Influence of Additives on Flexural Strength of Roller Compacted Concrete

Roller compacted concrete is considered as a sustainable solution. In the present investigation, three types of additives namely (fly ash, fumed silica, and hydrated lime) are implemented as partial replacement of Portland cement for preparation of roller compacted concrete slab samples using dense and gap aggregate gradation. The slab samples were prepared at optimum cement requirement of 12 % and at (2 and 4) % cement below and above the optimum. Beam specimens of (38 x 10 x 8) Cm were extracted from the slab samples using diamond saw. The specimens were subjected to flexural strength determination using two testing modes, the three and the four points loading. It was noticed that the flexural strength under four-points loading mode is lower by a range of (0.787 to 0.732) folds than that under three-points loading mode for dense and gap graded mixtures respectively. It was concluded that the flexural strength increases by (96.2, 84, and 17.2) % and (109, 86, and 9.3) % after replacement of (10, 12, and 15) % of cement by hydrated lime while it declines by (50, 64.6, and 77) % and (0.1, 30.8, and 63.5) % after replacement of (5, 7, and 10) % of cement by fumed silica for dense and gap graded aggregates respectively. The flexural strength of dense graded mixtures increases by 63 % at 20 % replacement by fly ash, however, it increases by (99.7, 53.8, and 1.0) % after replacement of (10, 12, and 15) % of cement by fly ash for gap graded aggregates respectively.