Advances in Cement Research Advances in Cement Research, 2017, 29(3), 112–124

Volume 29 Issue 3 http://dx.doi.org/10.1680/jadcr.16.00100

Paper 1600100
Multi-sized fillers to improve strength and Received 13/07/2016; revised 15/11/2016; accepted 16/11/2016
flowability of concrete Published online ahead of print 16/12/2016
Keywords: calcium carbonate/fly ash (PFA)/microsilica/silica fume
Hanzic and Ho

ICE Publishing: All rights reserved

Multi-sized fillers to improve strength

and flowability of concrete
Lucija Hanzic PhD, IZS Johnny Ching Ming Ho MPhil, PhD, MHKIE, MIEAust, CPEng,
Post-doctoral Fellow, School of Civil Engineering, The University of NER, MIStructE, CEng
Queensland, Brisbane, QLD, Australia Senior Lecturer, School of Civil Engineering, The University of Queensland,
Brisbane, QLD, Australia (corresponding author: johnny.ho@uq.edu.au)

Concrete with a low carbon dioxide footprint (LCDF) contains less cementitious materials (CM) than ordinary concrete
and hence less cementitious paste. Besides the reduced carbon dioxide footprint, LCDF concrete offers other
advantages such as reduced cost as well as improved dimensional stability due to reduced hydration heat, creep and
shrinkage. Nevertheless, decreasing the quantity of CM has a negative impact on concrete workability. To restore
workability, multi-sized fillers are advocated to replace aggregates and CM. Generally, fillers can improve the packing
density of concrete due to the filling effect and thus more excess water or paste is available to facilitate spread and
flow rate. Two types of fillers were examined in this study – limestone with particles smaller than 75 μm and foundry
sand with particles of 75–400 μm. The particles of these two fillers are respectively similar and larger in size when
compared with cement. Concrete mixes with no fillers and with mono- or multi-sized fillers were prepared and tested
for flowability and strength. The results indicate that more superplasticiser is needed to achieve the same flowability
when fillers are added. It was also found that, at the same water/CM ratio, fillers can improve concrete strength, and
the use of multi-sized fillers can simultaneously improve the flowability and segregation resistance of concrete.

Notation popular because it can be easily made from low-cost and

DSP dosage of superplasticiser widely available materials. However, the increasing consump-
fc concrete compressive strength tion of concrete results in increased carbon dioxide emissions,
MCM weight of cementitious materials as cement production alone accounts for about 5% of all man-
MSP weight of superplasticiser made carbon dioxide emissions (Damtoft et al., 2008).
Q flow rate
SAagg surface area of aggregates The greenhouse gas emissions associated with the use of con-
SApowders surface area of powders crete can be efficiently decreased either by reducing the energy
SAsolids surface area of solids needed to produce cement or by reducing the quantity of
tv V-funnel time cement needed to produce concrete. Research into the first
upaste-ex volume of excess paste to aggregate ratio option has been actively conducted by many researchers, such
uvoids void ratio as Bolland and Sæther (1992), Gartner (2004), Damtoft et al.
uwater-ex volume of excess water to solid ratio (2008), Juenger et al. (2011) and Schneider et al. (2011). The
Vagg volume of aggregates study reported here investigated the second option in which a
Vcont volume of cylindrical container proportion of cement is replaced with other cementitious
Vpaste volume of paste materials (CM) or inert fillers to produce low carbon dioxide
Vsolids volume of solid constituent footprint (LCDF) concrete. The work studied methods to
VSP volume of superplasticiser design LCDF concrete based on water film thickness (WFT)
Vv volume of V-funnel and paste film thickness (PFT) principles, as described by
Vvoids volume of voids Wong and Kwan (2008a) and Li and Kwan (2013).
Vwater volume of water
Φagg dry packing density of aggregates Concrete with a LCDF differs from ordinary concrete in that
Φconc wet packing density of concrete substantial part of the cement is replaced by supplementary
Φsolids packing density of solids CM and fillers. The volume of cement paste in LCDF concrete
amounts to about 25–30 vol.% – considerably less than the
40 vol.% found in ordinary concrete. There are numerous
Introduction advantages of using LCDF, such as cost reduction due to the
Concrete is the most used man-made product in the world and lower cement content, improved sustainability due to the
its annual consumption is surpassed only by that of water. reduced carbon dioxide footprint and improved dimensional
Nearly 3 t (> 1 m3) of concrete are produced per person per stability of the concrete due to the reduced volume of paste
year and it is considered an indispensable construction and hence lower adiabatic temperature rise, creep and shrink-
material (Scrivener and Kirkpatrick, 2008). Concrete is so age strains (Kwan and Mora, 2001). The improved

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 Advances in Cement Research
Volume 29 Issue 3
dimensional stability of LCDF concrete makes it an ideal
material for concrete-filled steel-tube structures (Lai and Ho,
2015, 2016; Ouyang and Ho, 2015).
However, one of the major hurdles to market-scale production
of LCDF concrete is a considerable reduction in workability.
In fact, concrete without adequate workability has no value in
construction operations even if it has superior strength and
durability. The most effective way to overcome this problem is
to optimise the lubricating role of water and paste in the con-
crete mix, thereby maximising the workability for a given com-
bination of CM and aggregates (Powers, 1968).
The lubricating effect of water on the packing structure of a
given material was outlined by Iveson et al. (2001), who
described the various states of fine granules under different
degrees of liquid saturation. Iveson et al. note that the effect of
water on the packing of fine granules is two-fold. Initially,
when water is added to fine granular material, it creates a
liquid bridge between the particles. Due to surface tension, the
water pulls the particles together and improves the packing
density. The saturated state is reached when all interstitial
voids between the granules as well as pores within the granules
are filled with water. At this stage, the packing density is at its
maximum. Subsequent addition of water evokes a dispersal
effect: granules are pushed apart as the water film between
them increases and thus the packing density decreases. These
principles apply equally to concrete mixes where water is
added to CM and aggregates.
It can thus be postulated that a maximum packing density of
concrete will be achieved when an adequate quantity of water
is added to the dry ingredients. At this stage, the mixture is
saturated and further addition of water (i.e. excess water)
forms a lubricating film between the particles. Thus, by opti-
mising the packing density of the concrete, the workability can
be improved for a given amount of water.
A similar principle was suggested in the 1960s by Powers
(1968) and was subsequently adopted by other researchers to
produce high-strength concrete (DeLarrard, 1999; DeLarrard
and Sedran, 1994; Richard and Cheyrezy, 1995; Sedran et al.,
1996). However, a complete theory of packing density and its
effect on concrete properties was not developed at that time,
mainly because the effects of water and superplasticiser (SP)
on the packing density of concrete were not considered. Hence
the implementation of packing theory to optimise concrete
mix design was not completely successful.
It was not until the proposal of ‘wet packing theory’ by Wong
and Kwan (2008a) that understanding of packing density and
the effect of excess water on concrete mix design became more
comprehensive. In a series of initial works these authors pro-
posed an experimental method for the determination of the
wet packing density of cement paste with both water and SP
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Multi-sized fillers to improve strength and
flowability of concrete
Hanzic and Ho
considered (Kwan and Wong, 2008a, 2008b; Wong and Kwan,
2008a, 2008c).
By determining the wet packing density, it is possible to evalu-
ate the total excess water and hence the WFT as defined by
Kwan and Wong (2008b). Subsequently, additional work was
carried out to extend the concept of the WFT to the PFT and
to study the effects of paste coating on the workability of
mortar (Kwan and Li, 2012; Kwan and McKinley, 2014) and
concrete (Li and Kwan, 2013). These studies showed that the
workability of paste, mortar or concrete can be improved by
increasing the WFT or the PFT. Mix designs of highly work-
able cement paste, mortar and concrete can now be achieved
more scientifically by predicting the wet packing density, WFT
and PFT.
These principles were implemented in the mix design of LCDF
concrete in this study. The wet packing density and conse-
quently the WFT and PFT were optimised by limestone
powder and foundry sand as fillers. The particle size distri-
bution of the limestone used in this study was slightly finer
than that of cement. Limestone improves the workability of
concrete by enhancing the packing density via the filling effect
(DeLarrard, 1999). The particle size distribution of the
foundry sand used was finer than that of fine aggregates but
coarser than that of the powders used; foundry sand thus
enhances the packing density of the aggregates and hence less
paste is needed to fill up the interstitial voids. These fillers
were selected because limestone is abundant in nature and is
available at low cost, and foundry sand packs well in moist
conditions and is an environmentally friendly material because
of the possibility of recycling waste sand from sand casting
processes.
This paper reports on the flowability and strength of ten
concrete mixes incorporating multi-sized fillers in relation to
the packing density, WFT and PFT. In terms of workability,
the use of fillers resulted in a higher demand for SP to achieve
the required flowability. In terms of strength, the fillers
caused the 28-d strength to increase slightly at the same
water/cementitious materials (W/CM) ratio. In terms of segre-
gation resistance, foundry sand was found to increase cohesive-
ness by decreasing the PFT and maintaining a similar WFT,
while limestone decreased the WFT and maintained a similar
PFT, meaning that the concrete was slightly more workable at
a given segregation resistance.
Materials and methods
Materials
The cement used in this study was general-purpose Portland
cement complying with AS 3972 (SA, 2010). This type of
cement is primarily used in the construction industry in
Australia. Fly ash and silica fume, complying with AS 3582.1
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Volume 29 Issue 3 flowability of concrete
Hanzic and Ho

(SA, 1998) and AS/NZ 3582.3 (SA, 2002) respectively, were
also used. Limestone and foundry sand were used as fillers.
River sand was used as fine aggregate while the coarse aggre-
gate was crushed rock with a maximum grain size of 10 mm.
These two basic aggregates were supplied by local concrete
plants and were sieved to remove undersized and oversized
grains.
A third-generation polycarboxylate-based SP was used in all
the concrete mixes. This SP can effectively disperse fine
powders by electrostatic repulsion and steric hindrance (Li and
Kwan, 2015).
distribution is shown in Figure 1. It can be seen from the data
in Table 1 and Figure 1 that the particle size of limestone was
comparable to that of cement, making it suitable as a cement
replacement. The particle size of the foundry sand was close to
but slightly smaller than that of the fine aggregate, making it
suitable for replacing part of the aggregates in concrete.
Test methods
Testing was carried out in three stages. The first stage was
determination of the packing density of the blended aggregates.
The second stage was determination of the maximum packing
density of concrete, which depends on the water content. The
third stage comprised concrete performance tests.

The specific gravity and specific surface area (SSA) (m2/kg) of Tests on fresh concrete were performed immediately after
the materials are listed in Table 1 while the particle size mixing. Slump flow tests were carried out first, followed by
V-funnel tests and then segregation tests. Concrete used for
slump flow testing was placed back in the mixer and the
Table 1. Specific gravity and specific surface area (SSA) of whole batch was remixed for 30 s to eliminate thixotropic be-
materials used in concrete mixes
haviour. After remixing, V-funnel tests, cylinder casting for
Specific SSA: 28-d compressive strength tests and sieve segregation tests were
Material gravity m2/kg SSA method carried out.
Cement 3·1 365 Laser diffraction
Fly ash 2·2 416 Laser diffraction Packing density
Silica fume 2·4 6000 Supplier data
The packing density of aggregates was determined in the dry
Limestone 2·7 473 Laser diffraction
Foundry sand 2·7 39·3 Laser diffraction condition because the aggregate particles were large enough
Fine aggregate 2·7 9·7 Laser diffraction for gravity to dominate over the surface tension and inter-
Coarse aggregate 2·9 0·2 Calculated from particle forces. Aggregates were measured out in the required
particle size volumetric proportion and thoroughly blended by hand.
distribution
A cylindrical container with a nominal volume of 5 l, comply-
Superplasticiser 1·065 NA NA
Water 1·0 NA NA ing with BS EN 1097-3 (BSI, 1998), was gradually filled with
the aggregate mixture. Manual rodding, tapping and an

100

90

80
Cumulative passing: wt.%

70

60
10 mm aggregate
50
River sand
40
Foundry sand
30 Limestone

20 Fly ash

Cement
10

0
0·0001 0·001 0·01 0·1 1 10 100
Size: log mm

Figure 1. Particle size distribution of powders and aggregates

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 Advances in Cement Research
Volume 29 Issue 3
external vibration table were used for compaction to ensure
that the maximum packing density was achieved, whereupon
surplus aggregate was removed so that volume of the cylindri-
cal container (Vcont) was occupied by aggregates and voids.
Thus
1: Vcont ¼ Vsolids þ Vvoids
where Vsolids (m3) is the volume of solid constituents, in this
case aggregates, and Vvoids (m3) is the volume of voids between
the solid particles.
The mass of compacted aggregate inside the container was
measured. This was converted into volume using the values of
specific gravity given in Table 1 and the respective volumetric
proportion. The packing density (Φsolids) was then obtained as
Vsolids
2: Φsolids ¼
Vcont
The packing density of the concrete was then determined. The
packing density of concrete depends strongly on the packing
condition of powders, which have relatively strong inter-particle
forces that cause agglomeration. Therefore, the wet method
developed by Wong and Kwan (2008a) for determining the
packing density of powders was adopted. In summary, dry
powders and aggregates were first blended, and then water and
SP were added in increments. A cylindrical container with a
nominal volume of 5 l was filled after each increment and com-
pacted on a vibration table with appropriate manual rodding.
The weight of the concrete mix was measured and the volume
of each constituent calculated. The packing density was deter-
mined as per Equation 2 but, in this case, the solids include
aggregates and powders while voids are partially or completely
filled with water and SP. This procedure was repeated for each
increment and the maximum value obtained from the series of
tests with different W/CM ratios was taken as the final packing
density result.
In relation to packing density, the voids ratio (uvoids) was deter-
mined as
Vvoids 1
Φsolids
3: uvoids ¼ ¼
Vsolids Φsolids
Equivalently, the paste ratio and water ratio can be defined as
in Equations 7 and 9 respectively.
Slump flow
The slump flow test was carried out as per BS EN 12350-8
(BSI, 2010a). The concrete was scooped out of the mixer into
a slump cone, which was filled without rodding. The cone was
lifted vertically over a period of 1–3 s. Once the flow of con-
crete had stabilised, the diameter of concrete spread was
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Multi-sized fillers to improve strength and
flowability of concrete
Hanzic and Ho
measured in two perpendicular directions. The slump flow
(SF) of the concrete was then taken as the average of the two
measurements.
V-funnel flow rate
To determine the flow rate of concrete, V-funnel testing was
performed in accordance with BS EN 12350-9 (BSI, 2010b).
Concrete was scooped out of the mixer and fed into a V-funnel
with the discharge gate closed. Once the funnel was full, the
gate was opened and the concrete allowed to flow into a con-
tainer. The time was measured from the moment the gate
opened was until it was possible to see vertically through the
funnel into the container for the first time. The V-funnel time
was then converted into flow rate Q (m3/s) using
Vv
4: Q¼
tv
where Vv (m3) is volume of the V-funnel and tv (s) is the time
required for concrete to flow out of V-funnel (i.e. the V-funnel
time).
Sieve segregation
Sieve segregation testing was carried out as per BS EN 12350-
11 (BSI, 2010c). Concrete was collected in a bucket and left to
rest for 15 min for sedimentation to take place before it was
taken for sieve segregation testing. At least 2 l of each concrete
sample was poured onto a sieve with 5 mm square apertures
from a height of about 500 mm. The concrete was left undis-
turbed for 2 min so that the paste that could not adhere to the
aggregates dripped through and was collected on a receiver
underneath the sieve. The collected paste was weighed and the
segregated portion (SR) (wt%) was calculated as the percen-
tage of the paste to the total weight of concrete placed on the
sieve.
Compressive strength
Six standard cylinders of 100 mm diameter were cast from
each mix and three of them were tested for compressive
strength at age 28 d. If the results obtained were not close, the
rest of the cylinders were tested. Tests were performed accord-
ing to AS 1012.9 (SA, 2014) and the average compressive
strength ( fc, in Pa) was calculated.
Mix design and concrete preparation
A total of ten concrete mixes were designed and tested. All
mixes were designed with a volumetric fraction of paste of 0·4,
with the rest of the volume filled with aggregates. The W/CM
ratio was fixed at 0·4 by weight in order to eliminate the effect
of water on concrete strength.
The dosage of superplasticiser was based on the cumulative
surface area of the powder materials. This approach, which
differs from the common method where SP dosage is specified
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Volume 29 Issue 3 flowability of concrete
Hanzic and Ho

as weight percent of CM, can be justified in two ways. First,
the mechanism of SPs is to disperse CM through electrostatic
repulsion between particles produced by imparting similar
electrostatic charges onto the particles’ surface as well as
through steric repulsion due to wrapping of the particles with
co-polymer side chains on their surface (Li and Kwan, 2015);
hence the effectiveness of SP is actually dependent on the
surface area of the particles rather than weight. Second, SPs
also disperse fine powder (≤75 μm) to reduce agglomeration
(Li and Kwan, 2015).
Table 2 lists the volumetric composition of powders and aggre-
gates for the four groups.
With regard to the fillers, it should be noted that limestone
was used to replace CM because of its fine size (≤75 μm) and
was therefore considered part of the paste (i.e. powder paste).
On the contrary, because of its larger particle size, the foundry
sand replaced basic aggregates. In both cases the volumetric
fraction of the paste (including the volume of limestone)
remained the same.

For these reasons, the effectiveness of SPs can be wrongly eval-
uated if only the CM are taken into account without consider-
ing other fine powders. It is then reasonable to determine the
SP dosage in relation to the surface area of powder rather than
the weight of CM. The SP dosage (DSP, in m3/m2) was there-
fore calculated as
A 70 l pan mixer was used to mix the concrete. Dry aggregates
and powders were first mixed for 2 min and then water was
added and mixing continued for 3 min. SP was added in incre-
ments and mixed for at least 5 min until the proper consistency
was achieved. The whole mixing process was normally com-
pleted in less than 15 min.

VSP
5: DSP ¼
SApowders
where VSP (m3/m3) is the volume of SP per 1·0 m3 of concrete
and SApowders (m2/m3) is the cumulative surface area of
powders in 1·0 m3 of concrete. The SP dosage was adjusted
during mixing to obtain slump flows of not less than 500 mm.
The ten concrete mixes tested in this study were classified into
four groups based on dry components
& group A contained only cement and basic aggregates
(i.e. coarse and fine aggregates)
& group B contained cement, basic aggregates and
supplementary CM (i.e. fly ash and/or silica fume)
& group C contained cement, basic aggregates, fly ash and
mono-sized filler (i.e. limestone or foundry sand)
& group D contained cement, basic aggregate, fly ash
and multi-sized fillers (i.e. both limestone and foundry
sand).
Results
The test results of packing density are given in Table 3 while
Table 4 summarises the slump flow, V-funnel and sieve segre-
gation test results. The results of the slump flow and V-funnel
tests were also normalised by the SP dosage, and these are
listed in separate columns in Table 4. These results serve as an
assessment of flowability. The results of compression testing
are summarised in Table 5.
Packing density
The packing densities obtained for aggregates with the dry
method (Φagg) and for concrete with the wet method (Φconc)
are given in Table 3.
The results of dry packing density of aggregates (Φagg) show
the following.
& The lowest Φagg values were found for mixes 1–6, which
contained only 10 mm coarse aggregate and river sand fine
aggregate in the volumetric ratio 6:4. The average value

Table 2. Composition of concrete mixes (volume of water to powder = 0·4; volume of paste (i.e. water + powder) to concrete = 0·4;
volume of aggregate to concrete = 0·6; total volume of concrete = volume of paste + volume of aggregates)
Powders: vol.% Aggregates: vol.%

Group Mix Cement Fly ash Silica fume Limestone Foundry sand Fine Coarse SP: kg/m3

A 1 100 — — — — 40 60 5·19
B 2 70 30 — — — 40 60 4·95
3 90 — 10 — — 40 60 7·36
4 60 30 10 — — 40 60 6·27
C 5 53 22 — 25 — 40 60 8·93
6 40 17 — 43 — 40 60 13·12
7 70 30 — — 8 37 55 5·32
8 70 30 — — 16 34 50 5·32
D 9 61 26 — 13 4 38 58 6·46
10 53 23 — 24 8 37 55 7·99

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Table 3. Dry packing density of aggregates, wet packing density of concrete, excess paste ratio, paste film thickness, excess water ratio
and water film thickness (volume of paste to concrete = 0·4; volume of aggregate to concrete = 0·6; volume of paste to concrete = 0·4;
volume of aggregate to concrete = 0·6)
Group Mix Φagg Φconc upaste-ex PFT: μm uwater-ex:  10−3 WFT: μm

A 1 0·757 0·830 0·346 32·0 79·9 0·305

B 2 0·757 0·842 0·346 32·0 81·0 0·312
3 0·757 0·855 0·346 32·0 109·3 0·193
4 0·757 0·871 0·346 32·0 117·7 0·206
C 5 0·757 0·858 0·346 32·0 62·4 0·212
6 0·757 0·865 0·346 32·0 29·7 0·090
7 0·761 0·846 0·353 18·9 89·6 0·343
8 0·763 0·850 0·356 13·4 95·0 0·355
D 9 0·759 0·846 0·349 23·6 67·6 0·243
10 0·761 0·848 0·353 18·9 48·2 0·161

Table 4. Effect of superplasticiser dosage (DSP) on flowability of concrete mixes assessed via slump flow, V-funnel and sieve segregation
tests
Group Mix DSP:  10−9 m3/m2 SF: mma SF/DSP:  10−6 Q: l/sb Q/DSP:  10−8 m2/s SR: wt%c

A 1 24·8 650 26·2 1·88 7·55 2·95

B 2 23·5 665 28·3 2·06 8·75 0·38
3 15·9 600 37·7 1·72 10·8 1·18
4 13·3 650 48·6 1·64 12·3 1·09
C 5 36·3 770 21·2 0·81 2·23 13·3
6 45·9 750 16·3 0·29 0·63 8·09
7 25·8 660 25·6 1·88 7·26 1·74
8 25·8 645 25·0 1·81 7·01 1·93
D 9 28·6 690 24·1 1·17 4·07 1·16
10 32·5 800 24·6 0·90 2·76 10·2

a
Diameter of concrete spread obtained in slump flow test.
b
Flow rate obtained in V-funnel test.
c
Segregated portion obtained in sieve segregation test.

Table 5. Compressive strength ( fc) and normalised compressive & For mixes 7 and 10, with 8% foundry sand by volume of
strength for concrete mixes at 28 d aggregates (or about 5% by volume of concrete), Φagg
Group Mix fc: MPa fc/fc-mix 1 fc/fc-mix 2 increased slightly to 0·761, again due to increased filling
effect. The respective void/aggregate ratio was 0·314.
A 1 46·6 1·00 1·05
& Mix 8, which contained 16% foundry sand by volume of
B 2 44·4 0·95 1·00
3 64·9 1·39 1·46 aggregates (or about 10% by volume of concrete), showed
4 65·8 1·41 1·48 the greatest Φagg value of 0·763. The respective
C 5 49·2 1·06 1·11 void/aggregate ratio was 0·311.
6 63·8 1·37 1·44
7 51·2 1·10 1·15
8 55·8 1·20 1·26 The results of wet packing density of concrete (Φconc) reveal
D 9 53·1 1·14 1·20 the following
10 66·7 1·43 1·50
& The lowest Φconc value was obtained for mix 1, which did
not contain any supplementary CM and/or filler. This is
was 0·757. The respective void/aggregate ratio, which is the due to the poor packing of the narrow range of the size of
ratio of the volume of interstitial void of aggregates to the cement particles. Moreover, cement particles are very
volume of aggregates, was 0·321. angular in shape and hence give a poorer filling effect into
& For mix 9, containing 4% foundry sand by volume of the voids between aggregates.
aggregates (or about 2·5% by volume of concrete), Φagg & The highest packing density was obtained for mix 4, which
increased slightly to 0·759 due to the better filling effect of contained cement, fly ash and silica fume. This is due to
foundry sand into the voids between coarse and fine the better filling effect of the multi-sized fine particles, but
aggregates. The respective void/aggregate ratio was 0·318. also due to the fact that fly ash and silica fume are more

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 Advances in Cement Research
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spherical in shape than cement particles and they thus
reduce interstitial voids by reducing the wedging effect
(Kwan et al., 2013).
& Very high packing densities were obtained in the mixes
containing fillers. In mixes with limestone filler, the
packing density was improved due to the better packing
ability of fine materials to fill the voids between aggregates.
In mixes with foundry sand, the packing density improved
due to the better packing of the aggregates, which reduced
the interstitial voids.
Slump flow
Analysis of the SF/DSP ratio is given in Table 4: the largest
SF/DSP values were found in group B. This indicates that flow-
ability of concrete is effectively improved when a portion of
cement is replaced by supplementary CM. In particular, when
silica fume was used in mix 3, the slump flow obtained per
unit SP dosage was about 50% more than that in reference
mix 1, which indicates that the partial replacement of cement
by silica fume is beneficial to the deformability of concrete in
terms of slump flow. However, when part of the cement was
replaced by fly ash in mix 2, the slump flows obtained per unit
SP dosage were very close, indicating that no significant
change to the deformability of concrete is produced when a
portion of cement is replaced by fly ash. The combination of
silica fume and fly ash increased the SF/DSP ratio by a factor
of 1·8.
All mixes containing fillers, namely mixes 5 to 10, showed
SF/DSP ratios consistently less than that of mix 1 or 2. This
indicates that SP is less effective at improving the slump flow
of concrete if fillers such as limestone and foundry sand are
used. The SF/DSP ratio was lowest for mixes containing lime-
stone as the only filler.
V-funnel flow rate
As shown in Table 4, the results obtained from the V-funnel
tests are in agreement with the slump flow results. The largest
values of Q/DSP were again found for group B. In particular,
when silica fume was used in mix 3, the flow rate obtained per
unit SP dosage was about 50% more than that in reference mix
1, which indicates that the partial replacement of cement by
silica fume is beneficial to the flowability of concrete in terms
of V-funnel flow rate. However, when part of the cement was
replaced by fly ash (mix 2), the flow rates obtained per unit SP
dosage were very close, thus indicating that partial replacement
of cement by fly ash has no significant effect on the flowability
of concrete. While the addition of fly ash slightly increased the
Q/DSP ratio, the use of silica fume in mixes 3 and 4 increased
the ratio more significantly (by more than 50% when com-
pared with reference mix 1). Mixes 7 and 8, which contained
foundry sand as the only filler, showed slightly lower Q/DSP
values. Mixes 5, 6, 9 and 10, which contained limestone as the
only filler or one type of filler, had significantly lower Q/DSP
ratios compared with mix 2 containing fly ash.
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Multi-sized fillers to improve strength and
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Hanzic and Ho
The difference between the effect of limestone filler and foundry
sand was more pronounced in the V-funnel results. In principle,
fine materials increase the viscosity of the mortar as well as that
of the paste, and thereby causing flowability to decrease (Kwan
and Fung, 2012). Limestone, being much finer than foundry
sand, yields a more viscous paste, and thus reduces the flow-
ability of paste and mortar (Kwan and McKinley, 2014; Vikan
and Justnes, 2007). The results of V-funnel testing also indicate
that the use of SP is less effective with calcium-based materials
than with silicon-based materials.
Sieve segregation
The sieve segregation results in Table 4 show that the segre-
gated portion (SR) of all mixes was less than 15 wt%.
Therefore, all the mixes fulfil class SR2 requirements as stipu-
lated by the European guidelines for self-compacting concrete
(SCCEPG, 2005) and are all acceptable in terms of segregation
stability.
Compressive strength
Concrete compressive strength results are summarised in
Table 5. The table also lists the obtained compressive strengths
normalised by the compressive strength of mix 1 ( fc-mix 1) and
mix 2 ( fc-mix 2). It is worth noting that all mixes were designed
to have the same W/CM ratio of 0·4 by weight. Therefore, any
variations in strength should not be attributed to the effect of
water, but rather to the different combinations of supplemen-
tary CM and fillers.
The results for group B show that replacing cement with sup-
plementary CM has different effects. While replacing 30 vol.%
of cement by fly ash (mix 2) decreased the strength slightly (by
5%), replacing 10 vol.% of cement by silica fume (mix 3)
increased the strength considerably (by 40%). As both fly ash
and silica fume undergo pozzolanic reactions, which occur only
gradually after the products of cement hydration become avail-
able, the effect of the pozzolanic reaction on concrete strength
after 28 d is small. On the other hand, silica fume, which is an
ultra-fine material with surface area about 20 times that of
cement or fly ash, improved the packing considerably in mixes
3 and 4 due the much better filling effect. This offset the slow
pozzolanic reaction and caused the strength to increase.
The group C results are best compared with mix 2, which con-
tained 70 vol.% cement and 30 vol.% fly ash. For mixes 5 and
6, the cement content was reduced to 53 and 40 vol.% respect-
ively and the fly ash content to 22 and 17 vol.%. These
reductions are on behalf of the limestone, with contents
amounting to 25 and 43 vol.% in mixes 5 and 6. Although the
reactive powders (cement and fly ash) were replaced with inert
powder (limestone), the compressive strength of these mixes
was higher when compared with mix 2 – higher by 44% in the
case of mix 6. This can only be contributed to better packing
due to the better filling effect of the interstitial voids between
angular cement particles since limestone particles are finer
 Advances in Cement Research
Volume 29 Issue 3
than cement (SSA of 473 and 365 m2/kg for limestone and
cement respectively; see Table 1).
The other two mixes in group C (mixes 7 and 8) have the same
powder composition as mix 2 but different compositions of
aggregates. In this case, the coarse and fine aggregates were
reduced proportionally to accommodate for the foundry sand.
The compressive strengths of mixes 7 and 8 were 15% and
26% higher than that of mix 2. The strength improvement is
believed to be attributed to the improved packing of aggregates
due to better filling effect of the interstitial voids between
coarse and fine aggregates since the surface area of foundry
sand is four times the surface area of fine aggregate and
almost 200 times that of coarse aggregate. As the packing
density of mono-sized dry aggregates is normally low at
around 60% (Kwan and Mora, 2001), it is expected that the
packing of the aggregates and thus concrete strength increase
as different sizes of aggregates are incorporated and/or
replaced with finer foundry sand. The compressive strength
obtained for the mixes in group D was larger than that of
mix 2, due to the improved packing density by fly ash.
Discussion
Effect of SP
Figure 2(a) plots the slump flow against weight ratio of SP to
CM (MSP/MCM) while Figure 2(b) plots the slump flow
against the ratio of SP volume to powder surface area ratio
(VSP/SApowders). Both graphs show that, generally, the slump
flow increases with an increase in SP dosage. However, in
Figure 2(a), the slump flow and MSP/MCM ratio do not
present any apparent trend. The slump flow has a better
relationship with the volume/surface area ratio, as shown in
Figure 2(b). There is one interesting observation from
Figure 2(b) that is not apparent in Figure 2(a), which is that
the concretes without fillers are located on the left-hand side
of the graph whereas the concretes with filler(s) (i.e. limestone
or foundry sand or both) are on the right-hand side. This
phenomenon can be interpreted as more SP will be needed
for a concrete mix containing filler(s) to achieve a similar
slump flow to that without filler. This is because (a) limestone
filler, which does not hydrate with water to form paste, will
increase the yield stress of the powder paste and (b) foundry
sand increases the yield stress of the mortar because of the
increased total surface area of aggregates. Therefore, the
effect of SP will be presented in terms of volume/surface area
ratio.
To study the effect of SP on concrete flow rate, Figure 3 plots
the flow rate against VSP/SApowders. It is apparent that the flow
rate increases as the SP dosage increases until a certain
maximum value beyond which the flow rate reduces. This is
because the segregation of concrete increases as more SP is
added. The mortar is easily separated from aggregates during
flow and hence the internal friction increases between
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flowability of concrete
Hanzic and Ho
aggregates where there is less mortar for lubrication. More
importantly, it was observed that the addition of filler(s) to
concrete requires more SP to achieve the same flow as the vis-
cosity of the powder paste increases. Although it can be said
that the addition of fillers is not beneficial to the flowability of
concrete at the same dosage of SP, it should also be noted that
the cohesiveness (indicated by the larger viscosity) increases at
the same time. Hence, more SP can be added to increase the
flow rate of concrete without causing segregation. The concrete
is then more segregation resistant in the sense that the design
limits of flowability and cohesiveness that can be achieved con-
currently improve. This is discussed further in the next section
via the PFT and WFT.
To study the effects of SP on the segregation of concrete, the
SR of concrete is plotted against VSP/SApowders in Figure 4. It
is evident from the graph that the SR increases as SP dosage
increases. However, the effect of SP on SR is not the same for
the two types of concrete (i.e. mixes 1–4 for concrete without
filler and mixes 5–10 for concrete with filler(s)). Mixes 1–4 are
on the left-hand side of the graph with low SR, whereas mixes
5–10 are on the right-hand side of the graph with low and high
SR. It is evident that concrete with fillers (i.e. mixes 7, 8
and 9) needs more SP to achieve a similar value of SR as
those without filler (i.e. mixes 2 to 4). Concrete with fillers is
thus more resistant to segregation (or more cohesive) at a
given SP dosage. It can then be said that a higher cohesiveness
of concrete can be achieved by the same SP in concrete con-
taining filler(s), or the same cohesiveness can be achieved with
less SP. If the increase in concrete cohesiveness does not jeo-
pardise the flowability of concrete to an unacceptable level, the
overall concrete performance in terms of flowability and con-
sistency increases. The concrete is also more robust as it does
not easily segregate when more SP is added.
Paste film thickness and water film thickness
The general principle of designing a concrete mix with high
strength, workability and durability is to improve the packing
density of the aggregates, requiring less paste to fill up intersti-
tial voids and consequently more excess paste to coat the
surface of the aggregates and lubricate the concrete (Jones
et al., 2003; Kwan and Mora, 2001; Mora et al., 1998).
Therefore, at a given paste volume, the workability increases
because of the increased amount of excess paste and PFT. On
the other hand, for a prescribed workability demand, the paste
volume of the concrete can be decreased such that the dimen-
sional stability and hence durability can be improved.
Eventually, with a more densely packed structure, the strength
will be improved. Accordingly, increasing the packing density
of aggregates can improve the strength, workability and dura-
bility simultaneously.
In order to study the effect of packing density of aggregates
and excess paste on the performance of concrete, the PFTs
of all the tested concrete mixes were evaluated as follows
119
 Advances in Cement Research Multi-sized fillers to improve strength and
Volume 29 Issue 3 flowability of concrete
Hanzic and Ho

900

800

700

600

Group A
500
SF: mm

Group B
Group C
400
Group D
300

200

100

0
0 0·5 1·0 1·5 2·0 2·5 3·0 3·5 4·0
MSP /MCM: ×10–2 kg/kg
(a)

900

800

700

600
Group A
500
SF: mm

Group B
Groups C and D– concrete mixes
Groups A and B– concrete mixes Group C
400 with mono- or multi-sized fillers
without filler Group D

300

200

100

0
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50
VSP /SApowders : ×10–9 m3/m2
(b)

Figure 2. (a) Slump flow against weight of SP to CM ratio. (b) Slump flow against volume of SP to powder surface area ratio

using the results obtained in the packing density tests given in where Vpaste and Vagg (m3/m3) are the volume of paste and
Table 3 aggregate respectively per 1·0 m3 of concrete. Physically, the
meaning of PFT refers to the average thickness of the excess
upaste-ex paste, which is not trapped within the interstitial voids of the
6: PFT ¼ Vagg aggregates, coating the fine and coarse aggregates. However, as
SAagg
can be seen in Equations 6 and 7, the PFT does not include the
effect of fine powders. Thus, the impact of adding fillers, fly ash
where SAagg is the surface area of aggregates and upaste-ex is
or silica fume on the flowability performance cannot be reflected
ratio of excess paste to aggregates, given by
by solely the PFT, because the slump flow and flow rate will
depend on the change in yield stress and viscosity of the paste.
Vpaste 1
Φagg
7: upaste-ex ¼

Vagg Φagg According to Wong and Kwan (2008b) and Kwan and
Fung (2012), the rheological properties of paste and mortar

120
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 Advances in Cement Research Multi-sized fillers to improve strength and
Volume 29 Issue 3 flowability of concrete
Hanzic and Ho

2·5

Group A
2·0
Group B
Group C
Group D
1·5
Groups A and B–concrete mixes
Q: L /s

without filler

1·0

0·5 Groups C and D–concrete mixes

with mono-or multi-sized fillers

0
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50
VSP /SApowders: ×10–9 m3/m2)

Figure 3. Flow rate against volume of SP to powder surface area ratio

20

18

16
Group A
14 Group B
Group C
12 Group D
SR: %

10

4 Mixes 2, 3 and 4
Mixes 7, 8 and 9

0
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50
VSP /SApowders: ×10–9 m3/m2)

Figure 4. Segregation against volume of SP to powder surface area ratio

can be linked to the WFT. Equivalently, the WFT is calculated where Vwater and Vsolids (m3/m3) are the volume of water and
from solids (i.e. aggregate and powders) respectively per 1·0 m3 of
uwater-ex concrete. The calculation results are given in Table 3.
8: WFT ¼ Vsolids Physically, the meaning of the WFT refers to the average thick-
SAsolids
ness of the excess water, which is not trapped within the inter-
stitial voids of all solids (i.e. powders and aggregates), coating
where SAsolids is the surface area of solids and uwater-ex is the
the powders and aggregates.
excess water to solids ratio, given by

Vwater 1
Φconc From Table 3, it is interesting to see that the PFT for mixes
9: uwater-ex ¼

Vsolids Φconc 1–6 is the largest despite the poorest packing of the aggregates.
The PFT is 32·0 μm for these mixes, which then decreases to

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 Advances in Cement Research
Volume 29 Issue 3
23·6 (mix 9), 18·9 (mixes 7 and 10) and 13·4 μm (mix 8) as the
packing density of aggregates increases with the addition of
foundry sand. The PFT results reveal the following.
& Although the packing density was improved by the filling
effect when foundry sand was added, the surface area
increased at a more rapid rate than the improvement in the
packing density. Hence, the PFT drops.
& There is no definite relationship between just the PFT and
the flowability of concrete without considering other
factors. For instance, the PFT of mixes 1, 2, 3 and 4 was
larger than that of 7, 8, 9 and 10, hence higher SF/DSP and
Q/DSP values. Conversely, the PFT of mixes 5 and 6 was
larger than that of mixes 7 and 8, but the flowability was
lower. A possible explanation for this is that the PFT does
not take into account the variation of yield stress and
plastic viscosity of paste when fillers have been added.
& At the same PFT, there was a range of slump flow and
flow rates. No particular trend was observed except that
the SF/DSP and flow rates decreased as the content of fine
filler (≤75 μm, i.e. limestone) increased, as evidenced in
mixes 5 and 6.
It should be noted that the PFT does not differentiate between
cementitious paste and powder paste. In other words, an
increase in PFT can be due to an increase in the cementitious
paste by which the workability will increase and cohesiveness
will decrease, or an increase in powder paste by which the
cohesiveness will increase and flowability will decrease. This
indicates that some other critical factors are affecting the flow-
ability of concrete (e.g. effect of fillers on the rheology of the
paste). According to Wong and Kwan (2008b) and Kwan and
Fung (2009), the rheological properties of paste and mortar
can be linked to the WFT. The WFT of all concrete mixes was
determined in the manner stipulated by Li and Kwan (2013)
(Equations 8 and 9) and the values obtained are listed in
Table 3. The following may be noted from Tables 3 and 4.
& At the same PFT, the SF/DSP and Q/DSP of concrete
increases as WFT increases. That is, at PFT = 32·0 μm,
mix 2 > mix 1 > mix 5 > mix 6 when no silica fume is added
and mix 4 > mix 3 when silica fume is added; at
PFT = 18·9 μm, mix 7 > mix 10. Here, the comparison is
separated into concrete with and without silica fume. The
reason for this is because calculation of the effect of SP on
silica fume was evaluated based on the entire surface area.
In reality, because of its ultra-fineness, possible
agglomeration of silica fume in concrete is likely to occur
as the inter-particle force is more significant than the
gravitational force. In this case, the WFT is not the best
indicator for comparing the slump flow and flow rate of
concrete with and without silica fume unless the actual
surface area taking into account agglomeration of silica
fume can be obtained. Nevertheless, for predicting the
slump flow and flow rate of concrete containing silica
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Multi-sized fillers to improve strength and
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fume, WFT is still a good indicator (mix 4 has a larger
WFT and hence SF/DSP and Q/DSP).
& At similar WFT, the SF/DSP and Q/DSP remain more or
less constant despite changes in PFT (see mixes 1, 2, 7
and 8).
& Without any limestone filler added (i.e. only cementitious
paste in concrete), SF/DSP and Q/DSP increase as PFT
increases, indicating that PFT is a representative indicator
of concrete flowability (mixes 1 and 2 > mix 7 > mix 8).
& With limestone filler added (i.e. powder paste in concrete),
SF/DSP and Q/DSP increase as the WFT increases
(mix 5 > mix 6), indicating that the WFT is a better
indicator than PFT for flowability. In this case, the PFT is
the same for both mixes because of the same aggregate
and paste volume, which cannot reflect the change in
flowability performance due to the addition of filler that
converts part of the cementitious paste into powder paste,
and hence increases its yield stress and plastic viscosity.
From the above discussion it is clear that the PFT and WFT
have different effects on the flowability and segregation per-
formance of concrete. By definition of the WFT, there should
be a minimum water film coating on the solid particles’ surface
to overcome the internal friction and make the concrete
become flowable. Thus, a minimum WFT is needed for con-
crete flowability. On the other hand, in order to prevent paste
from separating from the aggregates, there should be a
maximum paste film coating the aggregates’ surface, beyond
which the paste can separate from the concrete mix easily
because of the diminishing blocking effect provided by the
aggregates. When foundry sand is added to the concrete mix at
the same W/CM ratio and cementitious paste volume, the PFT
and sometimes the WFT (depending on the relative increased
in packing density) decrease because of the increased surface
area of the solid particles and aggregates respectively. Hence,
the concrete becomes less flowable and more resistant to segre-
gation. Alternatively, if limestone filler is added at the same
W/CM ratio and cementitious paste volume, the total surface
area of solid particles and the total paste volume increase. The
WFT decreases at a similar PFT, increasing the plastic vis-
cosity of the paste (Felekoglu et al., 2006). On the one hand,
because a similar PFT can be maintained at the same cementi-
tious paste volume, the flowability will only be slightly
decreased due to the lower WFT. On the other hand, because
of the increased viscosity of the paste, the segregation resist-
ance will be improved. Hence, the concrete does not lose much
of its flowability but at the same time remains more resistant
to segregation. More interestingly, when both foundry sand
and limestone fillers are added to concrete, the segregation
resistance will increase and, depending on the volumetric pro-
portion of each of the fillers, the flowability of concrete may
improve at constant segregation resistance. Accordingly, the
advantages of using multi-sized fillers in concrete can now be
stated as increasing the flowability of concrete at the same seg-
regation resistance, or increasing the segregation resistance at
 Advances in Cement Research
Volume 29 Issue 3
the same flowability of concrete, or slightly increasing both
flowability and segregation resistance. More details about the
concurrent flowability and segregation stability performance of
concrete will be addressed in a forthcoming paper.
Conclusions
A general design philosophy for using fillers in low carbon
dioxide footprint (LCDF) concrete has been recommended.
By evaluating the packing density of the aggregates, the excess
paste that can coat the surface of aggregates was assessed.
A better aggregate packing effectively decreases the volume of
cementitious paste to attain a given workability. More impor-
tantly, for this given workability, a portion of the cementitious
materials (CM) can be replaced by limestone filler and the
same rheological properties can be maintained by slightly
increasing the superplasticiser (SP) dosage. Subsequently, the
concrete produced will have the same workability and less CM,
which improves the concrete durability by enhancing its dimen-
sional stability. The strength is also increased due to the
improved packing of particles. Hence, higher strength, work-
ability and durability can be achieved simultaneously. This
concrete is ‘greener’, of higher performance and, because of
the low cement content, lower cost.
In this work, ten concrete mixes with or without partial repla-
cement of cement by limestone as well as aggregates by
foundry sand were designed and tested for strength and flow-
ability performance. The following conclusions can be drawn
from this study.
& The effect of SP on the workability of concrete is better
expressed by the ratio of volume of SP to surface area of
powder instead of the weight ratio of SP to CM only.
& Using limestone and/or foundry sand filler to partially
replace CM and/or aggregates will require more SP to
achieve the same slump flow, flow rate and segregation
level as compared with concrete without filler.
& At the same water/CM ratio, partial replacement of
cement by silica fume can significantly increase the
concrete strength due to the improved packing structure.
The use of mono-sized fillers can slightly increase the
concrete strength despite the reduction in cement for the
same reason. At the same filler replacement ratio, the
use of multi-sized fillers further increases the concrete
strength.
& At the same paste film thickness (PFT), concrete
flowability increases as the water film thickness (WFT)
increases. At the same WFT, the flowability of concrete
remains more or less constant despite changes in PFT. The
WFT is thus a more representative indicator of flowability
of concrete.
& The PFT is only a representative indicator of concrete
flowability when no limestone filler is added. When
limestone is used, the theology of the paste changes, which
cannot be reflected by the PFT.
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Multi-sized fillers to improve strength and
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Hanzic and Ho
& The use of multi-sized fillers in concrete may improve the
flowability and segregation resistance of concrete
simultaneously and hence yield a more robust concrete.
Acknowledgements
The following suppliers are gratefully acknowledged for provid-
ing raw materials with compliments: BASF, Boral Concrete,
Cement Australia, Holcim, Sibelco, Sika, Southern Pacific
Sands, Sunstate Cement, Wagner Cement and XYPEX.
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