IJRET: International Journal of Research in Engineering and Technology eISSN: 2319-1163 | pISSN: 2321-7308

REVIEW ON BLENDED CONCRETES

G. Sree Lakshmi Devi1, P. Srinivasa Rao2, Srikanth Devi3

1
Research Scholar, JNT University Hyderabad, Kukatpally, Hyderabad 500085.India
2
Professor, JNT University Hyderabad, Kukatpally, Hyderabad 500085.India
3
Assistant Professor, MREC, Hyderabad, India

Abstract
The paper presents the studies on properties of blended concretes containing various mineral admixtuers like fly ash, silica fume,
ground granulated blast furnace slag and metakaolin as partial replacement to cement. By addition of these admixtures reduces
the cement content so that it can minimize the enivornment impact from the producion of cement.Various properties of blended
concretes are reviewed from different research articles.

Keywords- Blended Concrete, Binary Blended, Triple Blended, Quaternary Blended Concretes, Strength Properties,
Durability Properties
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1. INTRODUCTION 1.1.1 Fly Ash

Extensively used material for construction is concrete all It is a by-product from thermal power plants and it is most
over the world . Concrete can generally be produced of available supplementary Cementitious material (SCM)’s in
locally available constituents, it can be cast into wide variety the world approximately 600 Million tonnes. It indicates
of structural configurations, and requires minimal potential for the use of larger amounts of Fly ash in concrete
maintenance during service. It is attractive in many but at early ages of concrete containing high volume FA
applications because it offers considerable strength at a effect the properties of concrete like strength development
relatively low cost. To get the high strength for concrete by and lower durability performance. Coming to about fly ash it
reducing the water content can achieve by adding the composed of silica, alumina and iron having average particle
chemical admixture like water reducing agents to concrete. In size of around 35 microns in glassy and spherical shapes.
some cases high strength requirement is not sufficient even Different researchers made study on fineness of fly ash effect
other properties also to be enhanced like durability, low on concrete and it was concluded that as fineness of fly ash
permeability and good workability. For this purpose increases compressive strength of concrete increases. When
pozzolanic materials are incorporating in to concrete like fly fly ash incorporation in concrete it reduces the heat of
ash , silica , ggbs..etc those are called as mineral admixtures. hydration, increases the fluidity of concrete. In the presence
Incorporation of these admixture not only enhance the of moisture fly ash gives meta-stable alumino-sillcates that
properties of concrete they also reduces the cement content react with calcium ions, this reaction forms silica hydrates.
in concrete . The reduction of cement content means it
minimise the environment impacts caused in cement 1.1.2 Silica Fume
production process and most of these materials are industrial
by-products , problems with disposal also can be solved. It is by-product in the production of metallic silicon or
ferrosilicon alloys composed of submicron particles of SiO2.
Admixture are added to batch immediately or during mixing Norwegain researchers were first utilization of Silica fume in
to modify one or more of the properties of concrete in fresh concrete in 1952.SF particle size much smaller than OPC of
and hardened state. the use of mineral admixture as partial about 0.1 to0.2 microns. Yearly silica fume production is
replacement to cement in concrete is common practice in there about 1 to 1.5 million tonnes per year throughout
modern concrete technology. in this literature reviewed the worldwide14. Silica fume is high reactive and extreme fine
effects of mineral admixtures on concrete properties in material, it strengthens Interfacial Transition Zone of
different forms like binary, ternary and quaternary blends. the concrete. Most of the researchers found that in addition to fly
effects like workability , strength development , resistance to ash when silica fume added to concrete it provides significant
alkali-aggregate reactions and sulphate attacks etc. amount of CSH at early ages.

1.1 Mineral Admixtures 1.1.3 Ground Granulated Blast Furnace Slag

Some of these admixture properties and sources are briefly It is a by-product obtained in iron manufacture in blast
described as follows. furnace heated iron ore, lime stone, and coke between 1400
to 1600 0C, molten slag quenched by water into fine
granulated slag it composed of calcium-alumino silicates of
glassy shape. Partial replacement of GGBS to cement in

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IJRET: International Journal of Research in Engineering and Technology eISSN: 2319-1163 | pISSN: 2321-7308

concrete, it makes concrete more durable than conventional 2.2 Compressive Strength
concrete but it may slower the initial hydration compared to
conventional concrete because of denseness of cement paste. Strength development of the concrete replacing with fly ash,
Workability of concrete also becomes good even up to 50 % the compressive strength of the concrete with 50 % fly ash
GGBS replacement level with various w/c ratios. replacement is low. With 0.6 water-binder ratio, at 28 days
the strength of fly ash concrete is 59 % of Portland cement
concrete, at 90 days it was 75 %, which shows the significant
1.1.4 Metakaolin
strength development rate of fly ash concrete between 28 and
It is obtained by heating of Kaolin to 650 to 900 0C followed 90 days. With water-binder ratio 0.38, the strength of fly ash
by grinding to achieve finer material. It composed of reactive concrete is about 85 % at 28 and 90 days. Comparing these
silica, alkalies, carbon, sulphur compounds. In harden state it two, fly ash is more effective at low water-binder ratio(5).At
reduce the porosity. It reacts with calcium hydroxide and lower water binder ratios ,fly ash contributes developing
form CSH, it is most required in strength development phase. strength of concrete by the filling effect of pores and by
It gives denseness to concrete due to high fineness yields to enhancing the cement hydration, in long term compressive
lower permeability. Compared SF blended concrete, it gives strength has found to increase ,up to 30 % of FA replacement
lower porosity and finer pore size distribution. It also effect level (6).
the setting time of concrete.
According to different studies made on GGBS replacement to
2. BINARY BLENDED CONCRETE cement, early age strengths values of GGBS concrete are
lower than the control mixtures. As the curing process is in
2.1 Properties of Fresh Concrete progress, the GGBS concrete has showed more strength
Effect of water-to- binder ratio on binary blended concrete values than control mixtures. Strength gains takes longer time
using class F & Class C fly ash, Slag used as replacement to in GGBS blended concrete due to pozzolanic reaction is slow
cement 15%,30 % of fly ash of different class and 20 %,40% and depends on the Calcium hydroxide availability and as
of slag was replaced with 0.4,0.45 water to binder ratio. A increase in GGBS content strength gain increase in time. The
fixed cementitious content of 356 kg/m3 was used for all optimum level of GGBS content to get the maximized
mixtures; the ratio of FA to TA was selected as 0.42 compressive strength is at about 55-59% of the total binder
According to ASTM C143 workability was investigated. For content (3).
a fixed w/b ratio, an increase of dosage of class F fly ash,
the workability increased because class F fly ash particles Compressive strength of concrete containing silica fume are
reduces the inter particle friction in concrete mixtures there higher than control concrete mixtures at all ages and
by improvement in workability (Kosmatka et.al 2008).The increased with increase in dosage of silica fume because
highest slump was obtained by binary mixture having 15 and silica fume is much finer compared to other SCM .As a result
30 % of class F fly ash(1). of higher surface area ,the pozzolanic reaction proceeds
rapidly and strength quickly developed(2).
Silica fume was used as replacement to cement with a
variable of 2.5% up to 10 % with a w/b ratio 0.38 with a 2.3 Durability Properties
cement content of 420 kg/m3.The use of silica fume has Penetration of aggressive substance into concrete via micro
resulted increased water demand than the control mix(2). cracks or pores it leads to deterioration of concrete due to
this , it reduce useful service life of structures. This type of
When replacing cement with GGBS, water demand was deterioration may takes place due to sulphate attack, chloride
increased in the mix design as increasing with GGBS content penetration, alkali-silica reaction .It can be reduced by adding
is due to higher specific surface of GGBS particle. For a the Supplementary Cementitous Materials (SCMs).These
constant workability, water requirement is less compared to SCM's reduce the pores in concrete as well as increase its
control mixture as GGBS content increase3, GGBS added density.
partial replacement of 0, 15,30,50,70 and 90 % by weight.
Many researchers studied durability of concrete by
When replacing with metakaolin in concrete, it presence incorporating the SCM's like Fly ash, GGBS, Silica fume
reducing the workability and also setting time, and it requires with different test procedures most of them was evaluated
more super plasticiser compared to control mixtures. Due to using RCPT, because it gives good evaluation within short
high fineness of Metakaolin, addition of super plasticiser to duration. Some of the papers reviewed and summarised as
concrete with addition of metakaolin can keep the follows.
workability as constant with increasing the metakaolin
replacement to cement in concrete .Al-Akhras N.M4 studies M.Sharfuddin et. al7 replaced cement with fly ash and
reported that the workability of concrete with metakaolin GGBS in three levels (25,50 and 75 %) and also incorporated
with 5, 10 and 15 % replacement to cement with w/b ratio of silica fume 10% ,conducted RCPT after 7 days curing. The
0.5 and 0.6, slump was ranging from 70- 90 mm when the charge passed in control specimen was 2813 coulombs,
super plasticiser dosage increases with metakaolin dosage. charged passed in fly ash concrete 3323, 3926 and 6157
coulombs and GGBS incorporated concrete 1929, 1368 and
1727 coulombs. Where as in silica fume incorporated
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IJRET: International Journal of Research in Engineering and Technology eISSN: 2319-1163 | pISSN: 2321-7308

concrete was 1092 coulombs. Silica fume and GGBS 1. Silica fume tends t increase the water requirement owing
concrete exhibits lower electrical charge passed compared to to its small particles size .Silica fume cost is so high and its
control concrete .Fly ash concrete exhibits higher electrical workability is low as compared to fly ash or GGBS.
charge passed compare to all other specimens irrespective of 2. Replacing metakaolin in concrete reduces the workability
level of replacement. It is clearly indicated that the high and setting time.
volume fly ash concrete more permeable compare to other 3. The incorporation of 50% slag need ensure adequate
specimens, it’s due to the combine effect of high porosity and protection against Alkali-silica Reaction may lead to poor
lower relative amount of pozzolanic products. In this study resistance to de-icer salt scaling13.
observed that only 9 % reduction in the 25 % slag 4. Drawback of Fly ash addition to concrete is the reduction
replacement compared to the plain concrete, whereas fly ash of initial age strength development rate and setting time
concrete there is no reduction in the charge passed. increment 8.

Murthi et.al 8 investigated acid resistance of concrete of fly To overcome these drawbacks, researchers explored the
ash replacement to cement of different grades of concrete incorporation of more than one type of SCM's in concrete.
(M20, M30 and M40) with a replacement level of 20%. Acid
resistance assessed using mass loss by immersing cubes in The use of appropriately proportioned ternary blends allows
acid solutions (H2So4 and Hcl) and Strength Deterioration the effects of one SCM to compensate for the inherent
Factor of cubes expressed in percentage. Control specimens shortcomings of another. For example, the additions of silica
of all grades were severely deteriorated after immersing in fume to slag concrete can prevent the excessive bleeding
solutions up to 32 weeks. Fly ash concrete was exhibited only problems13.
10% of mass loss immersed up to 32 weeks, whereas control
specimens were loosed mass up to 19.6%. When compared to Many researchers used silica fume in ternary concrete in
addition to fly ash/Slag because it gives considerable
SDF values, Control specimens were more than 78%.
improvement in durability properties and mechanical
properties but the cost is so high , limited availability and
Kyong Yun Yeau et.al 9 presented experimental results of silica fume alone having a drawback of more water demand
chloride permeability of concrete was evaluated using two with a dosage of higher than 5 % 11. When slag incorporation
types of cement (Type I and Type V ) and replaced with in concrete gives a relatively low water demand, combining
GGBS (25 % ,40 % and 55 %) . The premature deterioration silica fume with slag in binary mixes can overcome the high
of concrete structure caused due to mainly penetration of water demand.
chloride .RCPT results were showed that permeability of
chloride ions into GGBS concrete specimens reduced as Ali Reza Bagheri 2 investigated mechanical and durability
period of curing or with increased amount of GGBS by properties of ternary concrete by combining silica fume and
binder weight. Type V cements was more permeable than low blast furnace reactive slag with different mix
Type I cement. When increasing volume of GGBS, chloride proportions. As stated in binary blended concrete ,the
ion concentration of type V cement was higher than of type I strength reduction in slag concrete and higher water demand
cement. in silica fume concrete was improved in ternary mix of slag
and silica fume blended concrete with 15 % slag and dosage
According to Sengul O10 research, incorporated silica fume of 2.5 , 5 , 7.5 and 10 % of silica fume. Whereas 30% slag
improves the bond of cement matrix and sand and it will mixes strength properties still have lower values compared to
enhance the freeze thaw resistance .Against chloride control mixes. For ternary mixes containing 50 % slag much
diffusivity, the concrete contain silica fume gives better lower than control mixes. It is due to the complete filling of
performance because of improved pore structure of cement pores in concrete with high volume of slag and affect the
paste and densification of aggregate -cement paste interface. pozzolanic action of silica fume has not able to compensate
the reduced slag activity caused by lower alkalinity.
Ali Reza Bagheri2 incorporated silica fume in concrete with
By the use of ternary mixes, 28 day durability properties of
various dosages (2.5,5,7.5 and 10 %) conducted RCPT
slag based blended concrete was increased compare to the
,results showed that there is reduction in charge passed at all
conventional concrete with addition of silica fume. Charge
ages due to incorporation of silica fume and the reduction passed through the specimens affected by the microstructure
increased for higher dosage of silica fume. when slag of paste and chemical composition of pore solution.
replacement in the concrete with a dosage of 15,30 and 50 % Durability has much more affect than the strength due to
,the results showed that with increasing slag content the effect of pore connectivity. In this study they used only low
resistance to chloride penetration is improved due it's filling reactivity slag. Similar results were observed in Roland
of pores and effect on microstructure of paste. Bleszynski et.al 12 researches, they concluded from the
various tests in outdoor and laboratory exposure conditions
3. TERNARY BLENDED CONCRETE that ternary mix containing Silica Fume and Blast Furnace
Slag offers increased resistance to Alkali Silica Reaction
Different Properties of concrete were improved with addition expansion, ingress of chloride ions salt scaling. Optimum
of SCM's .Incorporating of high volume of single type of results were obtained with 0.3 w/b ratio 5% of GGBS added
SCM may have negative impacts on concrete properties like to the 10% SF specimens in curing period of 120days in lime
saturated water.

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To overcome the drawback of fly ash replacement to cement was effected usage of super plasticizers in concrete, and also
in concrete by adding super finer material admixture like enhanced fluidity of paste, 28 days compressive strength.
silica fume addition to fly ash. Addition of Silica fume
increase the early age performance and Fly ash improves the 4. QUATERNARY BLENDED CONCRETE
harden concrete properties continuously13.
Quaternary blended concrete is also called as Green High
Alaa M.Rashad et.al14 investigated on ternary blended Performance Concrete, because cement was replacing to
concrete consisting of fly ash and silica fume with various maximum level with improving the properties better than
replacement levels (FA 60%, SF 10% and FA 50%, SF20%), binary and ternary blended concrete.
binary mix of 70 % of FA level and control concrete (CC).
when compared these mixture like CC vs FA60SF10 vs Yunsheng Zhang et.al 19 studied reduction of heat in
FA70 and FA50SF20 vs CC vs FA 70, when the 70 % hydration and reduction of super plasticizer usage with a
replacement of fly ash alone the compressive strength was combination of FA, SF and slag .By adding these mixture
reduced at all ages, the highest reduction was at 7 days of reduction in 3day heat of hydration. Wei Sun et.al 18
hydration. When incorporation of SF 10% with the 60 % FA, investigated corrosion properties of quaternary blended
the compressive strength was increased remarkably at all concrete containing FA ,SF and Slag .silica fume
ages 5.8% at 7days and 40% at 28 days related 70% of FA incorporation with fly ash or in quaternary mixture gives
replacement. Increasing the SF level to 20 % from 10% with higher resistance to steel corrosion.
combination of 50 % FA further increment in compressive
strength at all ages. According to Yanzhou Peng et.al 20 optimum usage of FA,
slag and SF are10%, 17% and 15 % by weight respectively.
P.Murthi et.al8 investigated on acid resistance of ternary
mixture containing silica fume and fly ash and compared 5. CONCLUSION
with the binary mixture containing fly ash and control Based on review of the different researches on blended
specimens Acid resistance evaluated by mass loss and concretes, conclusions as follows:
strength deterioration factor when specimens were immersed 1. The addition of SCM's in concrete to enhance the
in acid solutions. Ternary mixtures were less affected than properties of conventional concrete and decreasing the
that off binary and control specimens immersed in 5% H2So4. cement content so that it can reduce the harm to environment.
Silica fume affect the early ages resistance against 2.By addition of single type of SCM may improve the some
permeability and fly ash affect the latter age’s permeability properties of concrete based on SCM characteristics it may
by preventing the entry of solution into concrete. affect the other properties like early age properties ,
resistance to penetration of aggressive substance ,setting time
Addition of silica fume may increase the early age strength in and workability etc.
the ternary mixture but these substances are generally 3. Multi blended concretes like ternary and quaternary to
alkaline in nature which may lead to alkali-silica counteract the drawbacks of binary blended concretes.
reaction21.Silica fume alone may affect the early age 4. Still more research is required to study the behaviour of
properties, some studies showed that it may not affect the multi blended concretes to enhance the optimum usage of
early age properties of High volume fly ash -high strength supplementary cementitious materials.
concrete15.
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