Properties and applications of self-compacting concrete incorporating silica fume and ground glass powder

Self-compacting concrete (SCC) is today a pretty well-known technology.Since its inception in the late 1980s, self-compacting concrete has brought in awave of changes for the construction industry. SCC has been considered as aquiet revolution in the concrete construction process, with major benefits inincreased productivity, enhanced constructions quality, and much improvedworking environment on site. Already, it is rapidly gaining acceptancethroughout the industry and being viewed by many as having the potential ofreplacing most of the ordinary concrete currently produced.The main objective of this research is to study the fresh and mechanicalproperties of self-compacting concrete incorporating ground glass powder (GGP)and comparing them with those of SCC incorporating silica fume (SF). Bothground glass powder and silica fume were used as a partial replacement of thecement content with different percentages to keep the total cementitiousmaterials at 400 kg/nr’,Also, several trial mixes of SCC were planned for this purpose in order toselect the optimum mix proportions of the mixes. For fresh properties ofself compacting concrete, slump flow test, V-funnel test and L-box test wereused. Static compression test; indirect tension test, and flexural strength test wereperformed to determine SCC hardened properties. In addition, SCC was used tocast both unreinforced and reinforced structural members in order to evaluate itsperformance in such applications.The experimental results showed that the self-compacting concrete couldbe successfully developed by incorporating either GGP or GGP and SF togetherin the mix. The presence of silica fume in SCC mixes improved its flowabilitywhen added at a small percentage as a partial replacement of the cement content,while a gradual decrease occurred as the percentage of SF increased. Groundglass powder showed a similar performance to that of the SF but with a lowerdegree. Ground glass powder SCC mixes showed better rheological properties in