Comparing the durability of self-compacting concretes and conventionally vibrated concretes in chloride rich environments

•Durability of SCC and vibrated concrete in chloride rich environments was examined.•Three types of SCC were benchmarked against equivalent vibrated concretes.•For OPC and OPC + PFA mixes vibrated concretes performed better than equivalent SCC.•The durability of SCCs and VCs was found to be similar for OPC + GGBS concretes.•Experimental design can have a large influence on durability comparisons of VC and SCC.

Self-compacting concrete (SCC) is an important new concrete technology, with ever increasing uptake in industry. Despite its widespread use, little is known about the durability of SCC in chloride rich environments. This paper seeks to build on existing knowledge in this area by presenting the details and results of an experimental programme which benchmarks the chloride resistance of SCCs against that of the more established traditional vibrated concretes. The comparative study utilised natural chloride migration testing to obtain chloride transport properties, and make service life predictions, for both ordinary Portland cement concretes, and concretes incorporating supplementary cementing materials. The study identified different patterns across the different concrete types considered. The experimental results, together with discussion of existing literature findings, indicate that the chloride resistance of conventional vibrated concretes can in some cases be greater than that of equivalent SCCs, depending on the parameters of the comparative study.