Nano Silica and Silica Fume for Durability Improvement and It's Impact on High Performance Concrete

The latest trend of concrete technology declared that concrete is not only needs strength but also durability. It is concurrently with the environmental issues that material durability is something that needs to be prioritized in its use. Various attempts have been made to produce concrete that has high durability. Many studies and experiments have been done partly by using admixtures of fly ash, and silica fume (FS). The latest development was the application of nano silica (NS) to improve the performance of concrete especially its durability. In this study, further experiments were done by using admixtures of nano silica with and without silica fume. The additives were applied to the concrete mix design of high performance concrete (HPC) with f'c 100 MPa as a reference, then mixed with NS in a percentage of 3%, 5%, 10%, 15% with and without silica fume. Further compressive strength, and durability testing were done with a standard DIN 1045, and RCPT standard ASTM C 1202. The experimental results shown that the optimum admixtures proportion were the application of NS 5% and SF 5%, which given the best of concrete compressive strength and durability. Furthermore, the combination of the used of nano silica with silica fume is more effective than nano silica without silica fume.