Elkem Microsilica CONCRETE

Triple Blend With Fly Ash

C5-03 Applications

The use of silica fume in combination with fly ash

Silica fume from the ferro-silicon industry and fly ash from coal fired power plants are both important in modern concrete technology. Used in together with portland cement, they contribute to concrete with selected properties. There are significant differences between the products; more than 600 million tons of fly ash are produced annually, while the total availabilityof silica

Tsing Ma, Hong Kong

fume is about one tenth of a percent of this volume. Also, standards for silica

fume are relatively tight, while variations in fly ash performance parameters reflect the

great variations in feedstock for the burners, in burner technology etc. On Fly Ash Fly ash has standards in many countries. A significant problem is that two ashes, both meeting a specific standard, can give very different performance in concrete. Therefore, strict procedures for evaluation and specification of ash for concrete are required. Fly ash usually is beneficial in providing long-tem strength and

Bandra Worli, Mumbai

Elkem

impermeability. However, fly ash has a low rate of hydration which means that both short term strength and chloride resistance are typically detrimentally influenced. This slow development of properties is critical when the structure in question will be exposed to a chloride environment after 2-3 days or less. Fly ash has documented good performance concerning the resistance to chloride penetration. At volumes of 20 % and up there is a very good effect -- after hydration is complete. Lesser volumes, less effect. The cause of beneficiation from fly ash is believed to be to a minor part from better particle size distribution, for the major part from binding of chlorides by the aluminium in the flyash. Microsilica (Silica Fume) Silica fume and its effects on chloride resistance is well documented. Also there is a lot of experience in using silica fume to provide high strength, to reduce heat of hydration and improve a number of other properties of concrete. There are three main reasons for using silica fume: !In fresh concrete,

Great Belt, Denmark

Sub-sea tunnel

Low bridges High bridge

silica fume give a stable, nonsegregating concrete an also acts as a pumping aid, reducing viscosity in the concrete and the risk of blocking during pumping. !In hardened concrete, silica fume can provide higher and more reliable strength than any other method. !In hardened concrete, the effect of microsilica is to provide high resistance to most aggressive mechanisms, from ASR through sulphate attack to reinforcement corrosion due to chlorides Triple (ternary) blends - why? Particle packing is one reason. In the case of fly ash, the particle is

often finer that the cement, this means that the small silica fume particles can perform better in particle packing since the intermediate particle space, slightly smaller than cement, is filled by the fly ash. The chemical binding of chlorides by fly ash due to its content of aluminium works together with the pore refinement due to silica fume to give excellent performance in a chloride environment, Due to low reaction rate, fly ash has often been used in HPC to reduce the heat of hydration and will also give good flow in fresh concrete. However, this gives a problem in fly ash concrete is the early age, what to do

until the fly ash has hydrated sufficiently to have strength and to protect against aggressives. In a triple blend, the silica fume takes care of properties in the early age, while fly ash adds its contribution at later ages Experience The combination of silica fume and fly ash has been used in practice and extensively studied. The major projects listed at the end speak for themselves, some information from laboratory studies are important. Laboratory studies Bouzouba & al(2002)did a large study to study all

aspects of triple blend. For durability the main conclusion is that the triple blend outperforms the binary blends, also the addition of silica fume reduced the sensitivity of fly ash concrete to the effects of insufficient curing. Several other properties either improved or remained the same. Lynsdale and Khan studied chloride and oxygen permeability of triple blends. Their main conclusion is the ternary blends enabled negligible chloride transport even at early ages, both fly ash and silica fume contributing. At low w/b with 10% silica fume, 15-20% fly ash gave the lowest chloride transport of the tests. Nassim and Suksawang (2003) in their very comprehensive study has a main conclusion: Combining silica fume and fly ash enhances the durability and mechanical properties of HPC. In fact, it is highly recommended that a minimum of 5 percent silica fume be

added to fly ash concrete to improve its durability. Moreover, the ductility of concrete increases when comparing to ACI recommendation. Ramakrishnan and Sigl (2001) is another comprehensive study that also includes structures built using the triple blend technology. In their summary they state: The addition of fly ash and silica fume reduced the chloride permeability of concrete significantly while increasing the compressive strength. Based on the analysis of results obtained, one mix was chosen, as the best mix having all the properties required for a high performance bridge deck. Another high strength HPC mix was selected for the girders to satisfy the strength requirements for the early release of prestress strands and at 28 days. The total cost of the HPC bridges and the standard SDDOT (South Dakota Department of Transport) present design bridges is

Coastal viaduct, HK
almost the same. However the life-cycle cost may be cheaper because of the anticipated longer life and reduced maintenance costs for the HPC bridges.

Triple blends have characterised several major projects done with microsilica. Great Belt, Denmark resund, Denmark/Sweden Confederation Bridge, Canada Tsing Ma, Hong Kong

Bandra Worli in Mumbai

As an example, these are performance data from pile-caps in the Bandra Worli project Concrete specification Cement (53 Grade) Micro silica Flyash Coarse aggregate 20mm Coarse aggregate 10mm Natural Sand Crushed Sand Free water (litres) Water Binder ratio Admixture (litres) kg/m 300 40 196 577 500 423 327 134 0.25 13.4
3

Bandra Worli Pile Caps Compressive strength

80 60 40 20 0 10 20 30 40 50 60

Chloride Ion penetration- ASTM C 1202: Water Permeability (DIN 1048): Maximum temperature at the core: Max. temperature difference

600 Coulombs Nil 68C. < 20C.

MPa

Days

References
N. Bouzouba, A. Bilodeau, V. Sivasundaram, and B. Fournier Development of Ternary Blends for HighPerformance Concrete MATERIALS TECHNOLOGY LABORATORY MTL 2002-5 (TR-R) July 2002 Moncef Nehdi. Ternary and Quaternary Cements Sustainable Development. Concrete international / APRIL 2001 PKshemendra Nath. P , MICT High Performance Microsilica Concrete For Bandra-Worli Sealink, Mumbai; India. The Institute Of Concrete Technology. Annual Technical Symposium Concrete For A New World 5 April 2005 B J Magee, M R Jones R K Dhir Performance Of Concrete Containing Ternary Binders In Chloride-Laden Environments Proc. Dundee conference S.P . Pandeya,*, A.K. Singha, R.L. Sharmab, A.K. Tiwaria Studies on high-performance blended/multiblended cements and their durability characteristics Cement and Concrete Research 33 (2003) 14331436 G. J. Lynsdale and M. I. Khan Chloride and Oxygen Permeability of Concrete Incorporating Fly Ash and Silica Fume in Ternary Systems SP 192-45 M.D.A. Thomas, M.H. Shehata, S.G. Shashiprakash, D.S. Hopkins, K. Cail Use of ternary cementitious systems containing silica fume and fly ash in concrete Cement and Concrete Research 29 (1999) 1207-1214 P . F. McGrath and R. D. Hooton Influence of Binder Composition on Chloride Penetration Resistance of Concrete SP 170-16 M.R. Jones, R.K. Dhir and B.J. Magee Concrete Containing Ternary Blended Binders: Resistance To Chloride Ingress And Carbonation Cement and Concrete Research, Vol. 27, No. 6, pp. 825-831, 1997 Shondeep L. Sarkar, Moussa Baalbaki, and Pierre-Claude Aitcin. Microstructural Development in a High-Strength Concrete Containing a Ternary Cementitious System. 1991 by the American Society for Testing and Materials (Cement Concrete and Aggregates) Hani Nassif , Nakin Suksawang, Anthony Chmiel. Development of High-Performance Concrete for Transportation Structures in New Jersey.FINAL REPORT August 2003. FHWA-NJ-2003-016 Dr. V. Ramakrishnan, Dr. Arden Sigl Evaluation of High Performance Concrete in Four Bridge Decks as well as Prestressed Girders for Two Bridges Final Report Study SD98-

CONCRETE

REFERENCE PROJECT

MARCH 2002

C4-28

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