Materials and Structures (2007) 40:923–937
DOI 10.1617/s11527-007-9242-0
O R I G I N A L A RT I C L E
Effects of mineral admixtures on fresh and hardened
properties of self-compacting concretes: binary, ternary
and quaternary systems
Mehmet Gesoğlu Æ Erdoğan Özbay
Received: 9 October 2006 / Accepted: 8 March 2007 / Published online: 4 April 2007

RILEM 2007
Abstract The paper presented herein investi-
gates the effects of using supplementary cemen-
titious materials in binary, ternary, and
quaternary blends on the fresh and hardened
properties of self-compacting concretes (SCCs).
A total of 22 concrete mixtures were designed
having a constant water/binder ratio of 0.32 and
total binder content of 550 kg/m3. The control
mixture contained only portland cement (PC) as
the binder while the remaining mixtures incorpo-
rated binary, ternary, and quaternary cementi-
tious blends of PC, fly ash (FA), ground
granulated blast furnace slag (GGBFS), and silica
fume (SF). After mixing, the fresh properties of
the concretes were tested for slump flow time,
L-box height ratio, V-funnel flow time, setting
time, and viscosity. Moreover, compressive
strength, ultrasonic pulse velocity, and electrical
resistivity of the hardened concretes were mea-
sured. Test results have revealed that incorporat-
ing the mineral admixtures improved the fresh
M. Gesoğlu (&)
Department of Civil Engineering, Gaziantep
University, 27310 Gaziantep, Turkey
e-mail: mgesoglu@gantep.edu.tr
E. Özbay
Kilis Vocational High School, University
of Gaziantep, 79000 Kilis, Turkey
properties and rheology of the concrete mixtures.
The compressive strength and electrical resistivity
of the concretes with SF and GGBFS were much
higher than those of the control concrete.
Résumé Cet article examine les effets d’utilization
des additions minérales dans les mélanges binaires,
ternaires et quaternaires sur les propriétés fraı̂ches
et durcies des bétons autoplaçants. Au total, les 22
mélanges de bétons ont été formulés ayant un
rapport eau/liant constant de 0.32 et une teneur en
liant total de 550 kg/m3. Le mélange témoin a inclus
seulement un ciment portland comme le liant tandis
que le reste des mélanges ont incorporé des mélang-
es cimentaires binaires, ternaires et quaternaires du
ciment portland, cendre volante (CV), laitier de
haut fourneau (LHF), et fumée de silice (FS). Après
le malaxage, les propriétés fraı̂ches des bétons ont
été testées pour le temps d’étalement, le rapport de
hauteur à la L-Box, le temps d’écoulement au V-
funnel, le temps de prise, et la viscosité. De plus, la
résistance à la compression, la vitesse d’onde
ultrasonore, et la résistivité électrique des bétons
durcis ont été mesurées. Les résultats des tests ont
montré que l’incorporation des additions minérales
a amélioré les propriétés fraı̂ches et la rhéologie des
mélanges de béton. La résistance à la compression
et la résistivité électrique des bétons avec FS et LHF
étaient beaucoup plus élevées que celles du béton
témoin.
924
Keywords Electrical resistivity
Fresh
properties
Mineral admixtures
Self-compacting
concrete
Setting time
Viscosity
1 Introduction
Since its development in the late 1980s in Japan,
Self-Compacting Concrete (SCC) has brought a
new insight into the concrete technology so that
SCC has been considered as a quite revolution in
the construction industry. Its introduction repre-
sents a major technological advance which led to a
better quality of concrete, increased productivity
and improved the working environment on site
[1]. SCC is characterized by the high fluidity
under its own weight such that it can be placed
without vibration, easily fill small interstices of
formwork and it can be pumped through long
distances [2].
The common practice to produce SCC is to
limit the coarse aggregate content associated with
its maximum size and to use the lower water-
binder ratios together with appropriate superp-
lasticizers [3]. In order to achieve a SCC of high
fluidity and to prevent the segregation and
bleeding during transportation and placing, the
formulators have employed a high portland
cement (PC) content and used superplasticizer
and viscosity modifying admixtures [4–7]. How-
ever, the cost of such concretes were remarkably
higher associated with the use of high volume of
PC and chemical admixtures. In some cases the
savings in labor cost might offset the increased
cost. But the use of mineral admixtures such as fly
ash (FA), blast furnace slag and/or limestone filler
etc. reduced the material cost of the SCCs and
also improved fresh and hardened properties of
the concretes [8, 9].
A number of studies have been reported in the
literature concerning the use of mineral admix-
tures to enhance the self-compactibility charac-
teristics and to reduce the material cost of the
SCCs. Sonebi [10] reported that the incorporation
of pulverized fuel ash and limestone powder
lessened the requirement of superplasticizer
necessary to obtain the desired slump. The use
of these materials also improved the rheological
Materials and Structures (2007) 40:923–937
properties and reduced the risk of cracking of
concrete due to the heat of hydration, thus led to
more durable concrete [11–13]. Bouzoubau and
Lachemi [4] designed a SCC incorporating high
volumes of FA to reduce the cost. An economical
SCC having a compressive strength of 35 MPa
was produced at a water-binder ratio of 0.45 and
fly ash-cement replacement of 50%. It was found
in the work of Ghazel and Khayat that the
replacement of a large volume of cement by
limestone powder decreased the cement content
needed to achieve a given slump flow, viscosity,
and compressive strength at early age [14]. Nehdi
et al. [15] conducted a study to optimize the cost-
effective high volume replacement SCC for deep
foundation applications. It was concluded that
economically competitive SCC can be achieved
by replacing up to 50% of PC with mineral
admixtures. Incorporating such materials further
enhanced the rheological behavior and the com-
pressive strength even at early ages.
It was also reported that the use of mineral
admixtures significantly retarded the setting time
and lowered the early strength [9, 16]. These
negative effects may be remedied by the com-
bined use of the mineral admixtures. Park et al.
[17] investigated the influence of the cementitious
materials containing fine particles on the rheology
of the pastes. The mineral admixtures used were
finely ground granulated blast furnace slag
(GGBFS), FA, and silica fume (SF). Cementi-
tious pastes were designed as one component
(PC), two-components (PC-GGBFS, PC-FA, and
PC-SF), and three-components (PC-GGBFS-SF
and PC-FA-SF) systems. It was found for the
two-component system that yield stress and
viscosity decreased with replacing PC with
GGBFS and FA. In the case of PC-SF system,
however, yield stress and viscosity steeply
increased with increasing SF. For both of the
three-component systems the rheological proper-
ties of the cementitious pastes improved com-
pared with the PC-SF binary systems. To the
knowledge of the authors, however, the combined
use of the mineral admixtures, especially in
binary, ternary, and quaternary blends, has not
found adequate attention in the SCC applications
in the literature.
Materials and Structures (2007) 40:923–937 925

2 Objectives Table 2 Sieve analysis and physical properties of the fine

and coarse aggregates
The objective of the present paper is to investigate Sieve size Fine aggregate Coarse
the effects of using supplementary cementitious (mm) aggregate
River Crushed
materials in binary (two-component), ternary sand sand
(three-component), and quaternary (four-compo-
nent) blends on the fresh and hardened properties 16 100 100 100
8 100 100 31.5
of SCCs. In the study, FA, GGBFS, and SF were
4 86.6 95.4 1.0
used as the mineral admixtures. 2 56.7 63.3 0.5
1 37.7 39.1 0.5
0.5 25.7 28.4 0.5
0.25 6.7 16.4 0.4
3 Experimental program
Fineness modulus 2.87 2.57 5.66
Specific gravity 2.66 2.45 2.72
3.1 Materials Absorption (%) 0.55 0.92 0.45

An ASTM Type I PC was used to produce the

various SCC mixtures. In addition, a class F FA, a 3.2 Concrete mixture proportioning
GGBFS, and a SF were used as mineral admix-
tures. Table 1 summarizes physical properties and A total of 22 concrete mixtures were designed
chemical composition of the PC and mineral having a constant water/binder ratio of 0.32 and
admixtures used. The coarse aggregate used was a total binder content of 550 kg/m3. The control
river gravel with a nominal maximum size of mixture included only ordinary PC as the binder
16 mm. As fine aggregate, a mixture of natural while the remaining mixtures incorporated
river sand and crushed limestone was used with a binary (PC + FA, PC + GGBFS, PC + SF), ter-
maximum size of 5 mm. The particle size grada- nary (PC + FA + GGBFS, PC + FA + SF, PC +
tion obtained through the sieve analysis and GGBFS + SF) and quaternary (PC + FA +
physical properties of the fine and coarse aggre- GGBFS + SF) cementitious blends in which a
gates are presented in Table 2. A polycarboxylic- proportion of PC was replaced with the mineral
ether type superplasticizer (SP) with a specific admixtures. The replacement ratios for both FA
gravity of 1.07 was employed to achieve the and GGBFS were 20, 40, and 60% while those of
desired workability in all concrete mixtures. SF were 5, 10, and 15% by mass of total
cementitious materials. The mixture proportions
are summarized in Table 3 in which the mixtures
were designated according to the type and the
Table 1 Chemical composition and physical properties of amount of cementitious materials included. The
cement and mineral admixtures mixture M22 (22.5FA22.5GGBFS15SF), for
Chemical Portland Silica Fly GGBFS example, includes 22.5% FA, 22.5% GGBFS
analysis (%) cement fume ash and 15% SF. When preparing ternary and qua-
ternary mixtures, FA and GGBFS were consid-
CaO 62.58 0.45 4.24 34.12
ered as the similar type cementitious materials so
SiO2 20.25 90.36 56.2 36.41
Al2O3 5.31 0.71 20.17 10.39 that they were used in equal quantities in the
Fe2O3 4.04 1.31 6.69 0.69 mixtures which contained both of them.
MgO 2.82 – 1.92 10.26
SO3 2.73 0.41 0.49 –
3.3 Concrete casting and test specimens
K2O 0.92 1.52 1.89 0.97
Na2O 0.22 0.45 0.58 0.35
Loss of ignition 3.02 3.11 1.78 1.64 In the production of SCC, the mixing sequence
Specific gravity 3.15 2.2 2.25 2.79 and duration are very important. Thus, the
Blaine Fineness 3,260 21,080 2,870 4,180
procedure for batching and mixing proposed by
(cm2/g)
Khayat et al. [13] was employed to supply the
 926

Table 3 Concrete mixture proportioning

Mix description Mix ID W/B Water Binder PC FA GGBFS SF Natural Crushed sand Coarse Super
(kg/m3) (kg/m3) (kg/m3) (kg/m3) (kg/m3) (kg/m3) sand (kg/m3) aggregate plasticizer
(kg/m3) (kg/m3) (kg/m3)

Control-PC M1 0.32 176 550 550 0 0 0 522 206 935 8.43

20FA M2 0.32 176 550 440 110 0 0 512 202 917 7.43
40FA M3 0.32 176 550 330 220 0 0 502 198 899 7.43
60FA M4 0.32 176 550 220 330 0 0 492 194 881 6.67
20GGBFS M5 0.32 176 550 440 0 110 0 520 205 931 10.43
40GGBFS M6 0.32 176 550 330 0 220 0 518 204 928 10.00
60GGGBFS M7 0.32 176 550 220 0 330 0 516 204 924 8.89
5SF M8 0.32 176 550 522.5 0 0 27.5 519 205 930 9.56
10SF M9 0.32 176 550 495 0 0 55 516 204 925 10.67
15SF M10 0.32 176 550 467.5 0 0 82.5 513 203 920 12.00
15FA5SF M11 0.32 176 550 440 82.5 0 27.5 511 202 916 8.22
30FA10SF M12 0.32 176 550 330 165.0 0 55 501 198 898 9.11
45FA15SF M13 0.32 176 550 220 247.5 0 82.5 491 194 880 8.89
15GGBFS5SF M14 0.32 176 550 440 0 82.5 27.5 517 204 927 9.78
30GGBFS10SF M15 0.32 176 550 330 0 165 55 513 203 920 10.78
45GGBFS15SF M16 0.32 176 550 220 0 247.5 82.5 509 201 912 10.22
10FA10GGBFS M17 0.32 176 550 440 55 55 0 516 204 924 8.00
20FA20GGBFS M18 0.32 176 550 330 110 110 0 510 201 913 7.50
30FA30GGBFS M19 0.32 176 550 220 165 165 0 504 199 903 4.44
7.5FA7.5GGBFS5SF M20 0.32 176 550 440 41.3 41.3 27.5 514 203 922 6.40
15FA15GGBFS10SF M21 0.32 176 550 330 82.5 82.5 55.0 507 200 909 6.48
22.5FA22.5GGBFS15SF M22 0.32 176 550 220 123.8 123.8 82.5 500 197 896 8.00
Materials and Structures (2007) 40:923–937
Materials and Structures (2007) 40:923–937
same homogeneity and uniformity in all mixtures.
The batching sequence consisted of homogenizing
the fine and coarse aggregates for 30 s in a rotary
planetary mixer, then adding about half of the
mixing water into the mixer and continuing to mix
for one more minute. Thereafter, the aggregates
were left to absorb the water in the mixer for
1 min. After cement and mineral admixtures were
added, the mixing was resumed for another
minute. Finally, the SP with remaining water
was introduced, and the concrete was mixed for
3 min and then left for a 2 min rest. Eventually,
the concrete was mixed for additional 2 min to
complete the mixing sequence. The concretes
were designed to give a slump flow of 70 ± 3 cm
which was achieved by using the superplasticizer
at varying amounts. For this, trial batches were
produced for each mixture till the desired slump
flow was obtained.
Slump flow, V-funnel, L-box, Brookfield rhe-
ometer, and ELE penetration resistance instru-
ment were used to test the workability, passing
ability, viscosity, and setting time of SCCs. From
each concrete mixture, three 150 mm cubes and
three 100 · 200 mm cylinders were also taken for
measuring the compressive strength and electrical
resistivity of the concretes, respectively. Before
the compression tests, UPV measurements were
also conducted on the same samples. The cube
and cylinder specimens were cast full without any
compaction and vibration. 24 h after casting, they
were demoulded and stored in lime saturated
water until the date of testing at 28 days.
3.4 Test procedure
The concretes were designed for a constant
slump flow of 70 ± 3 cm. Additionally, the slump
flow time was measured for each mixture and,
L-box and V-funnel tests were performed
according to the procedure recommended by
EFNARC committee (European Federation for
Specialist Construction Chemicals and Concrete
Systems) [18].
Initial and final setting times of the SCC
mixtures were determined by means of a setting
time apparatus conforming the ASTM C/C 403M-
99 [19]. The test was performed on the mortar
which was obtained by sieving freshly mixed
927
concrete through a 5 mm sieve. Then the mortar
was placed in a 100 mm cube container and
stored in a controlled environment of 20 ± 2C
and 65 ± 5% relative humidity throughout the
test duration. At regular time intervals, the force
required to penetrate a 5 mm diameter needle
25 mm into the mortar was measured. From a
plot of penetration resistivity versus elapsed time,
the initial and final setting times were determined.
The former and the latter are defined as the times
at which the penetration resistance reaches values
of 3.5 and 27.6 MPa, respectively.
Viscosity was measured on the mortar phase of
the SCC. For this, a part of fresh concrete was wet
sieved through a 5 mm vibrating sieve as in the
case of the setting time measurement. The sepa-
rated matrix mortar was then taken as the sample
for determination of viscosity [20]. Viscosity
measurements were performed using a Brookfield
DV-E model viscometer. It is a rotational
viscometer with a smooth-walled concentric
cylinder. Viscosity of the concretes was measured
at different rotational speeds. Moreover, the time
dependent viscosity of the concretes were deter-
mined so as to prevent the inaccurate yield stress
and unusual viscosity readings at low stress levels
resulting from the wall slip [21]. The measure-
ments were realized at the seven rotational
speeds (1, 2.5, 5, 10, 20, 50, and 100 rpm) at
0, 20 and 40 min after mixing.
The hardened concretes were tested for com-
pressive strength, ultrasonic pulse velocity, and
electrical resistivity at 28 days as per relevant
ASTM standards. The average of three test
specimens was computed for the aforementioned
concrete properties.
4 Results and discussion
4.1 Slump flow time, L-box height ratio,
and V-funnel flow time
According to EFNARC, a concrete mixture can
only be classified as SCC if the requirements for
filling, passing and segregation resistivity charac-
teristics are fulfilled. The fresh properties of the
concretes measured, namely, slump flow time
(T500), slump flow diameter, V-funnel flow time
928 Materials and Structures (2007) 40:923–937

and L-box height ratios accompanied by the
minimum and maximum levels proposed by
ERNARC are presented in Table 4 for various
concrete mixtures of binary, ternary and quater-
nary systems.
Moreover, a general linear model analysis of
variance (GLM-ANOVA) was performed at a
0.05 level of significance to examine the variation
in the measured properties of the concretes in a
quantitative manner. For this, the fresh and
hardened properties of the concretes were
assigned as the dependent variables while the
types of the mineral admixtures used were the
factors. A statistical analysis was performed to
determine the statistically significant (p-le-
vel < 0.05) factors. The statistically insignificant
factors were then dropped from the model and
the sum of squares for these factors were com-
bined with the error sum of squares. This process
of disregarding the statistically insignificant factor
and subsequently adjusting the contributions of
other factors is known as pooling [22, 23]. Finally,
the degree of contribution of the each significant
factor was obtained after pooling so as to deter-
mine the level of its statistical importance in the
model. This indicates that higher the contribu-
tion, higher the influence of that mineral admix-
ture to that particular response [23]. The
contributions of the mineral admixtures on the
measured response are presented in Table 5 for
both the fresh and hardened properties of the
SSCs.
Slump flow diameters of all mixtures were kept
in the range of 670 to 730 mm throughout the
study, thus this property of the concretes was not
considered in the statistical assessment. However,
as seen in Table 4, the slump flow time (T500) was
generally less than 5 s except for the control
mixture (M1) indicating that the mineral admix-
tures remarkably reduced the slump flow time of
the SCC, especially when used at higher replace-
ment levels. The use of FA appeared to be the
most effective in the reduction of the slump
flow time. As clearly seen in Table 5 that the

Table 4 Fresh properties of the SCCs

Mix No Admixture Mix ID Slump flow L-box V-funnel
flow time
T500 (s) D (cm) T200 (s) T400 (s) H2/H1 (s)

M1 Control PC 6.0 67 7.0 17.0 0.788 14.0

M2 FA 20FA 4.0 73 5.0 7.0 0.929 17.0
M3 40FA 2.2 73 3.0 6.0 0.963 7.0
M4 60FA 2.2 73 3.0 7.0 0.904 14.0
M5 GGBFS 20GGBFS 3.2 70 3.0 7.5 0.882 11.0
M6 40GGBFS 3.3 70 5.0 15.0 0.938 15.0
M7 60GGBFS 1.2 73 3.0 13.0 0.951 13.0
M8 SF 5SF 3.0 69.5 7.0 14.0 0.878 13.3
M9 10SF 4.3 67.5 5.0 13.0 0.875 9.5
M10 15SF 5.0 68.5 6.0 18.0 0.863 12.1
M11 FA+SF 15FA5SF 2.0 70.5 6.0 18.0 0.927 7.1
M12 30FA10SF 2.2 73 1.2 4.0 0.938 7.3
M13 45FA15SF 2.2 73 1.2 3.2 0.963 8.2
M14 GGBFS+SF 15GGBFS5SF 2.3 73 1.5 3.8 0.939 13.6
M15 30GGBFS10SF 3.2 71 2.4 5.8 0.951 9.3
M16 45GGBFS15SF 4.0 72.5 4.0 6.0 0.938 8.0
M17 FA+GGBFS 10FA10GGBFS 2.0 73 2.0 4.1 0.963 8.1
M18 20FA20GGBFS 2.0 73 4.0 8.2 0.938 12.2
M19 30FA30GGBFS 2.0 73 4.0 9.0 0.976 6.3
M20 FA+GGBFS+SF 7.5FA7.5GGBFS5SF 5.0 67 3.0 6.4 0.833 13.1
M21 15FA15GGBFS10SF 4.0 67 2.3 6.4 0.875 8.3
M22 22.5FA22.5GGBFS15SF 3.0 70 3.0 6.2 0.875 9.3
Acceptance criteria of SCC suggested by ERNARC
Minimum 2 65 – – 0.8 6
Maximum 5 80 – – 1.0 12
Table 5 ANOVA table for the fresh and hardened properties of SCCs after pooling
Source of Statistical Concrete property
variation parameter
Slump flow H2/H1 V funnel Initial Final Viscosity at Compressive Electrical UPV
time ratio flow time set set T = 0 min strength resistivity

FA Degree of freedom 3 Pooled 3 Pooled Pooled Pooled 3 Pooled 3

Adjusted sum of 16.3 86.8 1,460 32,425
square
Adjusted mean 5.4 28.9 486.8 10,808
square
Computed F 5.86 7.27 25.94 8.40
p-level 0.0106 0.0031 0.0003 0.0002
Pure sum of square 13.5 74.838 1,404 28,564
Contribution (%) 41.0 37.5 70.0 37.9
Materials and Structures (2007) 40:923–937

GGBFS Degree of freedom Pooled Pooled Pooled 3 3 3 Pooled 3 Pooled

Adjusted sum of 138,192 100,116 168,958,889 102.3
square
Adjusted mean 46,064 33,372 56,319,630 34.1
square
Computed F 9.78 4.92 4.36 14.37
p-level 0.0008 0.0143 0.0215 0.0001
Pure sum of square 124,065 79,759 130,165,481 95.2
Contribution (%) 17.6 9.8 10.3 45.3

SF Degree of freedom Pooled Pooled 3 3 3 3 3 3 3

Adjusted sum of 53.2 497,316 615,742 905,100,740 262.6 72.1 23,550
square
Adjusted mean 17.7 165,772 205,247 301,700,247 87.5 24.0 7,850
square
Computed F 4.45 35 30 23.33 4.66 10.13 6.10
p-level 0.0199 0.0005 0.0001 0.0001 0.017 0.0007 0.0004
Pure sum of square 41.2 483,189 595,385 866,307,333 206.3 65.0 19,689
Contribution (%) 20.7 68.4 72.8 68.3 10.3 31.0 26.2

Error Degree of freedom 18 21 15 15 15 15 15 15 15

Adjusted sum of 16.7 0.05 59.7 70,633 101,784 193,967,038 281.5 35.6 19,304
square
Adjusted mean 0.9 0.002 4.0 4,709 6,786 12,931,136 18.8 2.4 1,287
square
Total sum of square 32.9 0.05 199.7 706,141 817,642 1,268,026,666 2,005 210.1 75,278
Adjusted R2 0.41 – 0.58 0.86 0.83 0.79 0.80 0.76 0.64
929
930 Materials and Structures (2007) 40:923–937

contribution of FA in the variation of the slump of concretes, the authors observed that all of the
flow time was 41% while the effects of SF and concrete mixtures filled the molds by their own
GGBFS were found to be statistically insignifi- weights and authors did not detect any segregation
cant. The concretes with SF binary systems had a or considerable bleeding in any of the mixtures
slump flow of as high as 5 s which decreased to 2 s during the slump flow test.
for most of the concretes with the ternary binder
system. In a similar way to the slump flow, all 4.2 Initial and final setting times
mixtures but the control satisfied the EFNARC
limitation given for the L-box height ratio. The Previous research indicates that setting times of
ratio of H2/H1 was in the range of 0.8–1 for all concrete are influenced by the water/binder ratio,
concrete mixtures containing one or more of the dosage, source and type of admixtures, as well as
supplementary cementitious materials. Especially, the composition of the cement used [16, 24–26].
the concretes with ternary systems (FA + In this study, all of the above mentioned criteria
GGBFS, FA + SF, or GGBFS + SF) provided were kept constant to obtain consistent results.
slightly better performance in terms of L-box test. Initial (IS) and final (FS) setting times for the
T200 and T400 times to be taken for the mixture to different concrete mixtures are depicted in Fig. 1.
reach a distance of 200 and 400 mm along the There is a clear trend that the binary use of FA
horizontal section from the sliding door of the and GGBFS with ordinary PC significantly pro-
L-box were also given in Table 4. These results longed the initial and final setting times of the
gave some indication about the easy flow of the SCCs. Moreover, the effect of increasing the
concrete mixtures with the mineral admixtures replacement level of both FA and GGBFS was to
compared to the control mixture. The time mea- increase further the setting times of the concretes.
sured via the V-funnel flow was in the range of Brooks et al. [16] attributed this retardation to
6.3–17 s. It was observed from Table 4 that apart the combined effect of the lower cement content
from the control one, some of the other concretes and the higher effective superplasticizer dosage
(M2, M4, M6, M7, M8, M10, M14, M18, and M20), relative to the weight of cement since part of the
particularly from the binary blends, did not fulfill cement was replaced by the mineral admixtures.
the EFNARC recommendation. However, most Of all 22 the concrete mixtures, the concretes
of the concretes made with the ternary as well as containing 60% FA and 60% GGBFS showed the
quaternary blends of FA, GGBFS, and SF yielded greatest retardation in initial and final setting
satisfactory performance. At the production stage times, respectively. In the literature, there is a

Fig. 1 Initial and final 1200

Final Set
setting times of the Initial Set
concretes 1000
Setting time (min)

800

600

400

200

0
15FA15GGBFS10SF

22.5FA22.5GGBFS15SF
5SF

1 0S F

15SF

15FA5SF

30FA10SF

45FA15SF

15GGBFS5SF

30GGBFS10SF

45GGBFS15SF

7.5FA7.5GGBFS5SF
Control-PC

20FA

40FA

60FA

20GGBFS

40GGBFS

60GGBFS

10FA10GGBFS

20FA20GGBFS

30FA30GGBFS

Mixture composition
Materials and Structures (2007) 40:923–937
general agreement on the retardation of IS and
FS times of the concretes containing FA and
GGBFS. The behavior seen in the SF concretes
was different from those with FA and GGBFS in
that the addition of SF generally reduced the IS
and FS times of the concretes, especially at 10 and
15% replacement levels. No general agreement
could be found in the literature considering the
effect of SF content on the setting times of
concretes. Some researchers [16, 24, 27] stated
that SF has retarding effect while some others
reported its accelerating effect on the setting
times. According to Pistilli et al. [28] and De
Almeida and Goncalves [29], for a lower water/
binder ratio concrete containing a superplasticizer,
the effect of SF was to reduce the setting times
when compared to those of control concrete
containing the same amount of superplasticizer.
When the concretes with ternary blends of PC,
SF, FA or GGBFS were evaluated from the view
point of setting time, it was observed that the
inclusion of SF remarkably diminished the delay in
the setting time of the concretes with only PC plus
FA or GGBFS. This finding was also confirmed by
the effect of the SF in IS and FS times (as high as
70%) as seen in Table 5. The concrete containing
20% FA had IS and FS times of 500 and 557 min,
respectively, while the values were 375 and
440 min for the concrete containing 15% FA and
5% SF. A similar behavior was observed in the case
of the concretes of SF and GGBFS in that the
addition of SF reduced the setting times of the
concretes. The combined use of the FA and
GGBFS in the concretes also slightly reduced both
the initial and final setting times of the concretes
when compared to those with the binary blends of
FA or GGBFS. Indeed, the concrete having a 10%
FA and 10% GGBFS had the IS and FS times of
481 and 538 min, respectively while the former and
the latter were 500 and 557 min for the companion
concrete with PC and FA only. It was generally
observed that the SF was the prevailing admixture
in reducing the setting time of the concretes. This
effect even became more pronounced in the case of
the quaternary concrete mixtures such that the
quaternary use of the cementitious materials
decreased the IS and FS times below those of the
control concrete at all replacement levels. More-
over, the mixture with 7.5% FA, 7.5% GGBFS and
931
5% SF had the shortest IS and FS times of 242 and
293 min, respectively.
4.3 Viscosity
The viscosity versus rotational speed plots of the
concrete mixtures were drawn which yielded
similar tendency for all SCC mixtures, irrespec-
tive of the measuring time. As reported by
Felekoglu et al. [21], the equation of l = acb
was well fitted with measurements, where l is the
viscosity in centipoise, and c is the rotational
speed in revolutions per minute. The constants a
and b were calculated using the best fit equations.
The correlation coefficients and the values of
constants a and b for all concrete mixtures are
given in Table 6. The time dependent variations
in the viscosity of the concretes are plotted in
Fig. 2 for the concretes with binary cementitious
blends. As seen from Fig. 2, the replacement
of FA and GGBFS for PC decreased the values
of viscosity, irrespective of time of measure-
ment. However, the SF concretes had consis-
tently higher viscosity values than that of the
control concrete. A similar result was also
reported by Ferraris et al. [30]. In their study,
the mixtures with FA represented the best rhe-
ological improvement while SF represented the
worst. It was shown that the replacement of
cement by FA and GGBFS resulted in a reduc-
tion in the water demand and the superplasticizer
dosage to maintain the same workability with the
control mixture. In contrast, the replacement of
cement by SF increased the superplasticizer
demand, and thus resulted in a more viscous
behavior.
The time dependent development of viscosity
of SCC with ternary/quaternary (M11–M22)
cementitious materials at different rotational
speeds are demonstrated in Fig. 3. It was
observed that the high rotational speed reduced
the viscosity of all of the concrete mixtures. This
indicated that the SCCs of high workability can
be obtained through mixing by high shear rate
blenders. Moreover, all of the concretes exhibited
more viscous behavior with time. Sun et al. [31]
reported a similar behavior in that viscosity
became nonlinear and increased with time. When
932 Materials and Structures (2007) 40:923–937

Table 6 The equation constants and regression coefficients of the best fit curves
Equation constants T = 0 min T = 20 min T = 40 min
2 2
a b R a b R a b R2

M1 4,103 –0.26 0.67 4,579 –0.35 0.63 5,711 –0.38 0.63

M2 4,707 –0.44 0.74 5,796 –0.50 0.83 6,871 –0.54 0.90
M3 3,052 –0.25 0.68 2,990 –0.23 0.63 4,079 –0.37 0.81
M4 2,088 –0.17 0.65 2,153 –0.12 0.49 2,141 –0.20 0.36
M5 3,894 –0.25 0.58 4,905 –0.35 0.75 6,582 –0.49 0.71
M6 1,973 –0.14 0.69 2,199 –0.18 0.85 2,567 –0.27 0.91
M7 1,898 –0.22 0.89 2,030 –0.25 0.78 2,595 –0.33 0.89
M8 6,176 –0.23 0.74 9,502 –0.42 0.88 13,066 –0.58 0.93
M9 15,246 –0.65 0.98 15,981 –0.67 0.97 16,433 –0.01 0.94
M10 17,918 –0.67 0.97 26,293 –0.85 0.92 32,500 –0.90 0.96
M11 4,539 –0.39 0.73 4,823 –0.39 0.77 5,912 –0.45 0.85
M12 7,281 –0.47 0.86 7,600 –0.44 0.89 7,701 –0.42 0.85
M13 4,245 –0.40 0.88 6,415 –0.45 0.91 7,379 –0.51 0.93
M14 3,586 –0.31 0.67 4,709 –0.33 0.69 6,175 –0.43 0.77
M15 6,603 –0.48 0.75 5,403 –0.24 0.70 5,372 –0.21 0.66
M16 9,133 –0.19 0.94 13,379 –0.38 0.83 17,846 –0.47 0.84
M17 2,050 –0.14 0.92 3,146 –0.24 0.86 3,776 –0.23 0.66
M18 1,459 –0.19 0.68 1,740 –0.27 0.87 2,352 –0.28 0.71
M19 5,753 –0.43 0.85 7,746 –0.52 0.94 8,761 –0.53 0.91
M20 13,292 –0.50 0.96 14,367 –0.53 0.96 18,524 –0.63 0.97
M21 17,424 –0.52 0.88 19,393 –0.52 0.88 22,957 –0.51 0.83
M22 18,209 –0.63 0.97 19,987 –0.65 0.96 20,498 –0.65 0.95

the ternary effect of cementitious materials were
evaluated (PC, FA and SF or mixtures M11–M13,
and PC, GGBFS and SF or mixtures M14–M16),
the effect of SF was to increase the viscosity of
SCC in comparison to that of the control con-
crete. Because the effects of using FA and
GGBFS were to decrease the viscosity of the
concretes, it can also be postulated from the test
results that among the mineral admixtures used,
the SF dominated the viscous behavior of the
concretes having the ternary blends. As seen in
Table 5, SF is the most effective mineral admix-
ture with 68% contribution in the viscosity
variation of SCCs. A similar trend was also
observed in the rheological behavior of the
concretes with the quaternary blends of PC, FA,
GGBFS and SF. However, in the case of the
ternary use of PC, FA and GGBFS the viscosity
decreased according to the control mixture.
4.4 Compressive strength
The test results for the compressive strength,
electrical resistivity, and ultrasonic pulse velocity
(UPV) of SCCs are presented in Table 7.
It was observed from Table 7 that there was a
marked reduction in the compressive strength of
the concretes with increasing FA content while
the concretes having GGBFS had comparable
strength values to that of the control concrete,
irrespective of the replacement level. The SF
concretes, on the other hand, had consistently
higher compressive strength than the control
concrete. In the case of ternary use of PC, FA
and SF, the compressive strength also gradually
decreased with the replacement ratio but the rate
of reduction was much less compared to the case
in the binary use of PC and FA. However, the
ternary use of PC, GGBFS and SF provided a
positive effect in increasing the compressive
strength, especially at higher replacement levels.
The concrete having 60% PC, 30% GGBFS, and
10% SF had a compressive strength of as high as
87.5 MPa at 28 days. The ternary use of PC, FA
and GGBFS also resulted in a reduction in the
compressive strength. Similarly, the concretes
with the quaternary blends of PC, FA, GGBFS
and SF had lower compressive strength than the
control concrete. The test results suggested that it
was the FA among the mineral admixtures used
Materials and Structures (2007) 40:923–937 933

Fig. 2 (a) Viscosity of 18000

SCC with binary a Control-PC
16000
cementitious materials at 20FA
14000
different rotational

Viscosity at T=0 (cP)

40FA
speeds (T = 0 min) (b) 12000 60FA
Viscosity of SCC with 10000 20GGBFS
binary cementitious
8000 40GGBFS
materials at different
rotational speeds 6000 60GGBFS

(T = 20 min) (c) Viscosity 4000

5SF
of SCC with binary 10SF
cementitious materials at 2000
15SF
different rotational 0
speeds (T = 40 min) 1 2.5 5 10 20 50 100
Rotational speed (rpm)

25000
b Control-PC

20FA
20000
Viscosity at T=20 (cP)

40FA

60FA
15000
20GGBFS

40GGBFS
10000
60GGBFS

5SF
5000
10SF

15SF
0
1 2.5 5 10 20 50 100
Rotational speed (rpm)

35000
c Control-PC

30000 20FA
Viscosit y at T=40 (cP)

40FA
25000
60FA
20000 20GGBFS

15000 40GGBFS

60GGBFS
10000
5SF

5000 10SF

15SF
0
1 2.5 5 10 20 50 100
Rotational speed (rpm)

that governed the reduction in the compressive
strength of the SCCs which had a contribution of
about 70% in this property of the concrete as
clearly seen in Table 5.
4.5 Electrical resistivity
The electrical resistivity of the 22 concrete mix-
tures was in the range of 12.8–25.8 kohm-cm. As
expected, the lowest electrical resistivity was
measured for the control concrete. It was observed
from Table 7 that the use of any of the cementi-
tious materials increased the electrical resistivity
of SCC compared to that of the reference con-
crete, especially at higher replacement levels.
There was a gradual increase in the electrical
resistivity of SCC with increasing cementitious
materials content. The concretes with the ternary
blends of PC, GGBFS and SF or quaternary blends
exhibited comparable performance in terms of
electrical resistivity at all replacement levels. Of
all 22 the concretes, the maximum electrical
934 Materials and Structures (2007) 40:923–937

Fig. 3 (a) Viscosity of 20000

SCC with ternary/
a Control-PC

18000 15FA5SF
quaternary cementitious 30FA10SF
16000
materials at different

Viscosity at T=0 (cP)

45FA15SF
rotational speeds 14000
15GGBFS5SF
(T = 0 min) (b) Viscosity 12000 30GGBFS10SF
of SCC with ternary/ 10000 45GGBFS15SF
quaternary cementitious 10FA10GGBFS
8000
materials at different 20FA20GGBFS

rotational speeds 6000 30FA30GGBFS

(T = 20 min) (c) Viscosity 4000 7.5FA7.5GGBFS5SF

of SCC with ternary/ 2000

15FA15GGBFS10SF

quaternary cementitious 22.5FA22.5GGBFS15SF

0
materials at different
1 2.5 5 10 20 50 100
rotational speeds
(T = 40 min) Rotational speed (rpm)

20000
b Control-PC

18000 15FA5SF

30FA10SF
16000
Viscosit y at T=2 0 (cP)

45FA15SF
14000
15GGBFS5SF

12000 30GGBFS10SF

10000 45GGBFS15SF

10FA10GGBFS
8000
20FA20GGBFS
6000 30FA30GGBFS

4000 7.5FA7.5GGBFS5SF

15FA15GGBFS10SF
2000
22.5FA22.5GGBFS15SF
0
1 2.5 5 10 20 50 100
Rotational speed (rpm)

20000
c Control-PC
18000 15FA5SF

16000 30FA10SF
Visco sity at T=4 0 (cP)

45FA15SF
14000
15GGBFS5SF
12000 30GGBFS10SF

10000 45GGBFS15SF

10FA10GGBFS
8000
20FA20GGBFS
6000 30FA30GGBFS

4000 7.5FA7.5GGBFS5SF

15FA15GGBFS10SF
2000
22.5FA22.5GGBFS15SF
0
1 2.5 5 10 20 50 100
Rotational speed (rpm)

resistivity of about 25.8 kohm-cm was achieved for
the concrete with 45% GGBFS and 15% SF. The
electrical resistivity of the SCCs was generally
controlled by the use of GGBFS and SF each of
which approximately having 45 and 31% contri-
bution, respectively, as given in Table 5.
4.6 Ultrasonic Pulse Velocity (UPV)
UPV of the concretes are given in Table 7. The
values ranged from 4,878 m/s to 5,093 m/s. Similar
to the compressive strength, the concrete with
30% GGBFS and 10% SF had the highest UPV
Materials and Structures (2007) 40:923–937 935

Table 7 Hardened concrete properties of SCCs

Mix No Mix ID Compressive Electrical resistivity UPV (m/s)
strength (MPa) (kohm-cm)

M1 Control-PC1 80.9 12.8 5,016

M2 20FA 69.8 13.3 5,042
M3 40FA 60.9 13.9 4,935
M4 60FA 47.5 14.8 4,901
M5 20GGBFS 75.1 13.8 4,959
M6 40 GGBFS 80.1 16.2 4,984
M7 60 GGBFS 78.1 17.7 4,901
M8 5SF 80.3 14.6 4,901
M9 10SF 85.6 17.5 5,027
M10 15SF 84.4 20.6 5,052
M11 15FA5SF 79.2 14.7 4,983
M12 30FA10SF 67.2 16.9 4,983
M13 45FA15SF 59.9 21.3 4,959
M14 15GGBFS5SF 79.6 15.8 4,878
M15 30GGBFS10SF 87.5 20.9 5,093
M16 45GGBFS15SF 84.5 25.8 4,901
M17 10FA10GGBFS 76.9 13.4 4,950
M18 20FA20GGBFS 62.2 14.7 4,926
M19 30FA30GGBFS 69.3 16.3 4,926
M20 7.5FA7.5GGBFS5SF 78.6 17.5 4,950
M21 15FA15 GGBFS 10SF 72.7 20.9 4,983
M22 22.5FA22.5GGBFS15SF 64.3 22.2 4,879

value. Whitehurst [32] classified the concretes as
excellent, good, doubtful, poor and very poor for
the UPV values of 4,500 m/s and above, 3,500–
4,500, 3,000–3,500, 2,000–3,000 and 2,000 m/s,
respectively. The concretes produced in this study
had UPV values of greater than 4,500 m/s so that
the rating of the concretes was found to be
excellent.
5 Conclusions
Based on the findings of the study the following
conclusions may be drawn:
1. Incorporating the mineral admixtures im-
proved fresh properties of the SCCs. Slump
flow time of the concretes containing any of
the mineral admixtures was shorter than that
of the control mixture with only PC.
2. All the mixtures but the control concrete
satisfied the EFNARC limitations given for
the L-box height ratio. Especially, the
concretes with ternary systems (PC + FA +
GGBFS, PC + FA + SF, or PC + GGBFS +
SF) provided slightly better performance in
terms of L-box test.
3. Apart from the control concrete, the mixtures
particularly containing binary blends of FA,
GGBFS and SF did not fulfill the EFNARC
recommendation in terms of V-funnel flow
time. However, the concretes made with the
ternary or quaternary blends of FA, GGBFS,
and SF generally yielded more satisfactory
performance.
4. There is a clear trend that the binary use of
FA or GGBFS with ordinary PC significantly
prolonged the initial and final setting times of
the SCCs. Use of SF, however, reduced both
the former and the latter. Even though using
the mineral admixtures in the ternary blends
reduced the setting time, the mixture incor-
porating quaternary blends of the mineral
admixtures had the shortest setting times,
even below those of the control mixture. Test
results suggested that it was the SF governed
the reduction in the setting time of mixtures.
5. Different from the SF, incorporation of FA
and GGBFS reduced the viscosity of the
concrete mixtures containing binary blends of
936
mineral admixtures. Using these materials in
ternary and quaternary blends improved the
rheology of the concretes when compared to
the mixtures with only PC and SF.
6. It was observed that the concretes containing
FA had generally lower compressive strength.
However, ternary blends of SF and GGBFS
provided a concrete with compressive
strength of as high as 87 MPa exceeding that
of the control concrete even at 28 days of age.
7. Using mineral admixtures enhanced the elec-
trical resistivity of the concretes with increas-
ing cementitious materials content. Of all 22
concretes, the maximum electrical resistivity
of about 25.8 kohm-cm was achieved for the
concrete with 45% GGBFS and 15% SF.
Acknowledgements Authors wish to thank to Mr.
Mustafa Şeker, Mr. Serkan Taşatan, and Mr. Bekir
Çeviksever for their assistance during the experiments.
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