Construction and Building Materials 25 (2011) 3301–3305

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Construction and Building Materials

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/conbuildmat

Effects of fly ash and dolomite powder on the properties of self-compacting concrete

Salim Barbhuiya ⇑
School of Engineering, University of the West of Scotland, PA1 2BE, United Kingdom

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: Fly ash and limestone powder are found to be the traditional materials to be used in controlling the seg-
Received 21 December 2010 regation potential and deformability of fresh SCC. This research deals with the utilisation of an alternative
Received in revised form 1 March 2011 material, dolomite powder, instead of limestone powder, for the production of SCC. Test results indicated
Accepted 1 March 2011
that it is possible to manufacture SCC using fly ash and dolomite powder. The mix containing fly ash and
Available online 27 March 2011
dolomite powder in the ratio 3:1 was found to satisfy the requirements suggested by the European Fed-
eration of Producers and Contractors of Specialist Products for Structures (EFNARC) guide for making SCC.
Keywords:
Ó 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Compressive strength
Dolomite powder
Fly ash
Limestone powder
Segregation
Self-compacting concrete

1. Introduction developed in Japan in the late 1980s, the SCC has now been taken
up with enthusiasm throughout the world for both site and precast
It is a well known fact that insufficient compaction dramatically work [7,8].
lowers the ultimate performance of concrete no matter how well it The main property that defines SCC is high workability in
has been produced and how good is the mix design. Concrete is attaining compaction and specified hardened properties. Again, a
usually compacted by vibrators, often operated by untrained la- highly flowable concrete is not necessarily self compacting, be-
bour and the supervision of this process is inherently difficult. cause SCC should not only flow under its own weight but also fill
So, the standard methods for strength verification on separately the entire form and achieve uniform consolidation without segre-
cast specimens which are easy to compact cannot reliably indicate gation. Hence, the method for achieving self compactability in-
substandard, poorly compacted concrete placed in situ. volves not only high deformability of paste or mortar, but also
Vibrations of concrete can lead to white finger syndrome (a dis- resistance to segregation between coarse aggregate and mortar
ease) amongst workers and there is a significant environmental when the concrete flows through the confined zone of reinforcing
noise loading imposed on both the work place and around the site bars. On the other hand, as the concrete flowability increases, its
[1–4]. Research has also shown that even the perceived full com- stability decreases. This is due the reduction in viscosity of the
paction does not actually produce homogeneous and uniform con- fresh concrete. There are two ways of increasing the viscosity of
crete [5,6]. Thus, there has been a compelling case for removing the concrete; first by increasing the powder content, second by incor-
need to vibrate concrete, by resorting to alternative methods of porating a viscosity modifying chemical admixture [9–13]. How-
compaction, for a very long time. Besides, conventional concrete ever, the chemical admixtures are expensive and their use may
tends to present a problem with regard to adequate compaction increase the cost of materials. Nevertheless, the use of fine materi-
in thin sections or areas of congested reinforcement, which leads als can ensure the required concrete properties without increasing
to a large volume of entrapped air voids and reduces the strength the cost. The main target is to enhance the grain size distribution
and durability of concrete. Self-compacting concrete (abbreviated and particle packing, thus ensuring greater cohesiveness.
as SCC) is a recently developed concept in which the ingredients Researchers [14–25] have investigated the behaviour of SCC
of the concrete mix are proportioned in such a way that the with several types of pozzolanic materials, such as fly ash, blast
concrete is compacted by its own weight without or little vibra- furnace slag and silica fume to replace part of the Portland cement.
tion, assuring complete filling of formwork even when access is Limestone powder has also been used to control the segregation
hindered by narrow gaps between reinforcing bars. Originally potential and deformability of fresh SCC [26–29]. The binders
incorporating fly ash are considered to be more appropriate than
⇑ Tel.: +44 1418483451. the other types of binders for quality control of SCC. A low cost
E-mail address: [email protected] medium strength SCC can be achieved with compressive strength

0950-0618/$ - see front matter Ó 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.conbuildmat.2011.03.018
3302 S. Barbhuiya / Construction and Building Materials 25 (2011) 3301–3305

at 28 days of 30 MPa by using up to 210 kg/m3 of fly ash [21]. It is Table 3

also possible to design SCC incorporating high volumes of class F Chemical properties of powders.

fly ash [23]. The use of high volume of fly ash class C fly ash in Chemical composition (%) OPC Fly ash Dolomite powder
SCC drastically reduces the requirements for superplasticiser and Silicon dioxide (SiO2) 20.67 42.54 0.60
viscosity modifying agent compared with the normal dosage for Aluminum oxide (Al2O3) 6.21 23.59 0.19
such admixtures in SCC [24]. However, under the same mix pro- Ferric oxide (Fe2O3) 3.06 12.36 0.04
portion condition with fixed slump flow value and amount of Calcium oxide (CaO) 64.89 13.78 55.19
Magnesium oxide (MgO) 0.82 2.62 37.71
aggregate, classified fly ash is found to be inferior to other admix- Sulfur trioxide (SO3) 2.71 0.55 0.01
tures such as blast furnace slag powder, limestone powder and or- Sodium oxide (Na2O) 0.06 1.44 0.39
dinary fly ash from the standpoint of self-compactability. No Potassium oxide (K2O) 0.53 2.49 0.01
published work could be found on the use of dolomite powder in
SCC production apart from a preliminary investigation carried
out by Vaitkevicius et al. [30], which indicated that dolomite pow-
der can be used both in conventional and self-compacting Table 4
Designation of specimens.
concrete.
The primary objective of the research reported in this paper was Mix designations Proportions of fly ash and dolomite powder
to evaluate and explore the possibility of using locally available fly Mix 1 100%FA
ash and dolomite powder (instead of limestone powder) in the pro- Mix 2 75%FA + 25%DP
duction of SCC. The effects of varying the mix proportions of these Mix 3 50%FA + 50%DP
Mix 4 25%FA + 75%DP
materials on both the fresh and the hardened properties of SCC
Mix 5 100%DP
were investigated and presented. The successful utilisation of fly
ash and dolomite powder in SCC mixes would not only lower the
cost of SCC, but could also provide a solution to the disposal and
environmental problems connected with these materials. Table 5
Mix proportions.

2. Experimental programme Mix ID W/B Cement Fly ash Dolomite Aggregate Super
(kg/m3) (kg/m3) powder (kg/m3) plasticisera
2.1. Variables (kg/m3)
Fine Coarse
The main variables in this study are:
Mix 1 0.38 290 290.0 – 975 650 1.72
Mix 2 0.38 290 217.5 72.5 975 650 1.53
 Proportion of fly ash and dolomite powder (1:0, 3:1, 1:1, 1:3, 0:1).
Mix 3 0.38 290 145.0 145.0 975 650 2.25
 Dosage of polycarboxylate based superplasticiser.
Mix 4 0.38 290 72.5 217.5 975 650 2.44
Mix 5 0.38 290 – 290.0 975 650 2.62
The following parameters were kept constant in the study:
a
(% by mass of cement).
 Total amount of powder content (cement + fly ash + dolomite powder) =
580 kg/m3.
 Total amount of cement content = 290 kg/m3.
Mae Moh Power Plant in Lampang Province of Thailand and this was Class F Fly ash.
 Water–powder ratio = 0.38.
Dolomite powder used was obtained from an industrial rock crushing plant located
 Type of admixture: superplasticiser based on polycarboxylate.
at Amphur Kirirat Nikom, Suratthani in Thailand. The physical and chemical prop-
 The ratio of coarse aggregate to fine aggregate content = 2:3 (by mass).
erties of both fly ash and dolomite powder, along with those of the Portland cement,
 Crushed river gravel with a maximum size of 20 mm and 10 mm in equal mass
are shown in Tables 2 and 3 respectively.
proportion combinations was used as coarse aggregate.

2.2. Materials 2.3. Mix proportions

Ordinary Portland cement conforming to BS EN 197-1:2000 [31] was used. The Five concrete mixes with different proportions of fly ash and dolomite powder,
sand used was the natural river sand graded between the 600 lm and 150 lm each having the same water binder ratio of 0.38 were tested in this study. The self-
sieve. Natural limestone gravel was crushed and the 20 mm and 10 mm size frac- compactability of the mixes was maintained by adjusting the superplasticiser dos-
tions were mixed in the ratio 1:1 by mass for preparing the coarse aggregate. The age. The designations of the specimens and mix proportions are presented in Tables
physical properties of the fine and coarse aggregate are summarised in Table 1. 4 and 5 respectively.
The dosage of superplasticiser was varied according to variations in the mix
proportions of fly ash and dolomite powder in order to ensure that the fresh prop-
erties of the mixes were similar to those for SCC. The fly ash was obtained from the 2.4. Manufacture and curing of test specimens

From each concrete mix, nine 100  200 mm cylinders were cast. The cylinders
Table 1
were used for the determination of compressive strength. The specimens in their
Physical properties of fine and coarse aggregate.
mould were covered with a plastic sheet and kept in the casting room at
Physical Dry rodded unit Bulk specific Absorption Fineness 20(±1) °C for 24 h. These were then demoulded and transferred to the moist curing
properties mass (kg/m3) gravity (SSD) (%) modulus room at 23(±1) °C and 100% relative humidity, where they remained until required
for testing.
Fine aggregate 1636 2.45 1.18 2.74
Coarse aggregate 1572 2.74 0.19 –
2.5. Testing of specimens

Many different test methods have been developed to characterize the proper-
Table 2 ties of SCC. So far no single method or combination of methods has achieved univer-
Physical properties of powders. sal approval and most of them have their adherents. Hence, each mix design should
be tested by more than one test method for the different workability parameters. In
Properties OPC Fly ash Dolomite powder the present study slump flow by Abrams Cone test, L-box test and V-funnel at T5min-
Specific gravity 3.15 2.12 2.86 utes test were used to determine the filling ability, passing ability and segregation

Specific surface area (cm2/g) 3200 7197 11,723 resistance of SCC respectively. Brief descriptions of the tests are presented in the
subsequent paragraphs.
 S. Barbhuiya / Construction and Building Materials 25 (2011) 3301–3305 3303

2.5.1. Slump flow test 8

At first, the base plate and inside of slump cone were moistened. Then the base
plate was placed on a level stable ground and the slump cone was placed centrally

V-funnel flow time

on the base plate where it was held down firmly. The cone was then filled with con- 6

(seconds)
crete. No tamping was done. Any surplus concrete from around the base of the cone
was removed. After this the cone was raised vertically and the concrete was allowed
4
to flow out freely. The diameter of the concrete in two perpendicular directions was
measured. The average of the two measured diameters was calculated. This was re-
corded as the slump flow, in mm. 2

2.5.2. L-box test

The L-box test apparatus with three smooth bars of 12 mm diameter with a gap 0
Mix 1 Mix 2 Mix 3 Mix 4 Mix 5
of 41 mm was set on a levelled firm ground, ensuring that the sliding gate can be
opened and closed freely. The inside surface of the apparatus was moistened. The
Fig. 2. V-funnel test flow time.
vertical section of the apparatus was filled with concrete and it was allowed to rest
for 1 min. Then the sliding gate was lifted and the concrete was allowed to flow out
into the horizontal section. When the concrete stopped flowing, the distance ‘H1’
and ‘H2’ were measured. The ‘H2/H1’ was the blocking ratio. The whole test was 4

Time increase, V-funnel

completed in 5 min.

at T5 minutes (seconds)
3
2.5.3. V-funnel at T5minutes test
The V-funnel apparatus was set firmly on a level surface and the inside surface
was moistened. The ‘trap door’ was closed and a bucket was placed underneath. The 2
apparatus was completely filled with concrete without compacting or tamping.
After 10 s of filling concrete the trap door was opened and the concrete was allowed 1
to flow out under gravity. Stopwatch was started when the trap door was opened
and the time for the discharge to complete was recorded. This was taken when light
was seen from above through the funnel. The whole test was completed in 5 min. To
0
Mix 1 Mix 2 Mix 3 Mix 4 Mix 5
measure the flow time at T5minutes, the trap door was closed and the V-funnel was
refilled immediately after measuring the flow time. The trap door was opened
Fig. 3. Time increase, V-funnel at T5minutes.
5 min after the second fill of the funnel and the concrete was allowed to flow out
under gravity. The stopwatch was started when the trap door was opened and
the time for the discharge to complete was recorded. This was the flow time, known
as V Funnel at T5minutes.
1.0

3. Results and discussions 0.9

L box ratio

0.8
3.1. Properties of fresh SCC
0.7
The properties of fresh SCC are presented in Figs. 1–4. For all
SCCs the slump flow was between 550 and 650 mm, which is an 0.6
indication of good deformability. As per EFNARC guide [32] for 0.5
Slump flow class SF1 the range is 550–650 mm. The slump flow Mix 1 Mix 2 Mix 3 Mix 4 Mix 5
values obtained here is within this range. All the SCCs performed
Fig. 4. L-box ratio.
well in terms of stability because all mixes exhibited a V-funnel
flow time less than 8 s and the SCCs can be classified as VF1 in
terms of their viscosity. However, based on the increase in time and dolomite powder was 3:1 was found to satisfy the require-
in V-funnel at T5minutes, which is an indication of the potential seg- ments very close to those in the guide for which the SCC was de-
regation resistance, Mix 1 and Mix 2 can be classified as VS1. This is signed. For this mix the slump was close to 645 mm (the range
because in both mixes the increase in time was less than 2 s. For for Slump class SF1 is 550–650 mm), the V-funnel flow time was
the Mixes 3, 4 and 5 the increase in time exceeded the maximum 5.8 s which is well below the limit of 8 s for VF1 Class, the increase
limit (2 s) given by the EFNARC guide [32], and hence these can be in time in V-Funnel at T5minutes was 1.3 (below the limit of 2 s for
classified as VS2. The L-box ratios for all the mixes were less than VS1 Class). Furthermore, the dosage of superplasticiser was found
the minimum requirements as per EFNARC guide [32]. The long V- to be the minimum in the case of Mix 2 (Fig. 5).
funnel time, which means the highest viscosity and large slump It is important to point out that as waste materials, the proper-
flow indicating the lowest yield stress was obtained in Mix 5. ties of fly ash and dolomite powder are expected to vary over time.
Out of the five mixes, Mix 2 in which the proportion of fly ash There is a need to carry out studies on the chloride penetration and
sulfate attack of the SCCs containing fly ash and dolomite powder.
Moreover, it is also relevant to highlight that SCC, just as tradi-
650
tional concrete, never can be related to specific composition or spe-
cific performance. Its variations in composition are even more than
Slump flow (mm)

those of traditional concretes, depending on the local materials

600 used. The performance is linked to specific process requirements
and specific product application requirements. Different SCC mate-
rials can thus not easily be compared neither in terms of composi-
550 tion nor in terms of performance.

3.2. Compressive strength of SCC

500
Mix 1 Mix 2 Mix 3 Mix 4 Mix 5
The compressive strength of the different mixes is presented in
Fig. 1. Slump flow. Fig. 6. The SCCs with fly ash and dolomite powders developed
3304 S. Barbhuiya / Construction and Building Materials 25 (2011) 3301–3305

3.0 crete mixes is a function of the specific gravity of fly ash and dolo-
mite powder. The specific gravity of dolomite powder (2.86) is
(Cement %by mass)
2.5 more than that of fly ash (2.12). Therefore, density of concrete in-
Superplasticiser

creased when the amount of dolomite powder was increased in the

2.0
mixes.
1.5
4. Conclusions
1.0
On the basis of the results obtained in this study, the following
0.5
Mix 1 Mix 2 Mix 3 Mix 4 Mix 5 conclusions have been drawn:

Fig. 5. Dosage of superplasticiser. (i) It is possible to manufacture self-compacting concrete using

fly ash and dolomite powder with acceptable fresh and hard-
ened properties.
40 (ii) As per European Federation of Producers and Contractors of
Specialist Products for Structures (EFNARC) guide for making
Compressive strength

30 self-compacting concrete, the SCCs containing fly ash and

dolomite can be classified as SF1 in terms of slump flow. In
3 days
(MPa)

terms of their viscosity these can be classified as VF1 based

20 7 days
28 days on V-funnel flow time. However, based on the increase in
time in V-Funnel at T5minutes Mix 1 and Mix 2 can be classi-
10 fied as VS1, while Mixes 3, 4 and 5 can be classified as VS2.
(iii) Mix 2 in which the proportion of fly ash and dolomite pow-
0 der was 3:1 was found to satisfy the requirements very close
Mix 1 Mix 2 Mix 3 Mix 4 Mix 5 to those in the EFNARC guide for which the SCC was
designed. The dosage of superplasticiser was found to be
Fig. 6. Compressive strength of SCC.
the minimum in this mix.
(iv) In the context of compressive strength, all the SCCs could be
2,500
considered to be satisfactory for structural applications. The
density increased with the increase in the content of dolo-
mite powder at the cost of fly ash.
Density (kg/m3)

2,400

2,300

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