Influence of Mineral Admixtures on the Short and Long-term Performance of Steam-cured Concrete

In view of sustainable development, it is imperative that mineral admixtures be used to replace cement in the concrete industry. This paper presents a laboratory study on the performance of steam cured concrete by adding mineral admixtures. Performance of the concrete mixes was determined with short and longterm tests, which include compressive strength, dry shrinkage, anti-chloride permeability and pore structure. The test results, in general, showed that mineral admixtures improved the performance of concretes. Ground granular blast furnace slag (GGBS) contributed to both short and long-term properties of concrete, whereas Fly ash (FA) shows its beneficial effect in a relatively longer time. Adding of both GGBS and FA significantly improved the microstructure of steam cured concrete, and contributed more to the improvement of transport properties of concretes.