ASSESSMENT OF CONCRETE WITH SILICA FUME AS PARTIAL CEMENT REPLACEMENT

Civil Engineering

Silica fume is a hazardous gas created as a residue of steel mills used to manufacture silicon metal and silicon alloys. It has excellent pozzolanic qualities, as well as other characteristics. Concrete that has been admixed with condensed Silica Fume has excellent strength and endurance, and it has proven to be particularly useful in places where structures are subjected to significant environmental damage. In contrast to the reactions using natural pozzolans and fly ash, the reaction involving Silica Fume is extremely fast. It is 100 times finer than cement and contains a high concentration of pozzolanic material. Despite the fact that Silica Fume does not have any binding qualities by itself, it combines with Ca (OH)2 during the hydration of cement to generate a gel, known as calcium silicate hydrate, which has excellent binding properties. Because the heat of hydration for cement and Silica Fume is about the same, using this strategy of replacement minimizes the overall amount of heat created in the enormous pours that are normally utilized for dam construction. In the present assessment, an attempt has been made to study the mechanical characteristics of a few Silica Fume admixed concrete mixes, namely the compressive strength, split tensile strength, and modulus of rupture of the concrete. The purpose of the study is to determine the effect of increasing the percentage substitution of cement with silica fume in the mixes on the strength parameters of the mixtures under investigation. A commercially available Super Plasticizer, Conplast SP337, has been used to make the mixes tested here usable. Appropriate dosages of this Super Plasticizer have been added to the mixes tested here. It is the goal of this project work to investigate the effects of Silica Fume on the characteristics of concrete. The findings of an examination into the mechanical properties of hardened concrete that has been largely replaced by silica fume, including compressive, flexural and split tensile strength are presented. The optimal replacement of cement in concrete with Silica Fume is 9 percent, at which a strength fluctuation of up to 21.15 percent has been seen when compared to control concrete, according to the results

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