Various mineral additions are used in the manufacture of self-compacting concrete (SCC) to reduce the cement content and hence the CO₂ emissions and also to enhance the performance of concrete. In this paper, the results of fresh and hardened properties of self-compacting limestone cement mortar (SCLCM) and concrete (SCLCC) with metakaolin (MK) as cement replacement are reported. SCLCM properties investigated include spread flow, V-funnel flow time, yield stress, plastic viscosity and heat evolution. SCLCC fresh properties include slump flow, V-funnel flow time, J-Ring, L-Box and sieve segregation. Compressive strength of the hardened SCLCC was measured at the ages of 1, 3, 7, 28, 90, and 180 days. Moreover, water porosity, water absorption by capillarity and dynamic modulus of elasticity (E_d) tests were conducted. Test results indicated that the produced MK is of sufficient pozzolanic activity and contributes to improve the performances of concrete in particular at later stages. The addition of MK to SCLCM mixes exhibits lower heat evolution, lower yield stress, higher plastic viscosity and higher V-funnel flow time. The addition of MK to SCLCC mixes improves the rheological properties (flowability, passing ability and segregation resistance) as well as the mechanical and durability performance.

Self-compacting concrete (SCC) is a concrete that flows alone under its dead weight and consolidates itself without any additional compaction and without segregation. As an integral part of a SCC, self-compacting mortars (SCMs) may serve as a basis for the mix design of concrete since the measurement of the rheological and viscosity properties of SCC is often impractical due to the need for complex equipment. This paper discusses the properties of SCM and SCC with mineral additions. ordinary Portland cement (OPC), natural pozzolana (PZ), and marble powder (MP) are used in ternary cementitious blends system following the cement substitution with PZ and MP in ratio 1/3. Within the framework of this experimental study, a total of 12 SCM and 6 SCC were prepared having a constant w/b ratio of 0.40. The fresh properties of the SCM were tested for mini-slump flow diameter, mini-V-funnel flow time, and viscosity measurement. Slumps flow test, L-box, J-ring, V-funnel flow time, and sieve stability were measured for SCC. Moreover, the development in the compressive strength was determined at 3, 7, 28, 56, and 90 days. Test results have shown that using ternary blends improved the fresh properties of the mixtures. The combination of natural pozzolana and marble powder increase the slump flow test up to 826 mm for the mixture prepared with 10% of mineral additions. Moreover, the use of mineral addition reduced the time flow to 4.27 s for SCC with 20% mineral addition, thus reducing the viscosity of all mixtures. Addition of MP increases the capacity of the passage through the plates between 88.75 and 93.50% for SCC with 7.5 and 15% of MP, respectively. The ternary system (PZ and MP) improve the sieve stability with the value for 4.07% of SCC with 50% of substitution compared for SSC without additions. The compressive strength of SCC at 90 days with 40% of PZ and MP was similar to that of OPC.

In the manufacture of mortar or concrete, the mixing water fills the interstitial voids between the solid particles of cement and the volume of the resulting paste should be more than sufficient to fill the voids between the fine and coarse aggregates. So we should have enough water to cover all the fine particles and enough paste to cover all aggregates. Therefore, it can be assumed that both Water Film Thickness (WFT) and paste film thickness have major effects on the rheology of the mortar. In this work, we try to apply this approach to understand the rheological properties of mortars containing various amount of Silica Fume (SF) with two types of superplasticizer using rheometer apparatus and mini cone test. The results show that the rheological behavior is governed by water film thickness and the dosage of superplasticizer. However, for high dosages water film thickness remains the only factor governing the behavior. In addition, the mixture compactness increases significantly when adjuvanted with efficient superplasticizer.

This paper presents the development of a portable vane rheometer to estimate concrete plastic viscosity and yield stress. The apparatus can be used not only in laboratory but also on construction site. In this study, new blade geometry was proposed to minimize the effect of segregation of concrete during testing, and also to expand the wide range of concrete work­ability with a slump of approximately from 7 cm to fluid concrete, and concrete with high plastic viscosity such as concrete with mineral additions. The used blade (U shaped and reversed) allows reducing the vibration of the apparatus, and ob­taining more stable measurements. The obtained results permit validating the rheometer test procedure and confirmed that the results are reliable, with a low coefficient of variation of 9% for repetitive test and of 5.8% for reproductive tests.