Construction and Building Materials 134 (2017) 116–122

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Construction and Building Materials

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

Workability retention and compressive strength of self-compacting

concrete incorporating pumice powder and silica fume
Reza Bani Ardalan a, Alireza Joshaghani b,⇑, R. Douglas Hooton c
a
Institute for Infrastructure Engineering, Western Sydney University, Sydney, Australia
b
Zachry Department of Civil Engineering, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX, USA
c
Department of Civil Engineering, University of Toronto, 35 St. George St., Toronto, ON M5S 1A4, Canada

h i g h l i g h t s

 SCC mixture incorporating pumice powder possesses better slump flow retention.
 Pumice replacement of 30% gives the best performance hardened and fresh test results.
 Pumice and silica fume blended cement satisfies all the criteria of EFNARC limit.
 A strong relationship between superplasticizer demand and slump loss of the mixtures.

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

Article history: This paper presents the results of an experimental study carried out to investigate the performance of
Received 19 July 2016 self-compacting concrete (SCC) mixes, which produced using blended binders containing pumice powder
Received in revised form 8 November 2016 in various proportions. As a volcanic material, pumice possesses pozzolanic properties and can effectively
Accepted 18 December 2016
be added to the concrete mixture. The influence of pumice powder on the self-compactibility properties
such as slump flow, V-funnel flow, U-box and J-ring flow and compressive strength was investigated.
Also, in order to clearly understand the effect of pumice powder on the workability retention of concrete,
Keywords:
the slumps were measured with elapsed time. The comparison has been made between SCC with pumice
Self-compacting concrete
Pumice
powder to other mixtures with fly ash and slag through tests on fresh and hardened concrete. In all of the
Silica fume mixtures the portland cement was partially replaced from 10% to 50% by pumice, fly ash and slag. The
Fly ash incorporation of more than 30% of pozzolanic materials in the binary blended portland cement mixtures
Slag results in a significant decline in the fresh and hardened test results. In addition, to improve the proper-
Fresh properties ties of SCC containing pumice, the ternary blended cement replacement with pumice and silica fume (SF)
SP demand was developed. The results revealed that incorporation of SF substantially enhanced the properties of the
Slump loss mixtures.
Compressive strength
Ó 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction cost of equipment [2]. In order to achieve high levels of fluidity

Self-compacting concrete (SCC) has been one of the most pro-
nounced recent innovations in the building industry. SCC has the
potential to spread into place. It fills the formwork even in the
presence of congested reinforcement while requiring no com-
paction energy and vibration effort in site [1]. The SCC technology
provides better economic and efficiency and productivity levels by
the increase in casting speed and reduction in labor, energy, and
⇑ Corresponding author at: Zachry Department of Civil Engineering, Texas A&M
University, 3136 TAMU, College Station, TX 77843-3136, USA.
E-mail addresses: R.BaniArdalan@westernsydney.edu.au (R. Bani Ardalan),
joshaghani@tamu.edu (A. Joshaghani), hooton@civ.utoronto.ca (R.D. Hooton).
and adequate stability for SCC during transportation and place-
ment, costly chemical admixtures and also high volumes of sand
and paste are commonly essential to use which leads the produc-
tion to be more expensive compared to conventional concrete
[3,4].
Mineral additives such as fly ash, slag, silica fume and natural
pozzolans as partial replacement of portland cement are funda-
mental parts of SCC in order to mitigate the quantity of hydration
heat [5]. One practical solution to reduce the cost of SCC is utilizing
waste or industrial by-products [6–9]. One of the most important
aspect in choosing mineral admixtures is the type and the amount
with respect to water and cement [3,10]. It is well established that
incorporation of some mineral additives to the mixture like fly ash

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.conbuildmat.2016.12.090
0950-0618/Ó 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
 R. Bani Ardalan et al. / Construction and Building Materials 134 (2017) 116–122
and slag, substantially increase the workability, durability and
long-term properties of concrete [11–14]. Recently, pumice pow-
der, which is a sub product of extraction and manufacturing of
pumice was added to the SCC mixture as a supplementary cement-
ing material and its incorporation effect on the fresh properties of
SCC was investigated. Volcanic materials like pumice have poz-
zolanic properties so that it is possible to use in SCC manufacturing
with a double effect: on one hand as filler and on another hand as a
pozzolanic element in the mixture [3]. It was proved that pumice
use is applicable in SCC production as no segregation and bleeding
were observed [15]. Pumice is a natural material of volcanic origin
which is produced during the solidification of lava through the
release of gases. As volcanic activities are common phenomena in
various parts of the world, volcanic debris like pumice is found
abundantly [16]. Since pumice has lower weight compared other
aggregates, it has been used extensively as a coarse or fine aggre-
gate in lightweight concrete mixtures [17]. In a recent study, Gran-
ata [3] investigated the applicability of pumice powder as filler in
SCC and hardened states, and its pozzolanicity was confirmed. SCC
containing pumice presented good workability properties and
achieved reasonable compressive strength after 28 days of curing.
It is well understood that when SCC is used as a ready-mixed
concrete, the fresh property requirements need to be met at the
time of placement. Thus the effect of production and transport
on the workability properties of SCC must be considered in the ini-
tial and time dependent workability testing of SCC [18–20]. Slump
loss is known to be one of the main reasons of concrete strength
and durability [21]. Since the conditions for the transport process
involved in concrete’s degradation mechanism strongly depend
on its pore structure [22], still more investigation is required to
account for a clear understanding of required quantity of super-
plasticizers (SP) to achieve superior workability and placeability.
Workability properties of SCC containing pumice powder espe-
cially with respect to other mineral admixtures performance which
is still lacking in the literature. To do so, the effect of using pumice,
fly ash and slag as supplementary cementitious materials in binary
(two-component) blends at different levels of replacements was
taken into account on fresh and hardened properties. For each mix-
ture, the SP dosage for obtaining initial slump flow value of
650 ± 25 mm and also slump flow loss over time up to 50 min after
casting was measured. The aforementioned properties were mea-
sured for ternary (three-component) systems of pumice and silica
fume as well. The fresh properties of SCC, including the slump flow,
U-box, V-funnel flow and J-ring flow were investigated. Also, the
effectiveness of the mineral admixtures on the compressive
strength of SCCs was assessed at 7, 28 and 90 days. Finally, the
optimum percentage of cement replacement by pumice was pro-
posed for binary and ternary mixtures considering the results of
the experiments.
2. Experimental study
2.1. Materials
A commercially available ASTM type II portland cement with
specific gravity of 3.16 and fineness of 290 m2/kg has been used
for the production of all SCC mixtures. The volcanic pumice used
in this experimental program, which has a specific gravity of 2.85
and a fineness of 3200 m2/kg was collected from the resources in
Khash area, Iran. As presented in Table 1, the total content of
SiO2, Al2O3, and Fe2O3 in the pumice was approximately 73% which
is more than the minimum requirement (70%) specified in ASTM C
618 for natural pozzolans.
Silica fume was obtained from Azna ferro-silicon alloy manufac-
turer with a specific gravity of 2.35 and a specific surface area of
117
20,000 m2/kg. The fly ash class F and slag used have a specific grav-
ity of 2.2 and 2.85 and fineness of 260 and 445 m2/kg, respectively.
The chemical compositions of the cementitious materials are
shown in Table 1.
The coarse aggregates have a maximum size of 19 mm, a speci-
fic gravity of 2.78 and water absorption of 1.9%. The natural river
fine aggregate in this study with fineness modulus of 3.2, the speci-
fic gravity of 2.6 and water absorption of 2.3% was used. The par-
ticle size gradation obtained through the sieve analysis of the
fine and coarse aggregates are given in Table 2. Superplasticizer
(SP) which is a high-range water-reducing, plays a vital role in
SCC mixture and help SCC flow under its own weight [23]. A
polycarboxylic-ether type SP with a specific gravity of 1.08 was
employed to achieve the desired workability in all concrete
mixtures.
2.2. Mix design
In this study several SCC mixtures were made having a constant
water to cementitious materials ratio (w/cm) of 0.38 and fixed
cementitious materials content of 500 kg/m3, incorporating differ-
ent replacement levels of pumice, fly ash and slag (0–50% weight of
cement) in binary mixes, in order to evaluate and compare the
effect of these mineral admixtures on properties of SCC. Also, tern-
ary cementitious blends of pumice and silica fume were designed
to clarify the influence of these mineral admixtures on properties
of SCC. Superplasticizer was adjusted to attain a slump flow of
650 ± 25 mm. Details of the mix proportions are shown in Table 3.
2.3. Specimen preparation and testing methods
All the materials were mixed using a rotary drum mixer with a
maximum capacity of 80 L. SCC production requires careful consid-
eration in terms of mixing sequence and duration as to supply sim-
ilar homogeneity and uniformity in all mixtures [24]. First, the dry
ingredients were combined. Next, the wet ingredients (water and
SP) were added, and the ingredients were mixed until a homoge-
neous mixture was achieved. The concrete was designed to give
a slump flow of 650 ± 25 mm according to EFNARC committee
[25] recommendation which was obtainable by using SP in varying
dosage. When the initial slump flow of the SCC was deemed satis-
factory, the SCC was placed into five slump cones and the slump
flow test was conducted at intervals of 10 min, i.e. ten-minutes
after the initial slump flow test, one slump cone was lifted, after
another 10 min another cone was lifted and so on. The slump flow
value was recorded for five cones for each mixture.
Besides, upon achieving target slump flow, the V-funnel, J-ring
and U-box self-compactibility tests were conducted on the fresh
properties for each mixture in accordance with EFNARC standards,
in the following order:
(a) J-ring flow test (flow diameter and difference in concrete
height inside and outside J-ring (h2–h1)). The J-Ring is a cage
of rebar that is set up around the slump cone. The slump
flow test is run both with and without the J-Ring in place
and the passing ability is the difference in slump flow;
(b) V-funnel flow test (time taken by concrete to flow through
V-funnel after 10 s (T10 s), time taken by concrete to flow
through V-funnel after 5 min (T5 min)). The described
V-funnel test is used to determine the filling ability (flow
ability) of the concrete with a maximum aggregate size of
20 mm. The funnel is filled with about 12 L of concrete and
the time taken for it to flow through the apparatus mea-
sured. If the concrete shows segregation, then the flow time
will increase significantly.
118 R. Bani Ardalan et al. / Construction and Building Materials 134 (2017) 116–122

Table 1
Chemical composition of binders.

Chemical properties
Cement Slag Fly ash Pumice Silica Fume
SiO2 20.03 34.9 61.3 51.2 86.2
Al2O3 5.53 13.9 28.8 20.7 1.44
Fe2O3 3.63 0.52 4.98 1.24 0.2
CaO 62.25 36.8 1.05 6.0 3.06
MgO 3.42 10.6 0.63 1.6 1.32
SO3 2.23 0.58 0.13 0.44 0.34
Na2O 0.3 – 0.24 – –
K2O 0.73 – 1.40 – –
L.O.I CO2 + H2O – – – – –
Polymer Coated – – – – –
Physical properties
Specific gravity (kg/m3) 3150 2850 2200 2700 2350
Blaine (m2/kg) 290 445 342 480 20,000

Table 2 covered with plastic sheets and water saturated burlap and left
Sieve analysis of the fine and coarse aggregates. at room temperature for 24 h. the specimens were demoulded
Sieve number (inch) Sieve size(mm) Percentage passing (%) 24 h after casting and were cured in lime-saturated water at
Coarse aggregate Fine aggregate
20 ± 2 °C until the testing day.
Compressive strength tests were performed with a loading rate
1 25 100 100
3/4 19 83.25 100
of 0.5 N/mm2/s at the age of 7, 28 and 90 days with a testing
3/8 9.5 10.65 100 machine having a capacity of 2000 kN. The average compressive
#4 4.75 0.1 97.8 strength of three specimens was considered for each age.
#8 2.36 0 85.6
#16 1.18 0 55.3
#30 0.6 0 24 3. Test results and discussion
#50 0.3 0 4.6
#100 0.15 0 0.3 3.1. Fresh state properties

(c) U-box test (difference in height of concrete in two chambers
(H2–H1)). The apparatus consists of a vessel that is divided
by a middle wall into two compartments; an opening with
a sliding gate is fitted between the two sections. The left-
hand section is filled with about 20 L of concrete then the
gate is lifted and the concrete flows upwards into the other
section. The height of the concrete in both sections is
measured.
Then the fresh concrete was placed without any vibration into
the steel cube moulds of 150 mm dimension for compressive
strength measurements. After casting, all the specimens were
3.1.1. SP demand
The required SP dosage to achieve the target slump flow of
650 ± 25 mm of all binary mixes is shown in Fig. 1. The SP dosage
of the pumice blends was significantly higher than that of other
mixtures and the control concrete. The higher the replacement of
cement by pumice, the more SP was required to achieve the target
slump flow, which probably stemmed from the large amount of
pores in the frame structure and high surface area of pumice and
in turn leads to increased water demand. A binder having greater
surface area requires more water to obtain a given slump flow,
so more SP is required to keep the content of water constant [26].
On the other hand, the use of fly ash and slag in the mixes
decreased the required SP to gain desired slump flow as depicted

Table 3
Mix proportions of concrete (kg/m3).

Mix description Mix ID Water Coarse aggregate Fine aggregate Cement Fly ash Slag Silica fume Pumice
Control M1 191 580 1070 500 0 – – –
10FA M2 191 590 1063 450 50 – – –
20FA M3 191 584 1052 400 100 – – –
30FA M4 191 578 1040 350 150 – – –
40FA M5 191 571 1029 300 200 – – –
50FA M6 191 565 1017 250 250 – – –
10GGBFS M7 191 595 1072 450 – 50 – –
20 GGBFS M8 191 594 1069 400 – 100 – –
30 GGBFS M9 191 592 1066 350 – 150 – –
40 GGBFS M10 191 590 1063 300 – 200 – –
50 GGBFS M11 191 580 1069 250 – 250 – –
10PU M12 191 595 1072 450 – – – 50
20 PU M13 191 594 1069 400 – – – 100
30 PU M14 191 592 1066 350 – – – 150
40 PU M15 191 590 1063 300 – – – 200
50 PU M16 191 589 1060 250 – – – 250
25PU5SF M17 191 590 1063 350 – – 25 125
45PU5SF M18 191 587 1057 250 – – 25 225
40PU10SF M19 191 584 1051 200 – – 50 200
 R. Bani Ardalan et al. / Construction and Building Materials 134 (2017) 116–122 119

Pumice Fly Ash Slag Fly ash pumice slag

SP dosage (% by binder weight)

0.6 200
175

slump loss (% of Ctrl)

0.5
150
0.4 125

0.3 100
75
0.2
50
0.1 25

0 0
ctrl 10 20 30 40 50 ctrl 10 20 30 40 50
replacement level (%)
replacement level (%)
Fig. 3. Relative slump flow loss of binary mixtures after 50 min.
Fig. 1. SP dosage of binary concrete mixes to obtain target fluidity.

pumice. The addition of SP was reported to contribute to better flu-

in Fig. 1. The rate of reduction in SP demand for mixes containing
idity and less slump loss of the concrete [30–32].
fly ash was higher compared to the case of slag especially at a 50%
In relation to slump retention, silica fume does not indicate the
replacement level, in which the SP dosage of fly ash mixture was
same trend as pumice since the three-component blends of pumice
2% less than the control concrete. The reason may be due to the
and silica fume exhibited higher slump loss than that of control
spherical geometry of the fly ash particles, which contributes to
concrete, especially for mixes with a higher quantity of silica fume
the reduction of the fraction resistance of cement particles and
as illustrated in Fig. 4.
enhancement of the mixture fluidity [27]. The result is in agree-
Fig. 5 provides a general overview of the relationship between
ment with other researches. According to Libre et al. [28] the incor-
the required quantity of SP to reach target slump flow for each con-
poration of 10–50% fly ash improved SCC mortar fluidity.
crete mix containing different supplementary cementitious mate-
The incorporation of silica fume also increased the SP dosage of
rials and slump flow after a period of 50 min after mixing. As
three-component systems as shown in Fig. 2. Park et al. [29]
seen from the graph, the relationship decreases linearly with a cor-
reported that the high SP demand of silica fume is attributed to
relation coefficient of 0.83, which shows that the amount of SP
the high surface area of its particles (typically ranges from
needed to obtain the desired slump flow value, is consistent with
15,000 to 30,000 m2/kg).
the slump loss 50 min after mixing. Based on the relationship,
the mixtures with high water demand was counteracted by using
the relatively large amount of SP, showed better slump retention.
3.1.2. Loss of slump flow As stated in Section 3.1.2, the addition of SP contributes to better
The timed slump flow was conducted for all of the mixtures. fluidity and less slump loss of the concrete and according to
The relative slump flow loss results of two-component systems Fig. 5, this statement can be generalized to the mixtures incorpo-
to that of the control concrete after 50 min of mixing are summa- rating other types of SCMs such as slag cement, silica fume, and
rized in Fig. 3. The slump flow loss increased over time for all mixes fly ash. However, other researchers reported unlike results in some
as expected. At 50 min, the SCC mixtures containing fly ash showed other types of pozzolans namely, natural zeolite [4,33]. More
significant loss of workability compared to the other mixtures and investigation seems to be essential to evaluate the slump loss capa-
of increased replacement levels, more slump loss was observed. bility of various blended cement mixtures containing
The pumice and slag blends exhibited lower loss of slump com- superplasticizers.
pared to that of control mixes. SCC containing pumice powder
demonstrates considerably the best performance in terms of main-
taining initial slump values. 3.1.3. Fresh concrete test results
As it was reported previously, the addition of fly ash has a According to EFNARC, a concrete mixture can only be classified
slump retention capacity due to its particles spherical geometry as SCC if the requirements for filling, passing and segregation resis-
which in turn leads to significant increase in fluidity of the con- tivity characteristics are fulfilled. Filling ability is the capability of
crete mix [21]. The reason why the mixture containing pumice filling all spaces without vibration while passing ability shows the
had the highest residual slump would likely be due to the high con-
tent of SP as a result of the fineness and pores in the structure of
18
16
0.8
SP dosage (% by binder weight)

14
slump loss (cm)

0.7
12
0.6
10
0.5
8
0.4
6
0.3
4
0.2
2
0.1
0
0
25PU5SF

45PU5SF

40PU10SF
ctrl
25PU5SF

45PU5SF

40PU10SF
Ctrl

Fig. 2. SP dosage of ternary concrete mixes to obtain target fluidity. Fig. 4. Slump flow loss of ternary mixtures after 50 min.
120 R. Bani Ardalan et al. / Construction and Building Materials 134 (2017) 116–122

0.6 measurements of some mixtures (M1, M2, M3, M12, M13, and
SP demand(% by binder weight)

M17) did not hit the lower limit which shows that the concrete
0.5 with FA and PU at low level of replacement, up to 20%, has low vis-
cosity and increase in the dosage value of the minerals led to
0.4
increasing in the viscosity.
0.3 In general, the authors observed that all of the moulds were
filled without the need for vibration and no bleeding or segregation
0.2 was observed for any of mixtures during the slump flow test.
Although most of the mixtures did not satisfy the EFNARC recom-
0.1 mended criteria for the J-ring test, they were found to usually pos-
sess enough passing ability. Also, the U-box results for the EFNARC
0
limitations might be too strict to account for passing ability by the
0 5 10 15
J-ring test.
Slump loss (cm)

Fig. 5. Relationship between superplasticizer used to reach slump flow of 650 mm

and slump loss after 50 min. 3.2. Compressive strength

Figs. 6 and 7 show the variation of compressive strength of SCC

mixture’s ability to flow through reinforcement bars without any
blocking. Segregation resistance is gained while the concrete mix-
ture remains homogenous without grout separation [34]. The
results of various tests including slump flow, J-ring, V-funnel and
U-box for determining self-compactibility properties of SCC mix-
tures are summarized in Table 4. No segregation is observed in
the slump flow and J-ring tests.
As mentioned previously, the slump flow diameters of all the
mixtures were kept constant at 650 ± 25 mm which is the lowest
value that meets EFNARC criteria for this test.
The values for differences in concrete height inside and outside
J-ring exceeded the upper limit of EFNARC for most of the mix-
tures. The mixtures having more than 30% fly ash, more than 20%
pumice, and all slag-based mixtures had J-ring values more than
10 mm and did not fulfill the EFNARC recommendation.
The U-box test was utilized to account for passing ability. When
the concrete flows freely like water it is considered horizontal and
H2–H1 = 0. Hence, better flow ability and passing ability con-
tributes to values nearer to zero [35]. Values obtained for the U-
box tests as given in Table 4 are within the acceptance criteria rec-
ommended by EFNARC.
The time values measured for V-funnel flow are used for flow
ability and stability assessment and relate viscosity to the rate of
flow. For all the mixtures, no blocking is detected. the V-funnel
mixtures at 7, 28 and 90 days with respect to the fly ash and
pumice replacement, respectively. As noted from the results shown
in Figs. 6 and 7, the compressive strength at all test ages, for both
FA and PU decrease slightly with increasing fly ash and pumice
content from 10% to 30%, while there is a significant decline with
fly ash and pumice replacement of 40 and 50%. In fact, by maintain-
ing the total quantity of binder constant, a major replacement of
cement with other pozzolanic materials reduces the concrete
strength significantly. However, the rate of reduction in compres-
sive strength for pumice was much less compared to the case of
fly ash. The compressive strength of SCC containing both fly ash
and pumice was lower than the portland cement controls and this
trend was reported previously for fly ash [11,36,37].
The binary blended portland cement concrete with slag shows
comparable strength values to that of the control concrete as is
shown in Fig. 8. At 7 days, the compressive strength of SCC contain-
ing slag is slightly lower than the control concrete with replace-
ment levels up to 30% and after that, there is a significant
decrease in strength by increasing slag content. The compressive
strength of 28 and 90 days of SCC increased with increasing slag
content, which is due to the higher pozzolanic reactivity of slag
than that of fly ash and pumice. However, the compressive
strength of SCC containing slag at 40 and 50% cement replacement
are still lower than that of the portland cement control.

Table 4
Fresh properties of SCC mixtures.

Mix description Mix ID Slump flow mm J-ring mm U-box mm V-funnel flow time (s)
Control M1 650 10 5 5
10FA M2 650 10 10 5
20FA M3 650 10 10 5
30FA M4 650 20 15 7
40FA M5 650 30 20 7
50FA M6 650 30 20 8
10GGBFS M7 650 15 15 8
20 GGBFS M8 650 15 10 8
30 GGBFS M9 650 20 10 9
40 GGBFS M10 650 20 5 7
50 GGBFS M11 650 30 5 7
10PU M12 650 10 10 5
20 PU M13 650 20 10 5
30 PU M14 650 20 15 7
40 PU M15 650 30 20 8
50 PU M16 640 30 25 9
25PU5SF M17 650 10 20 5
45PU5SF M18 650 10 10 6
40PU10SF M19 650 10 10 6
Acceptance criteria for SCC [25]
Min 650 0 0 6
Max 800 10 30 12
 R. Bani Ardalan et al. / Construction and Building Materials 134 (2017) 116–122 121

7 days 28 days 90 days 7 days 28 days 90 days

Compressive Strength (MPa)

60.0 70.0
Compressive Strength (MPa)

60.0
50.0
50.0
40.0 40.0
30.0 30.0
20.0
20.0
10.0
10.0 0.0

45PU5SF
25PU5SF

40PU10SF
Ctrl
0.0
20FA

30FA
ctrl

10FA

40FA

50FA
Fig. 6. Variation of compressive strength with concrete mixtures incorporating Fig. 9. Variation of compressive strength with concrete mixtures incorporating
various amount of fly ash. various amount of pumice and silica fume.

4. Conclusions
7 days 28 days 90 days
60.0 An experimental program is carried out to investigate the pos-
Compressive Strength (MPa)

sible incorporation of pumice powder as cement replacement in

50.0 binary and ternary blended systems in SCC through its perfor-
mance at fresh and hardened state in comparison with other com-
40.0 mon cementitious materials like fly ash and slag. The following
conclusions can be drawn:
30.0

20.0 1. Although SCC mixtures containing pumice powder required SP

dosages to obtain initial target slump flow, they showed supe-
10.0 rior slump flow retention with respect to other mixtures.
2. SCC manufactured with pumice exhibited reasonable flow abil-
0.0
ity, passing ability and segregation resistance. Mixtures with
ctrl

20PU

30PU

40PU

50PU
10Pu

pumice replacement of 30% had the highest compressive

strength compared with control concrete.
Fig. 7. Variation of compressive strength with concrete mixtures incorporating 3. More than 30% replacement of portland cement with pozzolanic
various amount of pumice.
materials (e.g. slag cement, fly ash, or pumice) significantly
reduces the SCC mixtures.
4. Test results suggest that the amount of SP required for consis-
7 days 28 days 90 days tent improvement in the initial slump flow is directly related
to the composition of the concrete mixtures, while mixtures
Compressive Strength (MPa)

60.0
containing pumice need higher SP dosage than fly ash to reach
50.0 the desired value.
40.0 5. The relation between the amounts of superplasticizer used for
obtaining the initial slump of concrete different in the composi-
30.0 tion is linear with a correlation coefficient of 0.83.
20.0 6. All the binary mixtures satisfied the limits for the U-box and V-
funnel tests while most of them did not fulfill the EFNARC rec-
10.0 ommendation for the J-ring test. On the other hand, the ternary
0.0 blends of cement, pumice and silica fume yielded satisfactory
performance in all the tests.
ctrl

10GGBFS

20GGBFS

30GGBFS

40GGBFS

50GGBFS

7. Test results of hardened properties suggested that pumice has

Fig. 8. Variation of compressive strength with concrete mixtures incorporating
various amount of slag cement.
In addition, the ternary blends of portland cement, pumice, and
silica fume substantially led to an increase in the compressive
strength especially at higher replacement levels of silica fume as
References
observed from Fig. 9. The high pozzolanic activity of silica fume
provides a relatively high contribution to compressive strength
enhancement. The concrete having 50% OPC, 40% pumice and
10% silica fume had a compressive strength of 54 MPa at 28 days
and 58.3 MPa at 90 days, which is 16% and 21% higher than the
control concrete at the same ages, respectively.
significant potential in pozzolanic activity, especially while
mixing with silica fume. It was observed that SCC containing
fly ash and pumice had generally lower compressive strength
compared to the mixtures with slag. However, ternary blends
of pumice and silica fume compressive strengths exceeding that
of the control concrete.
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