Development of high strength self-compacting concrete with ground granulated blast furnace slag – a new mix design methodology

Abstract

Ground granulated blast furnace slag (GGBS), due to its pozzolanic nature, could be a great asset for the modern construction needs, because slag concretes can be of high performance, if appropriately designed. The use of GGBS as a cementitious material as well as fine filler is being increasingly advocated for the production of High Performance Concrete (HPC), Roller Compacted Concrete (RCC) and Self-Compacting Concrete (SCC), etc. However, for obtaining the required high performance in any of these concrete composites, slag should be properly proportioned so that the resulting concrete would satisfy both the strength and performance criteria requirements of the structure. The present paper is an effort towards presenting a new mix design methodology for the design of self-compacting GGBS concretes based on the efficiency concept. The methodology has already been successfully verified through a proper experimental investigation and the self-compacting slag concretes were evaluated for their self-compactability and strength characteristics. The results indicate that the proposed method is for proportioning mixes with maximum possible replacement of cement by GGBS for achieving self-compactability and strength.