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Construction and Building

Construction and Building Materials 22 (2008) 14771483

MATERIALS
www.elsevier.com/locate/conbuildmat

Use of binary and ternary blends in high strength concrete

Tahir Kemal Erdem
a

a,*

nder Krca ,O

nie Civil, Universite de Sherbrooke, Sherbrooke, Que., Canada J1K 2R1 Ge b C imSA Cement Production and Trading Co., 33013 Mersin, Turkey

Received 1 November 2006; received in revised form 29 March 2007; accepted 31 March 2007 Available online 18 May 2007

Abstract Combinations of cement additions may provide more benets for concrete than a single one. In this study, 80 high strength concretes containing several types and amounts of additions were produced. In the rst stage, silica fume contents in binary blends that give the highest strengths were determined for dierent binder contents. In the second stage, a third binder (Class F or Class C y ash or ground granulated blast furnace slag) was introduced to the concretes already containing Portland cement and silica fume in the amounts found in the rst stage. Results indicated that ternary blends almost always made it possible to obtain higher strengths than Portland cement + silica fume binary mixtures provided that the replacement level by the additions was chosen properly. Moreover, the performance of slag in the ternary blends was better than Class F y ash but worse than Class C y ash. 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Compressive strength; High strength concrete; Pozzolan; Addition; Binary binder; Ternary binder; Silica fume; Fly ash; Ground granulated blast furnace slag

1. Introduction Mixture proportioning of high strength concrete (HSC) is more critical than that of normal strength concrete (NSC) since, usually, specially selected pozzolanic and chemical admixtures are employed, and a low water-to-binder ratio (w/b) is considered essential. Optimum mixture proportions are obtained after a greater number of trial batches than needed for NSC [1]. There is no single method for the proportioning of HSC, and this leads to dierent approaches to the issue [13]. The advantages of using cement additions in concrete are, mainly, the improved concrete properties in fresh and hardened states, and economical and ecological benets. The achievement of these advantages becomes more important for HSC proportioning since HSC requires high amounts of cementitious materials. However, the selection of additions needs more attention due to their dierent
Corresponding author. Tel.: +1 819 821 80 00x65247; fax: +1 819 821 79 74. E-mail address: Tahir.Kemal.Erdem@usherbrooke.ca (T.K. Erdem). 0950-0618/$ - see front matter 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.conbuildmat.2007.03.026
*

properties: initial reactions of y ash (FA), ground granulated blast furnace slag (S) and natural pozzolans are slower than that of Portland cement (PC), which causes a slower rate of strength development and a longer curing period. Slags develop strength more rapidly than do most y ashes [4]. Silica fume (SF), due to its high surface area, increases water demand and superplasticizer requirement for a certain consistency [5,6]. In addition, the use of SF should be limited due to the high costs of SF itself and the superplasticizer required. High-calcium y ash (FA/ C) is much more reactive than low-calcium y ash (FA/ F) and, therefore, exhibits some similarity to the behavior of S [7,8]. In some cases, combined usage of the additions may reduce the eciency of the cementitious system. In other words, the compatibility of the additions is another point to be considered in concrete proportioning. For example, the reaction of FA/F requires a high alkalinity of the pore water and this alkalinity is reduced when SF or S is present in the mix. Consequently, the reactivity of FA in such mixes is reduced [8,9]. Fortunately, combinations of additions may provide more benets for concrete when compared to a single one

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. Krca / Construction and Building Materials 22 (2008) 14771483 T.K. Erdem, O Table 1 Physical and chemical properties of the binders PC CaO (%) SiO2 (%) Al2O3 (%) Fe2O3 (%) Na2O (%) SO3 (%) LOI (%) Specic gravity Specic surface (cm2/g) Strength activity index (%) 7d 28d Slag activity index (%) 7d 28d
a

[10,11]. Some examples of the researches on the use of ternary blends are given below. Since the additions having low surface area and reactivity do not contribute to the strength quickly, they are not able to improve early strengths of concrete. The solution given by Mehta and Gjrv is to use a mixture of normal and highly reactive additions, such as FA and SF, respectively [10]. A number of reports demonstrated that the combined usage of SF and FA resulted in improvements in compressive strength [6,10,11], pore size distribution [10], chloride permeability [11,12], alkali-silica reactions [12,13] and sulfate resistance [12]. The results of a study by Shannag [14] suggest that certain natural pozzolan-SF combinations can improve the compressive and splitting tensile strengths, workability, and elastic modulus of concretes, more than natural pozzolan or SF alone. The incorporation of a combination of nely ground FA and S with PC was reported to produce higher compressive strengths at all ages than their binary blends [15]. Similarly, according to Li and Zhao, blending FA and S presents an excellent behaviour in both short- and long-term compressive strengths and in resistance to H2SO4 attack; and improves the microstructure and hydration rate [16]. Jianyong and Pei concluded that blending S and SF synergizes the advantages of these two admixtures so that the compressive strength, split tensile strength and rupture strength are improved while the fresh concrete mixture keeps a good workability [17]. The ternary blends of PC, SF and FA or S were also studied and it was found that these blends can increase the ASR resistance [13] and chloride resistance [18] of concrete. This study investigates the compressive strengths of the high strength concretes containing (a) PC only, (b) PC + SF binary binders, and (c) PC + SF + FA/F or FA/C or S ternary binders. The binder content in the concrete mixtures was also varied. The main objective of this research is to determine the eects of using a third binder (FA/F or FA/C or S) accompanying PC and SF to produce high strength concretes. By using dierent amounts of the most widely known additions (silica fume, y ash and slag) as binary and ternary binders in 80 high strength concrete mixtures, a large database was formed in this study. 2. Materials and experimental program Portland cement used in this study was PC 42.5 (similar to ASTM type I) produced in C imSa Cement Factory, Mersin. Silica-fume was from Antalya Ferrosilicon Plant. Two types of y ashes were used: Soma FA (Class C according to ASTM C 618) and Seyito mer FA (Class F according to ASTM C 618). Ground granulated blast fur_ nace slag (S) was obtained from Iskenderun Iron and Steel Works Co. The properties of these binders are given in Table 1. 2-, 7- and 28-day compressive strength values for the Portland cement (determined according to ASTM C 109)

SF 0.3 86.2 0.0 0.4 0.5 0.4 1.5 2.23 NDa 88 98

FA/F 5.5 54.3 19.1 14.6 0.7 1.1 1.2 1.92 5540 60 69

FA/C 29.2 37.3 19.3 4.8 0.3 3.1 2.1 2.6 2 3900 81 88

S 33.6 39.0 11.8 0.6 0.3 2.3 0.0 2.86 3820 69 100

64.1 20.2 5.2 2.6 0.2 3.2 1.4 3.12 3350

Not determined

were 26.8, 37.9 and 50.3 MPa, respectively. Initial and nal setting time values were 150 min and 185 min, respectively. ASTM C 311 and ASTM C 989 were followed to determine the strength activity indices of the y ashes and slag activity index of the slag used in this study. Strength activity index of silica fume was determined according to ASTM C 1240. River sand and three dierent sizes of crushed limestone aggregate were mixed to obtain a suitable grading according to the Turkish Standards. The combined aggregate was composed of 15% river sand, 25% 05 mm aggregate, 25% 715 mm aggregate and 35% 1525 mm aggregate. The gradings of the single aggregate fractions and the combined aggregate are given in Table 2. The grading of the combined aggregate was kept constant in all of the mixtures. In this study, the mixtures were proportioned to have a constant consistency of slump = 6 cm. A melamine-based high-range water-reducing admixture, classied as Type F according to ASTM C 494, with 42% solid particles was used. The superplasticizer content was 3% of the total binder amount for all of the mixes. The amount of water to have a slump value of 6 cm was adjusted experimentally during the mixing operation. Five dierent binder contents were employed: 500, 550, 600, 650 and 700 kg/m3. Three

Table 2 Gradings of the single aggregate fractions and the combined aggregate Sieve size (mm) % Passing River sand 100 100 100 97.8 95.5 91.9 77.8 20.7 1.6 05 mm 100 100 100 40.4 20.8 12.5 9.0 6.1 4.3 715 mm 100 99.8 14.6 0.8 0.7 0.7 0.7 0.6 0.5 1525 mm 100 29.7 1.0 0.9 0.9 0.9 0.8 0.8 0.7 Combined aggregate 100 75.3 44.0 25.3 20.0 17.4 14.4 5.1 1.7

31.5 16 8 4 2 1 0.5 0.25 0.125

 . Krca / Construction and Building Materials 22 (2008) 14771483 T.K. Erdem, O

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15-cm cubes were used to produce each strength result at 3, 7 and 28 days. 2.1. Procedure The experimental program consisted of two stages. In the rst one, 20 mixtures containing a single (PC only) or binary binder (PC + SF) were prepared for each of 5 binder dosages (500700 kg/m3). In the binary systems, PC was incorporated with SF by 5%, 10% and 15% by mass. As a result of the rst stage, SF replacement amounts which resulted in the highest strengths were determined for each binder dosage. In the second stage, three dierent types of concretes were prepared: (a) concretes containing PC + SF + FA/F, (b) concretes containing PC + SF + FA/C, (c) concretes containing PC + SF + S. These ternary blends contained the SF amount found in the rst stage. For the determination of the optimum FA/F, FA/C or S contents, four dierent PC incorporation levels were used: 10, 20, 30 and 40% by mass of the total binder content. Therefore, 3 (binder types) 4 (replacement levels) (5 binder dosages) = 60 mixtures were prepared in the second stage. 3. Results and discussion 3.1. PC + SF binary system As stated in the experimental program, in this part of the study, PC was incorporated with SF at three replacement levels: 5%, 10% and 15% by mass. These mixtures were compared with the concretes without SF. The compressive strength values obtained for the binder contents of 500, 550, 600, 650 and 700 kg/m3 are summarized in Table 3. The highest values for a certain age and binder content were underlined. As seen from Table 3, for a given binder content, w/b of concretes with or without SF are similar to each other. There is a small decrease in the w/b values with increasing SF content. In other words, the water demand was slightly less for higher replacement levels. Although water demand of concretes containing SF may increase with increasing amounts of SF primarily due to the high surface area of SF, this increase can be oset by the use of superplasticizers [19]. Moreover, SF has also water-reducing eect due to their spherical particles [5,20]. The spherical particles act as small bearings to reduce interparticle friction. In fact, SF is even more benecial than FA in this regard, provided a water-reducing admixture is used with it, because SF is able to pack between the cement grains and act as a very eective lubricant [5]. It is clear from Table 3 that SF improved the compressive strengths at all ages. It was possible to obtain a com-

Table 3 Compressive strength of PC + SF binary blends Binder content (kg/m3) SF replacement level (%) w/b Compressive strength (MPa) 3-d 500 0 5 10 15 0 5 10 15 0 5 10 15 0 5 10 15 0 5 10 15 0.31 0.30 0.29 0.26 0.27 0.26 0.25 0.24 0.24 0.24 0.24 0.23 0.26 0.23 0.22 0.22 0.24 0.23 0.22 0.21 40.4 44.9 54.3 51.5 47.4 49.3 51.5 55.3 48.3 52.2 58.4 56.4 56.1 51.4 59.5 58.9 51.9 61.1 58.0 62.1 7-d 50.0 51.0 60.3 62.4 49.7 49.8 55.1 62.3 49.9 56.1 63.3 61.2 58.0 57.6 63.5 59.7 50.3 65.2 62.4 72.6 28-d 55.1 59.6 69.2 72.0 56.3 62.9 62.5 67.6 56.0 60.1 74.7 70.7 65.1 63.4 65.9 68.7 54.2 73.6 72.6 80.5

550

600

650

700

pressive strength of as high as 62.1 MPa at the end of 3 days. In addition, strengths up to 80.5 MPa were obtained at the end of 28 days. When the underlined values are considered it is seen that maximum strengths for dierent dosages occurred at dierent replacement levels. These results suggest that the replacement level of SF that gives the highest strengths was 15% for binder contents of 500, 550, 650 and 700 kg/m3. For 600 kg/m3, it was 10%. Improvements in the compressive strength of the concretes containing SF can be explained by the chemical and physical eects of SF. Chemical eect is mainly due to the pozzolanic reactions between the amorphous silica of SF and calcium hydroxide (CH) produced by the cement hydration to form calcium-silicate-hydrates. The physical eect which can also be considered as ller eect is that SF particles increase the packing of the solid materials by lling the spaces between the cement grains in much the same way as cement lls the spaces between ne aggregates, and ne aggregates ll the spaces between coarse aggregates in concrete [19]. Moreover, small particles of additions generate a large number of nucleation sites for the precipitation of the hydration products. This will accelerate the reactions and form smaller CH crystals [21]. SF reduces the number of large pores and increases the probability of transforming the continuous pores into discontinuous ones. Therefore, all these mechanisms make the microstructure of the paste more homogeneous and denser [19]. The combined pozzolanic and ller eects are also valid in the aggregate-paste transition zone. The ller eect reduces the porosity of the transition zone and leads to a

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. Krca / Construction and Building Materials 22 (2008) 14771483 T.K. Erdem, O

denser microstructure and improved strength of the system. The pozzolanic eect eliminates CH in the transition zone [20] and helps the formation of bonds between the densely packed particles in the transition zone through pozzolanic reactions to form extra binding CSH which lead to further increase in strength [14]. 3.2. Ternary systems In the rst part of the study, it was found that the SF contents that give the highest strengths occurred at 15% (for binder contents of 500, 550, 650 and 700 kg/m3) and at 10% (for 600 kg/m3). In the ternary systems, SF contents were kept constant at these replacement amounts, and the FA/F or FA/C or S contents were 10%, 20%, 30% and 40% by mass of the total binder content. Table 4 shows w/b and the 3-day, 7-day and 28-day compressive strengths of the ternary blends. According to Table 4, w/b values of the PC + SF + FA/ C and PC + SF + S ternary systems are similar to those of PC + SF binary systems. In other words, the water demand for a constant consistency did not change signicantly when FA/C or S was introduced to the PC + SF blends. However, w/b of PC + SF + FA/F mixes are higher than those of the PC + SF blends and the water demand increased with increasing amounts of FA/F in the ternary blend. The higher water demand of FA/F mixtures can
Table 4 Compressive strength of the ternary blends Binder content (kg/m3) Replacement level (%) Compressive strength (MPa) PC + SF + FA/F w/b 500 0 10 20 30 40 0 10 20 30 40 0 10 20 30 40 0 10 20 30 40 0 10 20 30 40 0.26 0.26 0.29 0.30 0.33 0.24 0.25 0.27 0.31 0.29 0.24 0.24 0.28 0.29 0.30 0.22 0.24 0.25 0.26 0.29 0.21 0.24 0.24 0.26 0.26 3-d 51.5 52.4 54.8 41.4 34.8 55.3 53.8 51.3 47.3 38.4 58.4 56.0 56.7 46.6 54.9 58.9 62.8 59.4 50.5 45.3 62.1 64.5 55.3 49.8 38.4 7-d 62.4 62.7 68.4 59.7 53.6 62.3 62.9 66.2 59.2 51.8 63.3 65.0 66.9 61.5 66.7 59.7 70.3 69.5 65.2 58.0 72.6 70.6 68.0 67.6 56.3 28-d 72.0 70.9 82.2 79.7 71.3 67.6 72.2 84.7 72.2 71.2 74.7 75.0 76.8 77.1 87.0 68.7 93.7 90.3 85.2 72.3 80.5 89.8 83.1 82.6 66.0

be attributed to the considerably higher neness of FA/F when compared to PC (see Table 1). As stated, FA/F and the other addition types were used as partial replacement for PC, therefore the neness of the binder increased as a result of the FA/F incorporation. As shown in Table 4, the highest 3-day, 7-day and 28day strengths obtained in this study are 72.3, 82.3 and 107.0 MPa, respectively. These strength values were all obtained from the PC + SF + FA/C ternary blends for a total binder content of 700 kg/m3. The highest strengths obtained with PC + SF + S blends at the end of 3, 7 and 28 days were 68.6, 77.4 and 95.8 MPa, respectively. In other words, the contribution of FA/C to produce high strengths was higher than that of S. FA/F was the least eective pozzolan in this regard since the maximum strengths of PC + SF + FA/F blends at the end of 3, 7 and 28 days (which were 64.5, 70.6 and 93.7 MPa, respectively) were lower than those of ternary blends containing FA/C or S. In the rst part of the study, it was proved that SF improved the compressive strengths of the concretes containing only PC. The present objective is to investigate the additional benets of ternary systems over PC + SF binary systems. Therefore, in order to compare the performance of ternary systems with the PC + SF binary blends, the strengths of PC + SF systems for a certain dosage at a specied age were taken as control and expressed as 100%.

PC + SF + FA/C w/b 0.26 0.26 0.24 0.26 0.25 0.24 0.23 0.24 0.22 0.23 0.24 0.25 0.23 0.23 0.22 0.22 0.23 0.22 0.21 0.21 0.21 0.20 0.20 0.20 0.19 3-d 51.5 55.2 56.2 52.5 51.4 55.3 53.1 65.2 56.0 51.3 58.4 63.7 65.4 63.5 58.0 58.9 60.6 68.3 68.7 54.3 62.1 63.5 72.3 67.2 62.6 7-d 62.4 61.6 67.6 58.4 70.5 62.3 62.3 79.3 62.2 63.9 63.3 70.1 66.8 76.3 63.6 59.7 68.2 78.1 81.0 66.5 72.6 71.5 82.3 81.7 75.3 28-d 72.0 79.8 71.4 77.9 90.7 67.6 77.0 95.3 85.3 90.8 74.7 91.5 92.5 93.9 85.1 68.7 79.5 99.1 100.7 89.7 80.5 77.8 103.3 107.0 74.5

PC + SF + S w/b 0.26 0.27 0.26 0.26 0.26 0.24 0.28 0.29 0.26 0.26 0.24 0.25 0.25 0.25 0.26 0.22 0.23 0.23 0.23 0.21 0.21 0.23 0.22 0.21 0.20 3-d 51.5 60.2 57.6 55.0 49.9 55.3 59.1 54.4 54.4 51.3 58.4 54.0 55.6 55.7 60.1 58.9 60.9 64.5 56.9 61.6 62.1 60.4 68.6 58.1 60.9 7-d 62.4 64.4 74.2 64.2 66.4 62.3 69.4 65.4 65.3 64.0 63.3 63.5 65.4 65.4 73.5 59.7 65.9 64.7 65.0 77.4 72.6 67.8 72.5 66.6 76.8 28-d 72.0 71.4 88.7 78.4 72.0 67.6 89.7 70.0 68.2 65.7 74.7 67.4 71.7 78.0 91.9 68.7 71.8 77.1 82.3 93.3 80.5 74.9 84.4 79.1 95.8

550

600

650

700

 . Krca / Construction and Building Materials 22 (2008) 14771483 T.K. Erdem, O Table 5 Relative strength values of the ternary blends Binder content (kg/m3) Replacement level (%) Relative compressive strength (%) 3-d FA/Fa 500 0 10 20 30 40 0 10 20 30 40 0 10 20 30 40 0 10 20 30 40 0 10 20 30 40 100 102 106 80 68 100 97 93 86 69 100 96 97 80 94 100 107 101 86 77 100 104 89 80 62 FA/Ca 100 107 109 102 100 100 96 118 101 93 100 109 112 109 99 100 103 116 117 92 100 102 116 108 101 Sa 100 117 112 107 97 100 107 98 98 93 100 92 95 95 103 100 103 110 97 105 100 97 110 94 98 7-d FA/Fa 100 100 110 96 86 100 101 106 95 83 100 103 106 97 105 100 118 116 109 97 100 97 94 93 78 FA/Ca 100 99 108 94 113 100 100 127 100 103 100 111 106 121 100 100 114 131 136 111 100 98 113 113 104 Sa 100 103 119 103 106 100 111 105 105 103 100 100 103 103 116 100 110 108 109 130 100 93 100 92 106 28-d FA/Fa 100 98 114 111 99 100 107 125 107 105 100 100 103 103 116 100 136 131 124 105 100 112 103 103 82 FA/Ca 100 111 99 108 126 100 114 141 126 134 100 122 124 126 114 100 116 144 147 131 100 97 128 133 93

1481

Sa 100 99 123 109 100 100 133 104 101 97 100 90 96 104 123 100 105 112 120 136 100 93 105 98 119

550

600

650

700

Only the third component of the ternary blends already containing PC and SF was written in the table. SF content is 15% for binder contents of 500, 550, 650 and 700 kg/m3 and 10% for 600 kg/m3.

Then, the strengths of the ternary binder concretes were calculated as percentages of the strengths of the control concretes at that dosage and age. The relative strength values of the ternary blends are shown in Table 5. According to Table 5, except a few cases of PC + SF + FA/F, for a given age and addition type, there exists at least one value which is greater than 100%. In other words, ternary blends almost always made it possible to obtain higher strengths than PC + SF binary blends at a certain age provided that the replacement level by FA/F or FA/C or S was chosen properly. Due to pozzolanic reactions occurring more abundantly at later ages, almost all of the 28-day strengths given in Table 5 are greater than 100%. The advantages of ternary systems over PC + SF blends are also apparent at 7 days. However, this benet is less pronounced for 3-day strengths. In fact, the situation at 3 days is a little bit dierent for PC + SF + FA/F mixes: when the replacement level by FA/F was greater than 20%, high strength losses were inevitable. The higher benets of FA/C and S relative to FA/F on 3-day strengths are, possibly, due to the selfcementing properties of these admixtures. For a given binder content, age and addition type, the maximum improvements in strength relative to PC + SF systems within several replacement levels were underlined in Table 5.

For a given binder content and addition type, the replacement level to produce the highest strengths is generally lower for 3 days when compared to 7 and 28 days. For example, as shown in Fig. 1, for PC + SF + FA/C mixtures with 600 kg/m3 binder, the highest strength at 3 days occurred at 20% but the highest strength at 7 and 28 days was observed at 30% replacement level. Similarly, in the case of 650 kg/m3 and PC + SF + S mixtures, the optimum replacement level was 20% at 3 days while it was 40% at 7

100

C ompressive strength, MPa

Binder content = 600 kg/m 90

28 days

80 7 days 70 3 days 60

50 0 10 20 30 40

FA/C replacement level, %

Fig. 1. Compressive strength of PC + SF + FA/C concretes having 600 kg/m3 binder content.

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Table 6 Maximum strength improvements relative to the binary blend Binder content (kg/m3) Relative compressive strength (%) 3-d FA/Fa 500 550 600 650 700
a

7-d FA/Ca 109 118 112 117 116 Sa 117 107 103 110 110 FA/Fa 110 106 106 118 97 FA/Ca 113 127 121 138 113 Sa 119 111 116 130 106

28-d FA/Fa 114 125 116 136 112 FA/Ca 126 141 126 147 133 Sa 123 133 123 136 119

106 97 97 107 104

Only the third component of the ternary blends already containing PC and SF was written in the table. SF content is 15% for binder contents of 500, 550, 650 and 700 kg/m3 and 10% for 600 kg/m3.

and 28 days. (It may be useful to note that as this trend indicates and due to the following reasons, there may be a further shift at ages beyond 28 days). This can be explained by the following discussions: lower amount of PC due to high replacement levels decreases the amount of CSH gels resulting from the hydration of PC at early ages. Moreover, it is a well-known fact that SF is more reactive than FA/F, FA/C or S due to its chemical composition (high amorphous silica content) and higher neness. The incorporation of PC by FA/F, FA/C or S in relatively high amounts reduces the PC content, and therefore, CH amount available for the pozzolanic reactions with SF. This reduces the contribution of SF to the early strength. At later ages, the pozzolanic reactions of the additions other than SF help the concrete tolerate high replacement levels. To enable a better understanding of the following discussions, the underlined values in Table 5 were collected in Table 6. According to Table 6, for a given dosage of binder except 500 kg/m3, the highest strength improvements at a given age were observed in the mixes containing PC + SF + FA/C. It has to be noticed that this ternary blend can improve the 28-day strength of the binary system (PC + SF) even by 47%. Table 6 also shows that for a given dosage and age, FA/F mixtures resulted in the lowest strength improvements. Therefore, it can be concluded in this respect that the performance of S in the ternary systems is better than FA/F and worse than FA/C. The possible reason for the lower eciency of FA/F (relative to both FA/C and S) in the ternary blends may be explained by the reduced alkalinity of the pore water in the presence of SF. Since the reaction of FA/F requires a high alkalinity, and SF reduces the alkalinity through pozzolanic reactions with CH, the reactivity of FA/F is reduced in ternary systems [8,9]. In addition, w/b of the ternary systems PC + SF + FA/C and PC + SF + S are comparable to those of PC + SF blends as seen from Table 4. However, w/b of the PC + SF + FA/F mixtures are higher than in PC + SF binary blends. In other words, inclusion of FA/F to the PC + SF mixtures increased the water requirement, and this resulted in a reduced eciency. Moreover, as observed from Table 1, the lowest pozzolanic activity belongs to FA/F. In fact, the strength activity indi-

ces of FA/F (60% and 69% at 7 and 28 days) were already below the minimum requirement stated by ASTM C 311 (70% at 7 or 28 days). 4. Conclusions The following conclusions can be drawn from the previous discussions: (1) Water demand of concretes containing PC + SF was similar to that of the concretes with only PC. (2) Incorporation of SF in binary mixtures improved the compressive strengths at all ages. (3) FA/C and S did not increase the water requirement in ternary systems to attain a constant workability. However, water demands of PC + SF + FA/F blends were higher than those of PC + SF binary blends. (4) Ternary blends almost always made it possible to obtain higher strengths than PC + SF mixtures at all ages provided that the replacement level by FA/ F or FA/C or S was chosen properly. (5) The improvements in strengths by ternary blends were more signicant at 7 and 28 days than at 3 days. (6) For a given binder content and for a certain ternary blend, the replacement level of a pozzolan that gives the highest strength was lower for 3 days than for 7 and 28 days. (7) The performance of S in the ternary systems was better than FA/F but worse than FA/C.

References
[1] ACI Committee 211. Guide for selecting proportions for highstrength concrete with portland cement and y ash. ACI Mater J 1993;90(3):27283. [2] Domone P, Soutsos M. An approach to the proportioning of highstrength concrete mixes. Concr Int 1994;16(10):2631. [3] Alves MF, Cremonini RA, Dal Molin DCC. A comparison of mix proportioning methods for high-strength concrete. Cem Concr Comp 2003;26(6):61321. [4] Malhotra VM, Ramezanianpour AA. Fly ash in concrete. Ottawa: CANMET; 1994. [5] Mindess S, Young JF, Darwin D. Concrete. Englewood Clis (NJ): Prentice-Hall; 2003.

 . Krca / Construction and Building Materials 22 (2008) 14771483 T.K. Erdem, O [6] Khatri RP, Sirivivatnanon V, Gross W. Eect of dierent supplementary cementitious materials on mechanical properties of high performance concrete. Cem Concr Res 1995;25(1):20920. [7] Roy DM. Hydration of blended cements containing slag, y ash, or silica fume. In: Proceedings of meeting institute of concrete technology, Coventry, UK; 1987. p. 2931. [8] Neville AM. Properties of concrete. Essex: Pearson Education Asia Pte Ltd; 2000. [9] Fraay ALA, Bijen JM, de Haan YM. The reaction of y ash in concrete: a critical examination. Cem Concr Res 1989;19(2):23546. [10] Mehta PK, Gjrv OE. Properties of portland cement concrete containing y ash and condensed silica fume. Cem Concr Res 1982;12(5):58795. [11] Ozyildirim C, Halstead WJ. Improved concrete quality with combinations of y ash and silica fume. ACI Mater J 1994;91(6): 58794. [12] Thomas MDA, Shehata MH, Shashiprakash SG, Hopkins DS, Cail K. Use of ternary cementitious systems containing silica fume and y ash in concrete. Cem Concr Res 1999;29(8):120714. [13] Lane DS, Ozyildirim C. Preventive measures for alkali-silica reactions (binary and ternary systems). Cem Concr Res 1999;29(8):12818.

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