High Temperature Performance of Self-Compacting High-Volume Fly Ash Concrete Mixes

Quite often, concrete in structures is likely to get exposed to high temperatures, including an incident of fire. The strength-retention properties of concrete after such an exposure are of great importance in terms of the serviceability of buildings. This paper presents an experimental study on the strength retention and impermeability aspects of a set of self compacting, high-volume fly ash concrete mixes under elevated temperatures. Five self-compacting concrete mixes with a higher 60% level of cement replacement with fly-ash, are designed and the effects of elevated temperatures, in the range of 200-800(circle)C, on the physical, mechanical and durability properties of these mixes are assessed. The assessment is in terms of the weight losses and the reduction in the compressive strengths of concrete cubes and split tensile strengths of concrete cylinders. The durability characteristics are assessed in terms of RCPT test results on these mixes. Performances of these self compacting concrete mixes (SCC) at elevated temperatures are also compared with two normally-vibrated concrete mixes (NCs) of an equivalent M30 strength grade. Test results indicate that weight of the specimens significantly get reduced with an increase in the level of elevated temperature, with sharp variations beyond 600(circle)C. The experimental results also show that large improvements against chloride-ion penetration and better strength-retention at higher temperatures can be realized with self-compacting high-volume fly-ash concrete mixes additionally admixed with GGBFS and silica fume.