Construction

and Building

Construction and Building Materials 19 (2005) 682–690

MATERIALS
www.elsevier.com/locate/conbuildmat

Influence of coarse aggregate on the permeation,

durability and the microstructure characteristics of ordinary
Portland cement concrete
L. Basheer *, P.A.M. Basheer, A.E. Long
School of Civil Engineering, QueenÕs University Belfast, Belfast BT7 1NN, Northern Ireland, UK

Received 12 February 2005; received in revised form 12 February 2005; accepted 22 February 2005
Available online 26 April 2005

Abstract

Reinforced concrete structures in marine and similar environmental conditions have to withstand severe exposures. Due to this,
the mix design procedures have to be revised to include durability as a primary criterion along with strength and workability. In line
with this need, an investigation was carried out at QueenÕs University Belfast with the financial help of the Department of Environ-
ment, Transport and the Regions, UK. The main objective of the research was to understand the influence of mix parameters on
workability, strength, durability and microstructure and to propose a new mix design procedure within which durability has a higher
priority. The present paper reports part of this study, which investigates the effect of size and grading of the coarse aggregate on the
durability and the microstructure characteristics of concrete. The durability tests carried out included air permeability test, freeze–
thaw/salt scaling resistance test and an accelerated carbonation test. The microstructure study was carried out using a scanning elec-
tron microscope (SEM) and included image analysis of the interfacial transition zone (ITZ) around the coarse aggregate. The results
indicated that as the proportion of larger size aggregate increases in the mix, the local porosity at the ITZ increases and the overall
durability decreases. It has also been found that reducing the average aggregate size in a mix improves the pore structure and en-
hances the durability of the concrete.

2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Keywords: Concrete; Durability; Microstructure; SEM; ITZ

1. Introduction concrete permeability is influenced by pore volume, size

Most of the important properties of hardened con-
crete are related to the quantity and characteristics of
various types of pores in the cement paste and aggregate
components of the concrete. For example, the engineer-
ing properties of concrete, such as strength, durability,
shrinkage and permeability, are directly influenced or
controlled by the number, type and size of pores present
[1]. The total volume of pores, not their size or continu-
ity affect the strength and elasticity of concrete, whereas
*
Corresponding author. Tel.: +28 90974027; fax: +28 90663754.
E-mail address: l.basher@qub.ac.uk (L. Basheer).
and continuity. It is believed that capillary voids larger
than 50 lm, referred to as macro pores, are detrimental
to strength and impermeability, whereas voids smaller
than 50 lm, referred to as micro pores, are more related
to drying shrinkage and creep [2].
The movement of gases, liquids and ions through
concrete is important because of their interactions with
concrete constituents and the pore water which can alter
the integrity of concrete directly and indirectly, leading
to the deterioration of structures. In reinforced concrete
this deterioration is mainly due to the corrosion of rein-
forcement, freeze–thaw attack or chemical attack. In the
recent past the cost of repair of structures due to such

0950-0618/$ - see front matter
2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.conbuildmat.2005.02.022
 L. Basheer et al. / Construction and Building Materials 19 (2005) 682–690 683

deterioration has been high. This has led to efforts by pores [8,13]. Hence, this technique is used in this work
researchers and engineers to understand concrete better for studying the ITZ pore structure.
so that durable concrete can be produced in the future.
Concrete has a highly heterogeneous and complex
structure. At the macroscopic level concrete may be con- 2. Experimental programme
sidered to be a two-phase material, consisting of aggre-
gate particles dispersed in a matrix of cement paste. At 2.1. Variables
the microscopic level, a third phase – the transition zone
– may be identified (2). This transition zone exists as a Table 1 gives the mix variables used in the investiga-
thin shell, called the interfacial transition zone (ITZ), be- tion. To obtain a range of coarse aggregate grading the
tween aggregate particles and hydrated cement paste proportion of 10 and 20 mm aggregate was varied. For
(hcp). It has been established that the ITZ is profoundly the aggregate size effect, 10 and 20 mm single size aggre-
different from the bulk cement paste in terms of mor- gates were used. A constant water–cement ratio of 0.6
phology, composition and density [2–10]. There have and aggregate–cement ratio of 6 was used in all the
been suggestions that the strength of the cement aggre- cases. Mixes with two different fine aggregate-coarse
gate bond may be the limiting factor in the determina- aggregate ratios (FA/CA) were used for both the perme-
tion of the ultimate strength of concrete [11]. ation and durability studies. For the micro structural
Furthermore, as the porosity of the ITZ is higher than study only 0.5 FA/CA was used.
that of bulk paste [6–10], the ITZ has a significant effect
on the permeability and durability of concrete. 2.2. Materials used
This paper reports a study carried out to ascertain the
effect of coarse aggregate grading and size on the perme- Class 42.5 N Portland cement [14], medium graded
ation properties and durability of concrete. The investi- [15] natural sand and crushed basalt coarse aggregate
gation involved a study of the pore structure were used for manufacturing the concrete samples.
characteristics of the ITZ, with the objective of linking The various properties of the aggregates are summarised
the pore structure characteristics to the permeation in Table 2.
properties and the durability of ordinary Portland ce- To control the moisture condition of the aggregate,
ment concretes. all aggregates were oven-dried at a temperature of
40 C. The coarse aggregate was dried for 1 day and
1.1. Characterisation of interfacial transition zone the fine aggregate for 2 days. Before the aggregates were
used to make concrete they were allowed to cool for at
Back scattered electron (BSE) imaging technique can least 1 day. The saturated surface dry 1-hour water
be used to characterise the pore structure of the ITZ. absorption values [16] were also measured. This allowed
Low viscosity epoxy impregnated polished samples of a corrected water quantity to be calculated when batch-
concrete are used for BSE imaging. The underlying prin- ing the materials, to ensure that the aggregate in the con-
ciple is that the contrast of the BSE images depends on crete was in a saturated surface-dry condition.
the mean atomic number of the concrete constituents. In
the BSE images anhydrous phases of the unreacted ce-
ment particles appear bright, the calcium hydroxide
light grey, the other hydration products as various
shades of darker grey with the epoxy impregnated pores Table 2
appearing black [8]. Consequently by processing images Properties of aggregates used
of polished sections it has been possible to determine the Aggregate type 1 h absorption Specific Fineness
distribution of the phases in hydrated cement paste [12]. (%) gravity modulus
Furthermore, these images can also be utilised to ascer- Fine aggregate (sand) 1 2.72 2.6
tain porosity characteristics of the ITZ including the 10 mm crushed basalt 0.5 2.93 5.92
20 mm crushed basalt 0.5 2.88 7.04
porosity gradient [10] and the amount of penetrable

Table 1
Variable used for the investigation
Variable Levels
FA/CA 0.5 0.7
Coarse aggregate 100% 10 mm 67% 10 mm + 33% 20 mm 33% 10 mm + 67% 20 mm 100% 20 mm
grading and notation (10 mm) (10/20 = 2) (10/20 = 0.5) (20 mm)
Note: FA/CA fine aggregate–coarse aggregate ratio.
684 L. Basheer et al. / Construction and Building Materials 19 (2005) 682–690
2.3. Manufacture of test specimens
Six 250 · 250 · 100 mm blocks and three 100 mm
cubes were cast for each of the variables in Table 1.
The blocks were used for the permeation and durability
studies and the three cubes were used to obtain the com-
pressive strength (the slump and cube compressive
strength values are given in Table 3). One sample from
each mix was used for the micro structural study.
For each mix the required quantities were batched by
mass. These quantities were then mixed together using a
pan mixer in accordance with BS 1881: Part 125: 1986
[17]. For both blocks and cubes the concrete was cast
in two layers. A vibrating table was used to compact
the concrete. Full compaction was considered to have
been achieved when air bubbles stopped appearing on
the concrete surface. After vibrating, the concrete sur-
face was finished smooth using a metal float and then
covered with a polythene sheet to prevent evaporation
of water from the concrete.
Approximately, 6 h after the concrete had been cast
the moulds were covered with a damp hessian. The
moulds were stripped next day and the hardened con-
crete samples were placed in a constant temperature
(±20 C) water bath for 3 days. The specimens were then
transferred into a storage laboratory kept at a constant
temperature of 18 C (±2 C) and a relative humidity of
60% (± 5%). When the blocks were 14 days old they
were placed in a drying cabinet at a temperature of
40 C and a relative humidity of 20%. This was done
to remove moisture from the surface of the concrete in
order to eliminate the effect of moisture on the perme-
ation results. After 14 days of drying the specimens were
ready for testing. For this they were transferred to a test-
ing laboratory (kept at a constant temperature of 20 C
(±0.5 C) and relative humidity of 50% (± 5%)) and
tested on the following day. The cubes were cured and
conditioned in the same way as the slabs in order to en-
sure that the compressive strength and other parameters
were measured using similar concrete. The cubes were
then crushed to determine the concrete compressive
strength.
Table 3
Slump and 28-day compressive strength the study
No: CA-G FA/CA Slump (mm) Strength (N/mm2)
1 10 mm 0.5 35 46.9
2 10/20 = 2.0 56 44.1
3 10/20 = 0.5 79 44.2
4 20 mm 103 42.9
5 10 mm 0.7 18 50.1
6 10/20 = 2.0 28 45.2
7 10/20 = 2.0 23 45.4
8 20 mm 61 44.9
Note: CA-G coarse aggregate grading.
2.4. Test methods
2.4.1. Air permeability test
The air permeability of concrete was measured on the
preconditioned blocks using the Autoclam Permeability
system [18]. This test has been used in research for more
than a decade and has proved to be very reliable and
easy to use. Details of the test can be obtained in [18].
The test provides a relative measure of the air perme-
ability of concrete in Ln(Bar)/min.
2.4.2. Salt scaling test
The freeze–thaw/salt scaling test was carried out
according to the RILEM test procedure [19]. The spec-
imens for the test were 100 mm diameter cores taken
from the slabs used for the Autoclam air permeability
test. The cores were dried for 2 weeks in a fan-assisted
cabinet maintained at 40 C and 20% relative humidity.
The curved surfaces of these cores were then coated with
an epoxy emulsion. These cores were then kept in a 3%
sodium chloride solution for 7 days, with the test surface
(mould finished face) touching the solution. The face of
the cores opposite to the test surface was then coated
with the epoxy emulsion. The samples were then trans-
ferred to test cells again with the test surface in contact
with the 3% salt solution. The cells were then placed in
an automatic environmental chamber and subjected to
test cycles as shown in Fig. 1. At the end of every two
cycles, the specimens were taken out of the chamber
and the loose particles removed by means of an ultra-
sonic bath. The loose particles collected were dried at
100 C for 24 h and then weighed. These measurements
were continued for 28 cycles.
2.4.3. Accelerated carbonation test
The carbonation resistance of different mixes was
determined by carrying out an accelerated carbonation
test on 100 mm cores removed from the blocks used
for the permeability tests. The cores used for the test
were dried in a fan-assisted cabinet for 2 weeks at
40 C and 20% relative humidity. These were then
coated with epoxy emulsion on the curved surface and
the trowel-finished face. When the epoxy was cured,
+20.00 C
Time
0.00 C (Hours)
-20.00C
4.0 3.0 4.0 1.0
Temperature
(0 C)
Fig. 1. Freeze–thaw cycle used for RILEM salt scaling test.
 L. Basheer et al. / Construction and Building Materials 19 (2005) 682–690 685

the cores were placed in an electronically controlled car-

bonation chamber in an environment of 5 ± 0.1% car-
bon dioxide at 20 ± 0.5 C and 65 ± 1% relative
humidity. At the end of 3 weeks, the samples were taken
out and split longitudinally. The freshly broken surface
was sprayed with a phenolphthalein indicator solution.
After 24 h the depth of the pink coloration was mea-
sured to the nearest millimetre at six different locations.
An average of these values was used for comparing dif-
ferent mixes.

2.4.4. Electron microscopic study of the ITZ

Cores of 50 mm diameter were cut from the blocks
used for the permeation studies. The cores were then
cut along their diameter and a slice of size
25 mm · 25 mm · 2 mm was removed from the mould-
finished face of each core. The slices were then wrapped
in thin polythene sheets to prevent any carbonation tak-
ing place. These thin slices were dried under vacuum and
then impregnated with an ultra low viscosity epoxy.
After the epoxy had cured the specimens were polished
with diamond grit of progressively finer sizes down to
0.25 lm. The polished samples were then coated with
carbon to 10 nm thickness.
The carbon-coated samples were placed under a scan-
ning electron microscope (SEM) and 20 backscatter
images from around the coarse aggregate present in Fig. 2. (a) Segmentation using histogram. (b) Typical porosity
the slice were collected at random. The image magnifica- distribuation curve.
tion used was 400 times and the electron beam was kept
at a distance of 15 mm away from the top of the speci-
men in all cases. Each image consisted of a small part
of aggregate on the left hand side of the picture and 3. Results and discussion
the rest was the matrix of cement paste and mortar
(Fig. 2(a)). The overall size of each image was 3.1. Slump and compressive strength
336 · 262 lm.
The porosity gradient was determined using an image The slump and 28-day compressive strength results
analysis computer software programme – NIH Image. In of each mix are presented in Table 3. An increase in
order to do this, thresholding of the grey scale to identify slump and marginal decrease in cube compressive
pores from the rest was essential. This was done by trial strength can be noted with an increase in the proportion
and error and by carrying out a sensitivity analysis. Once of 20 mm aggregate in the mix. The reduction in water
the threshold grey scale was decided, the software en- demand with an increase in the size of coarse aggregate
abled the determination of porosity in a strip of 10 lm is well documented [2]. In this experimental programme
thickness away from the face of the aggregate (Fig. when the proportion of 20 mm aggregate increased for a
2(a)). This strip was moved on an incremental basis by given water–cement ratio, the reduction in water de-
10 lm width away from the face of the coarse aggregate mand led to the increase in slump. However, as the
and each time the porosity of the 10 lm thick strip was water–cement ratio was not changed, the strength did
determined as a percentage of the total area of the strip. not vary significantly.
Once the strip reached the end of the image, the analysis
was repeated on other images collected from the same 3.2. Air permeability
sample. Therefore, for each 10 lm increment strip away
from the coarse aggregate, there were 20 porosity values Tables 4 and 5 give the results of the air permeability
and an average of these values was reported as the poros- test as AP index [18]. When the effect of coarse aggregate
ity of this 10 lm thick strip of concrete. The average grading is considered, it can be seen that as the propor-
porosity values were then plotted against the distance tion of 20 mm aggregate increases in the concrete air
from the face of the aggregate to determine the charac- permeability increases, indicating a reduction in durabil-
teristics of the interfacial zone (Fig. 2(b)). ity [20]. This is seen for both FA/CA ratios. In Table 5,
686 L. Basheer et al. / Construction and Building Materials 19 (2005) 682–690

Table 4
The effect of aggregate grading on air permeability, salt scaling resistance and carbonation resistance
Coarse aggregate grading FA/CA AP index (Ln(mBar)/min) Cumulative scaling wt (g) Depth of carbonation (mm)
10/20 2 0.5 0.114 148.6 12.7
10/20 0.5 0.139 406.9 13.1
20 mm 0.181 642.3 13.7
10/20 2 0.7 0.06 67.02 12.8
10/20 0.5 0.105 53.05 11.3
20 mm 0.115 86.05 12.4

Table 5
The effect of aggregate size on air permeability, salt scaling resistance and carbonation resistance
Coarse aggregate size (mm) FA/CA AP index (Ln(mBar)/min) Cumulative scaling wt (g) Depth of carbonation (mm)
10 0.5 0.11 46.2 11.1
20 0.181 642.3 13.7
10 0.7 0.076 78.05 11.2
20 0.115 86.05 12.4

the effect of increasing the size of coarse aggregate from
10 to 20 mm is to increase the air permeability. There are
two possible reasons for these results. When the size of
coarse aggregate increases, there is a reduction in the
tortuosity of the flow path, which tends to increase the
permeability. The second reason is that when larger size
coarse aggregates are used, the possibility of the bleed
water getting collected below the coarse aggregate in-
creases, which leads to an increase in local water–cement
ratio and hence the porosity. An increase in porosity
around the aggregate would increase the permeability
of the concrete. However, Table 6 indicates that only
moderate variations in air permeability occurred and
all the samples used for this study fall in the region of
medium risk concretes in terms of durability [20].
It can also be seen from Tables 4 and 5 that, as the
fine aggregate–coarse aggregate ratio was increased
from 0.5 to 0.7, the air permeability of the concrete de-
creased. This is quite unexpected because when the FA/
CA increases, the increase in sand volume for a given
aggregate–cement ratio would increase the area of inter-
facial transition zone, which in turn reduce the tortuos-
ity of the flow path. This means that the air permeability
should have increased. In Table 3, there is a reduction in
slump and an increase in compressive strength with the
increase in FA/CA, which would suggest that when the
FA/CA increased, there was an associated decrease in
water–cement ratio. This might have been the result of
increased absorption of mix water by sand over and
above that was accounted in mix proportioning. Never-
theless, it can be concluded that the reduction in effective
water–cement ratio associated with the increase in fine
aggregate content is responsible for the reduction in
air permeability.
Fig. 3 shows the effect of average aggregate size on
the air permeability. (The average aggregate size was ob-
tained from the sieve analysis data, using standard pro-
cedures). As the average aggregate size in the mix
increases the air permeability index increases. A straight
line, with a regression coefficient of 0.87, can represent
this increase. The combined effect of aggregate size, its
relative proportion in a mix and the quantity of fine
aggregate in the mix on air permeability was obtained
by plotting air permeability against the average size of
aggregate in Fig. 3. The figure would suggest that the
permeability (and hence the durability) of concrete
could be improved by reducing the average size of the
combined fine and coarse aggregates.
0.2
AP Index x 102 Ln(Bar)/min

y = 0.0627x - 0.0191
0.18 2
0.16 R = 0.871
Table 6 0.14
Risk rating of durability based on Autoclam air permeability index 0.12
(20) 0.1
0.08
Air permeability index (Ln(mBar)/min) 0.06
0.04
Range Rating 0.02
0
<0.1 Low
0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5
0.1–0.5 Medium
Average aggregate size (mm)
0.5–0.9 High
>0.9 Very high Fig. 3. Effect of average aggregate size on air permeablity index.
 L. Basheer et al. / Construction and Building Materials 19 (2005) 682–690 687

coarse aggregate mixes are compared for both the FA/

n1 n1 CA ratios. However, the effect of an increase in fine
aggregate–coarse aggregate ratio from 0.5 to 0.7 is to
n2

porosity %
porosity %

improve the salt scaling resistance of the concrete. As

n n
ITZ1 ITZ2
(a) Distance (micron) (b)
Fig. 4. Two different types of porosity gradients.
3.3. Salt scaling
The salt scaling test gave results similar to those of
the air permeability test (Tables 4 and 5). As the propor-
tion of the 20 mm aggregate increases in the mix the
cumulative salt scaling also increases, indicating a de-
crease in durability (Table 4). A similar trend can also
be seen in Table 5 when the results of 10 and 20 mm
in the case of air permeability, it is possible to conclude
that an increase in the proportion of smaller size frac-
tions of aggregate in a mix would improve its salt scaling
resistance when the water–cement ratio is kept constant.
ITZ2
However, it has to be pointed out that the effect of the
Distance (micron) average aggregate size is not as significant a factor as
the water–cement ratio of a mix. In a previous study,
a lower water cement ratio (0.45) concrete withstood
100 cycles of freezing and thawing [21] compared to
0.6 water–cement ratio concrete which only withstood
about 28 cycles.
3.4. Carbonation
In Table 4, there was no consistent effect of coarse
aggregate grading and the FA/CA on the depth of

Fig. 5. (a) Aggregate grading and porosity. (b) Aggregate grading and ITZ thickness. (c) Aggregate grading and total porosity percentage.
688 L. Basheer et al. / Construction and Building Materials 19 (2005) 682–690
carbonation. Russell and co-workers [22] showed that
the depth of carbonation is primarily dependent on the
water–cement ratio. For the mixes in Table 4, the
water–cement ratio was kept constant. Therefore,
the depth of carbonation remained almost the same
for all the mixes. However, Table 5 shows that the depth
of carbonation increases when the aggregate size is in-
creased. This is similar to the results reported by Basheer
et al. [23]. The increase in the size and porosity of the
ITZ around the coarse aggregate due to the increase in
size of the coarse aggregate might have contributed to
this increase in depth of carbonation.
3.5. ITZ properties
The percentage porosity distributions at the ITZ,
obtained from SEM analysis, were used for a compar-
ative study of the ITZ in samples from each mix. In
general, the distribution of porosity obtained across
the ITZ can be divided in to three sections (Fig. 4(a)
and (b)):
Fig. 6. (a) Aggregate size and porosity. (b) Aggregate size and ITZ thickness. (c) Aggregate size and total porosity.
– region of peak porosity (n1) which is about 40 lm
thick (ITZ1),
– a transient porosity region (n2) which is about 160
lm thick (ITZ2),
– the bulk porosity region (n).
The area under the curve in the peak porosity region
is termed as A1 and that in the transient porosity region
is termed as A2. These values give a combined effect of
the percentage porosity and the ITZ. In some cases n2
and the corresponding ITZ1 and A1 values are not pres-
ent (Fig. 4(b)). Although for microstructure studies in
the literature, other researchers have reported the thick-
ness of the ITZ as 10–50 lm [8,15,16], a more open ap-
proach was used for analysing the results in this paper.
This was to avoid losing any valuable information from
the results.
Fig. 5(a)–(c) present the ITZ data versus aggregate
grading for mixes of FA/CA ratio 0.5. Results indicate
that as the proportion of 20 mm aggregate increases
so does the porosity values (n1, n2 and n) (Fig. 5(a)).
 L. Basheer et al. / Construction and Building Materials 19 (2005) 682–690
This effect is more apparent at the ITZ region and is
only marginal for the bulk porosity. These result corre-
late well with the previous three test results given in Sec-
tions 3.2–3.4.
When the ITZ thicknesses are compared for these
mixes (Fig. 5(b)), it can be seen that as the proportion
of 20 mm aggregate increased in the mix, the ITZ thick-
ness also increased. This is more evident in ITZ2 than in
ITZ1. Results from this study and a parallel study with
different water–cement ratios and aggregate–cement ra-
tios [24] indicate that the ITZ2 value is an important
parameter, which has to be considered during the anal-
ysis of ITZ results obtained from SEM analysis.
From Fig. 5(c) it can be seen that the total porosity
percentage, both A1 and A2, increased as the propor-
tion of 20 mm aggregate increased in the mix. Therefore,
it can be concluded that when the proportion of course
aggregate is increased, there will be an associated in-
crease in interfacial transition zone porosity volume.
Fig. 6(a)–(c) show the effect of aggregate size on per-
centage porosity values and ITZ thicknesses. As ob-
tained for the permeation and durability results,
reported in Sections 3.2–3.4, increasing the coarse aggre-
gate size in the mix resulted in an increase in the percent-
age porosity values (Fig. 6(a)) and the ITZ thicknesses
(Fig. 6(b)). These results and the results given in the
above paragraphs indicate that the microstructure study
using SEM and image analysis give a clear picture of the
pore structure distribution at the aggregate interface,
which reflects the air permeability and durability of
the concretes. This is apart from the fact that these
images only give a two dimensional picture of the pore
structure. Also, there could be error introduced in the
SEM analysis because of the fact that it is not known
at what angle to the coarse aggregate the concrete was
sliced when the samples were prepared. However, Scriv-
ener and Nemati [9] suggest that a correction factor of
0.81 can be applied to the ITZ thickness measured using
random sections in order to estimate the average normal
distance of the ITZ, provided that sufficient number of
areas are analysed and averaged [7]. As one sample only
was analysed for each variable in this study, this correc-
tion factor was not applied.
4. Conclusions
On the basis of results presented in this paper, the fol-
lowing conclusions can be drawn:
(i) The air permeability of concrete can be improved
by resorting to mixes with a low average aggregate
size. When the size of coarse aggregate and the
proportion of larger size coarse aggregate
increases in a mix, there is an associated increase
in air permeability.
689
(ii) Unlike other published work on the effect of fine
aggregate content on the air permeability of con-
crete, when the fine aggregate content increased
the air permeability decreased. The increase in tor-
tousity is considered to have contributed to this
effect.
(iii) The salt scaling resistance followed a trend similar
to that of the air permeability reported in (i) and
(ii). The effect of aggregate grading and FA/CA
on depth of carbonation was insignificant. How-
ever, the increase in size of aggregate led to an
increase in the depth of carbonation.
(iv) The micro structural analysis at the ITZ clearly
indicates that the coarser the aggregate the more
porous it is at the ITZ. This is in line with the
results given by permeability and durability
studies.
(v) Therefore, in order to design durable concretes
using oPc, it is preferable to use smaller size aggre-
gate and a low average aggregate size for the com-
bined fine and coarse aggregate.
Acknowledgements
The funding to carryout this project was provided by
the Department of Environment, Transport and the Re-
gions, UK. The facilities to carryout this research was
provided by the school of Civil Engineering and the
Electron microscopic unit at QueenÕs University Belfast.
Both these are gratefully acknowledged.
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