The effect of the mineralogy of coarse aggregate on the mechanical properties of high-strength concrete

Tests were carried out to study the effect of the mineralogy of coarse aggregate on the compressive, flexural, and splitting strengths. Two aggregate sizes (10 and 20 mm) were supplied locally from five different areas in Oman; namely Muscat, Bidbid, Sur, Nizwa and Sohar. Petrography analysis was carried out on all these samples. The water/binder ratio (w/b) was kept constant at 0.32 and silica fume and superplasticizers were used in all mixes. The 28-days compressive strength varied between 81.3 and 85.6 MPa for the 10 mm maximum aggregate size, and ranged between 72.5 and 77.5 MPa for the 20 mm maximum aggregate size. Therefore, use of smaller maximum aggregate size would give a higher strength and the mineralogy of the coarse aggregate would affect the strength of concrete.