Mechanical and durability properties of high performance concretes containing supplementary cementitious materials

An experimental investigation was carried out to evaluate the mechanical and durability properties of high performance concretes containing supplementary cementitious materials in both binary and ternary systems. The mechanical properties were assessed from the compressive strength, whilst the durability characteristics were investigated in terms of chloride diffusion, electrical resistivity, air permeability and water absorption. The test variables included the type and the amount of supplementary cementitious materials (silica fume, fly ash and ground granulated blast-furnace slag). Portland cement was replaced with fly ash up to 40%, silica fume up to 15% and GGBS up to a level of 70%.The results confirmed that silica fume performs better than other supplementary cementitious materials for the strength development and bulk resistivity. The ternary mixes containing ground granulated blast-furnace slag/fly ash and silica fume performed the best amongst all the mixes to resist the chloride diffusion. The mix containing fly ash showed favourable permeation results. All the ternary combinations can be considered to have resulted in high performance concretes with excellent durability properties.