The rheological properties of self-compacting concrete containing superplasticizer and air-entraining agent

This work investigates the effect of a polycarboxylate superplasticizer (SP) and a rosin resin type air-entraining agent (AE) on the rheological properties of powder-viscosity modifying admixture (VMA) combination type self-compacting concrete (SCC). The modified Bingham model was applied to describe the shear thickening behavior of this specific SCC. The results showed that both the yield stress and plastic viscosity of SCC deceased significantly while the shear thickening behavior of mixtures was intensified with an increase of SP dosage. The addition of AE led to an increase of yield stress and a decrease of plastic viscosity, whereas a high air content weakened the shear thickening behavior of SCC. The shear thickening behavior was found to be completely disappeared and shear thinning behavior occurred when the air content reached 8.7%, which indicated that increasing the air content was an easy and effective way to reduce the shear thickening behavior of SCC.