Transport properties of ternary concrete mixtures containing natural zeolite with silica fume or fly ash

This paper reports on an experimental investigation into the performance of ternary concrete mixtures containing combinations of natural zeolite with silica fume or fly ash. The performance of the ternary mixtures is compared with the performance of binary mixtures with only one type of supplementary cementitious material (SCM) and a control mixture without any SCM. The experimental programme included strength and transport property evaluations of a control mixture, binary mixtures with 7.5% silica fume or 10% natural zeolite or 20% fly ash as partial replacements of Portland cement, and ternary mixtures containing 5% natural zeolite with 5% silica fume or 10% natural zeolite with 10% fly ash as partial replacements of Portland cement. The results of the study reveal considerable improvements in the transport properties of concrete through replacing a portion of Portland cement with combinations of natural zeolite with silica fume or fly ash. Generally, the ternary mixtures showed superior transport properties to those of the control and binary mixtures. Their compressive strengths, however, were lower than those of the binary mixtures.