The Research on Process and Application of Self-Compacting Concrete

Zekong Chen Int. Journal of Engineering Research and Applications www.ijera.com
ISSN: 2248-9622, Vol. 5, Issue 8, (Part - 3) August 2015, pp.12-18
www.ijera.com 12 | P a g e
The Research on Process and Application of Self-Compacting
Concrete
Zekong Chen1*
, Mao Yang1
1
School of Civil Engineering & Architecture, Chongqing Jiaotong University, Chongqing, China.
Abstract
Self-compacting concrete (SCC) is one kind of concrete with high workability and durability. First of all, this
paper introduces the definition and history of Self-compacting concrete (SCC). Secondly, it introduces the raw
material selection, equipped technology and the mix proportion design method of Self-compacting concrete.
Finally, it analyzes the problems and countermeasures of self-compacting concrete and look ahead the
application prospect of it.
Keywords: Self-compacting concrete; raw material selection; mix proportion design; application prospect
I. Introduction
Concrete is one of the most important elements
for any kind of construction work and composed of
mainly cement, aggregate, water and chemical
admixtures. Generally, concrete is compacted by a
vibrator or steel bar after being placed inside the
formwork to remove the entrapped air after which it
becomes a dense and homogeneous material.
Compaction is very important in order to produce a
uniform concrete mix with desired strength and
durability properties.
As one of the great innovations in concrete
technology, self-compacting concrete (SCC) is in the
process of casting without imposing additional
vibrating forces, and only gravity is necessary to
completely fill the mold cavity to form a uniform
dense concrete. Compared with traditional vibrated
concrete, SCC has obvious advantages in terms of
reducing construction costs and improving the
construction environment, which are significant steps
in the direction of sustain ably developed concrete.
The concept of Self-compacting concrete was
firstly presented in 1986 by Okamura, a scholar from
the University of Tokyo. He pointed out that the
reduction of Japanese skilled workers has a negative
impact on the durability of the concrete structure,
and proposed developing self-compacting concrete
which can avoid the impact of construction quality.
Self - compacting concrete is a kind of concrete
which is characterized by high - workability. Soon
after, Ozawa, a scholar from the University of Tokyo,
carried out the study of self-compacting concrete,
and make up self - compacting concrete successfully
in 1988[1,2]
.
Many people regard it as the most revolutionary
development tin the construction sector in recent
decades, essentially thanks to the new production
and casting process. Since this is based on the
elimination of vibration, the final product is of higher
quality, with the additional benefit that the overall
cost of casting is lower.
Because many of the problems of current
structural concrete are related to execution quality
issues during casting, a concrete that does not need
manual labor at this stage is much less likely to
suffer such problems.
RESEARCH ARTICLE OPEN ACCESS

II. raw material selection and equipped
technology
2.1raw materials selection
2.1.1Aggregate
The water consumption and slurry content of
Self-compacting concrete are directly influenced by
the elongated particles content in coarse aggregate
and coarse aggregate graduation. Therefore, limit in
gel on gated particles content, using full shape
particle and good coarse aggregate graduation is very
important to Self-compacting concrete. To ensure
that self-compacting concrete can pass through the
dense steel smoothly, achieve its uniform and
self-compacting, the coarse aggregate particle size is
no more than 25 mm. The mud content of the
aggregate greatly affected the strength and
workability of the self-compacting concrete, so the
fine aggregate content should not be more than 1.5%.
Experiments shows using sand can easily meet the
work requirement of self-compacting concrete, the
fineness modulus of sand should be more than 2. 5.
2.1.2active admixture
Mixing mineral admixture in self-compacting
concrete can meet the workability requirements and
reduce the cement consumption. At present, the ash
is most commonly used. The micro aggregate effect,
active effect and morphological effect of ash played
an important role in mixture workability and
mechanical property of hardened concrete of
self-compacting concrete. In addition, the ash
fineness is good to avoid a premature second
hydration, and its volume stability is good when
mixing with concrete. The carbon content in ash
should be less because of the low water-cement ratio
of self-compacting concrete. The water consumption
of ash should be small enough to meet the
workability of self-compacting concrete.
2.1.3Colloid material
The pure Portland cement with low content of
C3A and ordinary Portland cement is suitable for the
preparation of self-compacting concrete. The cement
used in the preparation of self-compacting concrete
is not too fine, in order to ensure the workability of
self-compacting concrete until it into the mold. The
fluctuation of cement quality has a significant effect
on the quality of self-compacting concrete.
2.1.4admixture
Self-compacting concrete can be prepared by
compounding admixture with high efficiency water
reducing agent. According to the project
requirements of self-compacting concrete
performance, climate conditions and the construction
technology, combined with concrete raw materials
performance, adaptability to cement and mix
proportion and other factors, the species and dosage
of admixture can be determined through the test.
2.2 Equipped technology
The practice shows that: the properties and
content of aggregate and slurry decide mixture
performance. When aggregate content and properties
is certain, you can get a good concrete mixture by
improving the viscosity of the slurry. Okamura said:
to make the mixture meet the requirements, you can
choose low water-cement ratio, control aggregate
content and adding additives. Okamura gives the
following technical rules:
(1)Fine aggregate accounts for about 40% of the
volume of mortar.
(2) Coarse aggregate can account for 50% of the
total aggregate volume.
(3) The volume ratio of the gelled material and water
can be adjusted through the gelled material
properties.
(4) The final water-cement ratio and the amount of
admixture can be decided by self- compacting ability
of mixture.
With the appearance and application of mineral
admixture and polymer synthesis technology, there
are three kinds of preparation method of
self-compacting concrete, thickener system, mineral
admixture system and a combination of two
systems[3~6]
.

III. Mix proportion design of
self-compacting concrete
Mix proportion design method of
self-compacting concrete is different from normal
vibrated concrete. If the work performance can
meets the requirements is the first condition of
successful preparation. Work performance of
concrete mixture is often affected by aggregate
properties, particle size graduation, void ratio, slurry
consumption and viscosity. There are 4 ways of mix
proportion design of self-compacting concrete shows
as follows:
(1) The calculation method. The calculation method
is obtained by improving the method of calculating
mix proportion of the high performance concrete.
(2) The calculation method of fixed sand volume
content. The calculation method is as follows: ①The
content of mortar and stones can be obtained by
assuming the stone accumulation volume of 1m3
concrete; ②Assuming the content of sand in the
mortar to obtain slurry content and sand
consumption; ③ the amount of cementing material
and water can be calculated by admixture ratio and
the ratio of water to cement , then you can calculate
admixture and cement consumption. But there is no
specific provisions of how to determine
water-cement ratio and admixture consumption.
(3)The factorial method. using orthogonal
experiments or so-called "factorial method '' to study
the influence of different factors, such as mineral
admixture dosage, total amount of colloid material,
water-cement ratio, sand content, slurry volume and
admixture dosage to concrete strength and
workability. Determining the proper dosage range of
parameters, and then design mix proportion with
ordinary terms.
(4) Experience derivation method. Water
consumption, the amount of coarse aggregates and
colloid material content can be obtained by empirical
data calculation, the volume of fine aggregates is
equal to all volume minus other material volume. the
admixture dosage can be determined by mortar
experiment or debugging, then determine the initial
mixture ratio and compound concrete, and test its
performance, then adjust the mixture ratio, and
finally obtained the ratio. It is easy to use the method,
but need large amounts of data, and when the new
material or quality changes, the material component
of the dosage range need new test to determine[7~10]
.
IV. working performance test method and
evaluation index
4.1 working performance test method
At present, there are many methods can be used
to evaluate the performance of self-compacting
concrete. Slump expansion experiment, L type tester,
V-shaped funnel test, U type or box type tests and
GTM sieve stability test, orimet velocity instrument
method and penetration test are used in the test
method[11,12]
. Various test methods and test
performance are shown in Table 1.
Table 1 Test properties and methods for evaluating SCC
Detection performance Method
1. With Abrams cone on filling the slump flow test Filling
2 T50cm slump flow method Filling
3.J type ring clearance Gap passing
4 V funnel test filling Filling
5. V funnel test segregation resistance Segregation resistance
6 L type flow meter clearance through Gap passing

7 U type fill test gap through Gap passing
8 box type fill test gap through Gap passing
9 GTM screen anti segregation stability test Segregation resistance
10.Orimet flow meter method filling Filling
11 penetration test Segregation resistance Segregation resistance
4.2 working performance evaluation index
There is no single method can fully reflect the
performance of self-compacting concrete so far, only
by using a variety of methods can we get parameter
of each batch of concrete when design the mix ratio.
In 2012, China released “Technical specification
for self-compacting concrete”. Make the evaluation
index more detail to evaluate the working
performance of self-compacting concrete, and the
testing method is more scientific, standardized,
useful and practical, provisions are shown in table 2.
Table 2 Acceptance criteria for SCC
Detection
performance
Test method for
performance
index
Test value
Performance
level
Performance index
Filling
The slump The slump
SF1 550 mm～650 mm
SF2 660 mm～750 mm
SF3 760 mm～850 mm
T50 Extended time VS 2 s≤T50≤5 s
Gap passing J ring expansion
The difference of
slump and ring
expansion
PA1 25 mm≤PA1≤50mm
PA2 0 mm≤PA2≤25mm
Segregation
resistance
Sieve analysis
Percentage of
floating pulp
SR1 ≤20%
SR2 ≤15%
Jump table
method
Segregation rate
ƒm ≤10%
V. Advantages and disadvantages of
self-compacting concrete
5.1 advantages
1) Improve the quality of concrete effectively: good
mechanical performance, density and durability; 2)
use industrial wastes as admixture, it’s favorable for
environmental protection; 3) save electric energy; 4)
reduce environmental noise, improve the working
environment and safety; 5) greatly reduced the labor;
6) a high degree of automation of the construction,
improve production efficiency, shorten the
construction period; 7)solve the vibration problems
of traditional concrete construction , ensure that the
embedded parts, reinforced, pre-stressed hole
position do not shift in vibration; 8) increase the
freedom of the structure design. The structure of
complex shape, thin wall and dense reinforced can
be cast without vibration. 9) The engineering cost
may be decreased.
5.2 problems
(1)Slump changes with time: self-compacting
concrete slump losses larger than other types of
concrete as the change of time, high efficiency water
reducing agent is used in engineering to solve this
problem. But this method is adverse to quality
control and quality management, and it also reducing

productivity.
(2)Cognition of the physical mechanical properties
and durability: the construction performance of
self-compacting concrete has been fully studied.
Whether it’s physical and mechanical properties and
durability changes and its change rule is uncertain
after self-compacting concrete mixed into super
plasticizer and pumping.
5.3 countermeasures
(1) Study on quality control measures: including the
selection of raw materials, mixture ratio design and
construction technology and so on.
(2)Study on the mechanism of slump loss: to
suppress the slump loss, we need to study the
mechanism of it.
(3) Explore the feasibility of using mineral
admixtures: by adding excess fine slag and
micro-Silica fume to improve the self-compacting
concrete strength and control its slump losses with
time[13~18]
.
VI. Application prospect of self-compacting
concrete
Germany adopted the self-compacting concrete
so they improve the performance of concrete
construction, reduces the power concrete needed
when pouring and vibrating, improve the
construction efficiency, reduce the amount of labor
and shorten the construction period, therefore reduce
the cost. In order to improve the concrete quality and
maintain the original construction scheme, Japanese
use self-compacting concrete to reduce the cement
content and water.
With the development of the west of China, the
amount of concrete used in road, bridge, railway,
increasing rapidly. These structures are constructed
in difficult conditions, the continuity of its project
progress and its efficiency is the most critical issue.
Self-compacting concrete can be used to solve these
problems.
self-compacting concrete that used in the
following aspects can achieve better technical and
economic effect: ①the pump sending concrete;
②steel dense parts, difficult vibrating parts; ③when
the concrete must be uniform and compact[19~21]
.
VII. conclusions and prospects
(1) In order to control self-compacting concrete
construction quality and promote the engineering
application, we should strengthen the study of
assurance system of construction quality, survey the
relationship of self-compacting concrete structure
performance and other concrete performance in the
same condition.
(2) As the workability is the key performance of
self-compacting concrete, so the study should focus
on it, and also should develop more scientific,
standardized and practical structural performance
test methods.
(3)Self-compacting concrete is different from
ordinary concrete in the composition and
requirements of raw materials, so strengthening the
environmental service behavior of self-compacting
concrete is needful, such as the carbonation
resistance, shrinkage cracking performance of
self-compacting concrete, which benefit to the life of
self-compacting concrete.
(4) Strengthening the study of design methods and
the preparation technical of self-compacting concrete
in common used strength, then further study should
be taken on the design method and preparation
techniques of that in moderate intensity, and develop
the self-compacting concrete of medium strength.
These will be beneficial to expand engineering
applications of self-compacting concrete.
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