants and sealants. While these
are very valuable materials, the by-product silica fume is of more importance to the
concrete industry.