Construction and Building Materials 40 (2013) 10291037

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Construction and Building Materials

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/conbuildmat

Effect of mineral admixtures on uidity and stability of self-consolidating

mortar subjected to prolonged mixing time
Iman Mehdipour a,b,, Mehran Seyed Razzaghi c, Kamran Amini d, Mohammad Shekarchi b
a

Department of Civil Engineering, Buinzahra Branch, Islamic Azad University, Buinzahra, Iran
Construction Materials Institute (CMI), School of Civil Engineering, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran
c
Department of Civil Engineering, Qazvin Branch, Islamic Azad University, Qazvin, Iran
d
Department of Civil Engineering, Concrete Research Center, Qazvin Branch, Islamic Azad University, Qazvin, Iran
b

h i g h l i g h t s
" Prolonged agitation time can increase the risk of instability of the mixture.
" Fly ash increases the uidity, but mixture is more prone to instability.
" MK provides stability retention particularly when prolonged mixing is into consideration.
" Effect of MK to stabilize mixtures is more noticeable at higher w/b ratio.
" Mixtures containing MK and FA have higher uid capacity without any signs of segregation.

a r t i c l e

i n f o

Article history:
Received 14 June 2012
Received in revised form 12 October 2012
Accepted 22 November 2012
Available online 28 December 2012
Keywords:
Self-consolidating mortar
Stability
Fluidity
Prolonged mixing time
Fluid capacity
Fly ash
Metakaolin

a b s t r a c t
During continuous mixing of concrete in a truck mixer for its hauling to a construction site, concrete
should remain workable without any signs of instability. Good workability at construction site is essential for high quality concrete since concretes of bad workability are prone to yield low strength and poor
durability properties. This paper presents the effects of water to binder ratio, binary and ternary blends
use of y ash (FA) and metakaolin (MK) on uidity, viscosity, and stability of self-consolidating mortars
(SCMs) subjected to prolonged mixing time. The obtained results indicate that, by prolonged mixing time,
occulated cement particles are dispersed and as a result, uidity is increased and so, the risk of instability increases. In addition, increasing FA content from 0 in the reference mixture to 20% and 50% of total
binder mass increased the segregation index by about 48% and 160%, respectively. Furthermore, mixtures
containing MK and FA have higher uid capacity without any signs of instability. The addition of 7.5% MK
has signicantly improved the overall performance of the mixture, including the segregation stability.
2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
Self-consolidating concrete (SCC) is a new category of highperformance concrete characterized by its ability to spread readily
into place and self-consolidate without exhibiting any signicant
separation of constituents. To secure adequate homogeneity necessary for developing proper bond to reinforcement, structural performance, strength and durability, it is imperative to proportion
the SCC with high stability. Stability is the ability of a SCC mixture
to retain a uniform distribution of all constituent materials during
the casting process and once all placement and casting operations
Corresponding author at: Department of Civil Engineering, Buinzahra Branch,
Islamic Azad University, Buinzahra, Iran. Tel.: +98 9121712360.
E-mail address: i.mehdipour@qiau.ac.ir (I. Mehdipour).
0950-0618/$ - see front matter 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.conbuildmat.2012.11.108

have been completed. The former is referred to dynamic stability

and the latter is referred to static stability [1]. Dynamic instability
can be caused by the input of any form of vibration energy into the
system during material transport or placement [2]. On the other
hand, static stability is the ability of concrete to resist bleeding,
segregation, and settlement which are inuenced by gravity and
time [3].
Immediately after or during its mixing, concrete is transported
from its mixing location to the nal destination. During its
transportation, concrete should remain cohesive and workable
without any signs of instability like segregation and bleeding [4].
In this regard, mixing time is another key factor which affects
the fresh properties of cement based concretes, especially highly
owable concretes [4,5]. Poor workability of concrete can create
several problems including difculty of concrete placement and

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I. Mehdipour et al. / Construction and Building Materials 40 (2013) 10291037

compaction resulting in concrete having increased voids and lower

mechanical strength and durability [6]. However, the increase of
both yield stress and viscosity was more remarkable when the concrete mixture was under the standstill condition than that under
agitation. When concrete is agitated, occulated cement particles
are dispersed and as a result, uidity can be increased. Li et al.
[7] showed that increasing both the yield stress and apparent viscosity of concrete were more dominant when the mixture was under the rest condition than that under continuous agitation.
Felekoglu et al. [8] indicated that, the viscous behavior of selfconsolidating mortar is evident for low rotational speeds of mixing,
while at higher speeds owable behavior becomes dominant.
While mixing, the shear thinning effect breaks down the formation
of the high viscous behavior of the mix at rest. In other words,
when ow is facilitated by local shear or by vibration, the apparent
viscosity decreases with the increase in the strain rate [9]. On the
other hand, dynamic instability can be caused by the input energy
into the system due to the continuous agitation and therefore, results in segregation and bleeding of concrete in fresh state. This
may also be the case during the transport of fresh concrete in a
truck mixer where some segregation and sedimentation of particles can be induced by the vibration and agitation during transport.
It is important to note that a highly owable concrete that exhibits
adequate stability once cast in place may undergo some segregation during the pumping or spread into place. This is because the
apparent viscosity at such shear rates can be signicantly lower
than that at rest because of the pseudo-plastic nature of the concrete. A few studies in the literature [4,5,7,10,11] investigated the
effect of the prolonged mixing time on the rheological behavior
and stability properties of concrete, especially for SCC.
One of the most important differences between SCC and conventional vibrated concrete is the incorporation of supplementary
cementitious materials. Many studies about the effects of mineral
admixtures on the fresh and hardened properties of SCC have been
completed [1218]. However, there are few published reports
regarding the effects of supplementary cementitious materials on
the stability of SCC [19,20]. For example, using y ash (FA) improves the uidity of SCC mixtures, but some published reports
[20] indicate that increasing FA content, slightly increases the risk
of instability. On the other hand, some mineral admixtures such as
metakaolin (MK) decrease the uidity and increase the viscosity of
the mixture and consequently, it can lead to improved cohesiveness and stability of the mixture. Therefore, by incorporating them
within ternary cementitious blends, benecial effects of one mineral admixture may compensate the shortcomings of the other

Table 1
Chemical compositions and physical properties of cementitious materials.
Properties

Cement

Fly ash

Metakaolin

Chemical analysis (%)

Insoluble residue
SiO2
Al2O3
Fe2O3
CaO
MgO
SO3
Na2O
K2O
Loss of ignition

0.38
20.03
5.53
3.63
62.25
3.42
2.23
0.3
0.73
1.37

61.3
28.8
4.98
1.05
0.63
0.13
0.24
1.40
0.70

51.85
43.87
0.99
0.20
0.18
0.12
0.01
0.00
0.57

Physical properties
Specic gravity (kg/m3)
Blain neness (m2/kg)
Initial setting time (min)
Final setting time (min)

3150
300
188
240

2200
257

2600
2300

type. Properties of concrete and mortar mixes containing FA or

MK were reported comprehensively in literatures [12,13,20,21].
However, there are limited publications to investigate the effect
of ternary blends use of FA and MK on the stability of SCC mixtures
with different water to binder ratio.
The objective of this paper is to investigate the effect of water to
binder ratio, binary and ternary blends of FA and MK on uidity,
viscosity, and also stability of self-consolidating mortars (SCMs)
subjected to prolonged mixing time. Moreover, this study attempts
to investigate the relationship between uidity and stability of
SCMs. A considerable amount of research work has been devoted
over the last decade to study the mortar behavior [8,20,21]. Since
the properties of the mortar are critical in the production of SCC,
it is desirable to be able to predict the characteristics of SCC from
the fresh properties of the matrix [22,23]. Therefore, in this study,
all experimental tests are conducted on SCMs originated from SCC.
2. Experimental program
2.1. Materials
A Type I ordinary Portland cement (OPC), similar to ASTM C150 was used for all
mixtures. Also, polycarboxylate-based superplasticizer (SP) with solid content of
36% and specic density of 1.07 were employed for all self-consolidating mortars.
The applied sand grading in all SCMs met ASTM C33 to be well-graded with maximum aggregate size of 6 mm, specic gravity of 2.7, neness modulus of 2.56 and
absorption value of 2.8%. Fly ash (FA) and metakaolin (MK) powders were used in
binary and ternary systems to develop the SCMs in this study. The chemical compositions and physical properties of applied cementitious materials (OPC, FA and MK)
are given in Table 1.
2.2. Mixture proportions
In this study, a total of 38 SCM mixtures were designed containing two series of
19 SCM mixtures for two levels of uidity; waterbinder ratio of 0.35 and 0.45. For
all mixtures, the total binder content and superplasticizer dosage were kept constant at 700 kg/m3 and 1%, respectively. Two reference mixtures named LR and
HR included only OPC as the binder for both w/b of 0.35 and 0.45, respectively.
Remaining SCM mixtures were incorporated in binary (OPC + FA, OPC + MK) and
ternary (OPC + FA + MK) cementitious blends in which a proportion of Portland cement was replaced with the powders. In binary system, the replacement level for FA
was 10%, 20%, 30%, 40% and 50%, while those of MK was 10%, 20% and 30% by the
weight of total binder content. On the other hand, in ternary system two different
types of incorporation were prepared; rst, the replacement levels for both FA and
MK were 5%, 10%, 15%, 20% and 25%, while in the second series the ratio of MK to FA
were 1:3 by weight of total binder content. The mixture proportions are summarized in Table 2.
2.3. Specimen preparation and testing methods
In this study, the mixing sequences were comprised of homogenizing the sand
and cementitious materials for approximately 30 s, and then water with superplasticizer was mixed in a ask and gradually added. The mixture was mixed for 5 min at
rotation speed of 40 rpm to ensure uniformity. To provide continuous agitation for
mixture, a standard rotating drum mixer at a low speed was used; with rotation
speed of 4 rpm. Following the SCMs mixing, its fresh properties were evaluated
through the mini-slump ow diameter and mini V-funnel ow time in conformity
with the standard procedures given by EFNARC [22]. They were selected as their results could approximately demonstrate the yield stress and plastic viscosity of
SCMs, respectively [2428]. To evaluate the time dependency of fresh SCMs, all
the mixtures were subjected to prolonged mixing up to 40 min and fresh properties
were measured at each 5 min interval.
The inuence of prolonged mixing time on the dynamic segregation resistance
of the mixtures was evaluated through the visual stability index (VSI) during the
slump ow test. It rates the quality of a self-consolidating mixture in terms of segregation and bleeding from 0 to 3 as described in Table 3. It should be noted that
visual stability index should not be used for the acceptance or rejection of SCC
although it provides valuable information on the concrete stability. The S-shaped
test was also taken to visually evaluate the stability of the mixtures. Stability of
the mixtures was also evaluated in hardened state through hardened visual stability
index (HVSI). HVSI is a qualitative measurement of the distribution of aggregate
from a sectioned cylinder. This is supported by the hardened visual stability ratings
summarized in Table 3 by Fang and Labi [29]. Besides, mini-column segregation
was applied to determine static segregation of SCM by measuring the sand aggregate content in the top and bottom portions of a cylindrical specimen. The apparatus used was similar to the one described in ASTM C1610 but in a smaller size. It

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I. Mehdipour et al. / Construction and Building Materials 40 (2013) 10291037

Table 2
Mixture proportions.
Mixture code

w/b

Aggregate (kg/m3)

OPC (kg/m3)

FA

MK
3

kg/m

kg/m3

LR
LF10
LF20
LF30
LF40
LF50
LM10
LM20
LM30
LF5M5
LF10M10
LF15M15
LF20M20
LF25M25
LF7.5M2.5
LF15M5
LF22.5M7.5
LF30M10
LF37.5M12.5

0.35
0.35
0.35
0.35
0.35
0.35
0.35
0.35
0.35
0.35
0.35
0.35
0.35
0.35
0.35
0.35
0.35
0.35
0.35

1205
1205
1205
1205
1205
1205
1205
1205
1205
1205
1205
1205
1205
1205
1205
1205
1205
1205
1205

700
630
560
490
420
350
630
560
490
630
560
490
420
350
630
560
490
420
350

0
10
20
30
40
50
0
0
0
5
10
15
20
25
7.5
15
22.5
30
37.5

0
70
140
210
280
350
0
0
0
35
70
105
140
175
52.5
105
157.5
210
262.5

0
0
0
0
0
0
10
20
30
5
10
15
20
25
2.5
5
7.5
10
12.5

0
0
0
0
0
0
70
140
210
35
70
105
140
175
17.5
35
52.5
70
87.5

HR
HF10
HF20
HF30
HF40
HF50
HM10
HM20
HM30
HF5M5
HF10M10
HF15M15
HF20M20
HF25M25
HF7.5M2.5
HF15M5
HF22.5M7.5
HF30M10
HF37.5M12.5

0.45
0.45
0.45
0.45
0.45
0.45
0.45
0.45
0.45
0.45
0.45
0.45
0.45
0.45
0.45
0.45
0.45
0.45
0.45

1136
1136
1136
1136
1136
1136
1136
1136
1136
1136
1136
1136
1136
1136
1136
1136
1136
1136
1136

700
630
560
490
420
350
630
560
490
630
560
490
420
350
630
560
490
420
350

0
10
20
30
40
50
0
0
0
5
10
15
20
25
7.5
15
22.5
30
37.5

0
70
140
210
280
350
0
0
0
35
70
105
140
175
52.5
105
157.5
210
262.5

0
0
0
0
0
0
10
20
30
5
10
15
20
25
2.5
5
7.5
10
12.5

0
0
0
0
0
0
70
140
210
35
70
105
140
175
17.5
35
52.5
70
87.5

Superplasticizer dosage was kept constant at 1% for all mixtures.

Table 3
Description of VSI and HVSI rating.
Rating

VSI

HVSI

0
1

No evidence of segregation or bleeding

No evidence of segregation and slight bleeding observed as a sheen
on the concrete mass
A slight mortar halo <10 mm and/or aggregate pile in the center of
the concrete mass
Clearly segregating by evidence of a large mortar halo >10 mm and/
or a large aggregate pile in the center of the concrete mass

No evidence of segregation in hardened specimen

No mortar layer at the top of specimen, but slight variation in size and percent of
aggregate distribution from top to bottom
A mortar layer, less than 25 mm thick at the top of the specimen and distinguished
variation in size and percent of aggregate distribution from top to bottom
Severe segregation by evidence of mortar layer greater than 25 mm thick and
considerable variation in size and percent of aggregate distribution from top to bottom

2
3

consists of PVC pipes split into three 70 mm sections in height with 75 mm diameter. After letting the mixture rest in the column for 15 min, the mixture in the top
and bottom sections of the column are washed over a 300 lm (No. 50) sieve. The
aggregate is then dried and weighed, and the static segregation (SI) is calculated
according to Eq. (1), where Mtop and Mbot represent the mass of aggregate from
the top and bottom sections of the column, respectively.

SI 2



M bot  Mtop
 100
M bot Mtop

However, there is not any stabilized recommended limit for mortar mixtures.
The results of this study show that, mixtures with SI 6 30% exhibit adequate stability. In addition, mortar with 30% < SI < 130% shows semi stable condition in which
segregation may occur and nally, mixture with SI P 130% demonstrates severe
aggregate segregation and bleeding. These limits are similar with the results obtained by Libre et al. [20].

3. Results and discussion

3.1. Fluidity
The results of slump ow versus elapsed time are presented in
Figs. 1 and 2 for binary and ternary mixtures, respectively. The obtained results show that both the powder content and w/b ratio
have a signicant inuence on time-dependency of the uidity.
As shown in Fig. 1, incorporating FA in the mixtures leads to higher
uidity especially for higher replacement level of FA. For example,
replacing FA by about 50% contributes to increasing the uidity by
about 20% for both w/b ratios of 0.35 and 0.45, compared to reference mixes. Increased uidity with FA content can be explained by

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I. Mehdipour et al. / Construction and Building Materials 40 (2013) 10291037

Fig. 1. Variation of slump ow versus elapsed time in binary blends (a) w=b 35% and (b) w=b 45%.

Fig. 2. Variation of slump ow versus elapsed time in ternary blends (a) w=b 35% and (b) w=b 45%.

its lubricating effect of spherical shape and smooth surface characteristics which tend to reduce friction at the interface of aggregate
and paste and producing ball-bearing effect at the contact point
[14,30]. On the other hand, in mixtures incorporating MK, a gradual fall was observed in the uidity of SCM mixtures. However,
the reducing rate of uidity with higher MK content was more pronounced for mixtures with lower w/b. The decreasing effect of MK
on uidity is probably due to its high chemical activity and its high
surface area which results to high water adsorption and free water
reduction in the mixture.
The uidity of approximately all SCMs changed during 10
20 min after mixing as shown in Figs. 1 and 2. On the other hand,
for elapsed time less than 10 min and greater than 20 min, the variation of uidity with time was marginal. The results indicate that,
by increasing prolonged mixing time, the uidity of almost all mixtures was increased. This may be explained by the fact that, when a
SCM mixture is agitated, occulated cement particles are dispersed
and as a result, uidity increases. At the same time, the reduced
agglomeration due to such dispersion would increase the amount
of excess water (water in excess of that needed to ll up the voids
between the solid particles) in the concrete. Since it is the excess
water that would provide a thin lm of water coating each solid
particle to lubricate the concrete, the increase in the amount of excess water would increase the water lm thickness and eventually
further increase the owability of the concrete. On the other hand,
by increasing the mixing time greater than 30 min the uidity of
mixtures was decreased, especially for mixtures containing MK.
Mostly, slump-ow loss occurs as the free mixing water of mixture
is absorbed by the hydration reactions, adsorbed on the surfaces of
cement-hydrated products, or is evaporated.
Visual inspection of mixtures with binary and ternary blends is
demonstrated in Figs. 3 and 4. The results show that, by prolonged
mixing time, the cohesiveness of the mixtures can be decreased
and consequently a lack of cohesiveness may be lead to segregation, surface settlement, and bleeding of the mixture. This may
be explained by the fact that when a SCM mixture is agitated,

occulated cement particles are dispersed and as a result the water

lm thickness increases. On the other hand, an increase in water
lm thickness causes a decrease in solid contacts and so cohesiveness of the mixture decreases. Based on the obtained results, for w/
b ratio of 0.35, using FA content up to 20% does not have signicant
effect on the variation of uidity with mixing time, and mixtures
exhibit stable characteristics. However, for mixtures incorporating
FA higher than 20%, the variation of uidity with time signicantly
increases, especially at higher w/b ratio. As can be seen in Fig. 3, by
increasing the FA content, the prolonged mixing time can lead to
higher risk of instability such as accumulation of aggregates at
the center and bleeding at the edge of the mixtures. FA particles
have a spherical geometry and a coarse particle size, causing a
reduction in the surface area to adsorb excess water. As a result

Fig. 3. Visual inspection of mixtures with binary blends.

I. Mehdipour et al. / Construction and Building Materials 40 (2013) 10291037

Fig. 4. Visual inspection of mixtures with ternary blends.

of the higher excess water content, the mixture is more prone to

instability. As can be seen in Fig. 3, MK blends can control the
instability of SCMs by increasing the cohesiveness of the mixture,
but it decreases the uidity of the mixture. Due to the high neness
of MK, the addition of MK would markedly increase the surface
area of the solid particles. Hence, the addition of MK could greatly
increase the total solid surface area to be coated by the excess
water and thereby signicantly reduce the water lm thickness.
Therefore in this case, the cohesiveness of the mixture increases.
Similar results have been observed by Fung and Kwan [31] and also
Kwan and Ng [32] who noted that at higher silica fume content, the
cohesiveness of the mixture is higher due to increase in solid surface area and decrease water lm thickness. Therefore based on the
obtained results, the combination of MK and FA is a very effective
tool for improving the uidity and also stability of the self-consolidating mixtures during mixing process.
Fig. 2 demonstrates the variation of uidity with mixing time
for ternary blends. The results show that, using FA in mixture
incorporating MK can compensate the uidity reduction and also,
the variation of uidity with time at the end of 40 min of agitation
is decreased. In addition, no signs of instability like aggregate segregation and bleeding were observed for mixture with equal
amount of MK and FA as shown in Fig. 4. On the other hand, using
three-component composition with one-third ratio of MK to FA
showed different behavior over the uidity with time-dependency
of SCMs. In this case, when the amount of the MK was lower than
7.5% by the weight of total binder, the bleeding and aggregate segregation were obviously observed, while by increasing the MK
higher than 7.5% the trend was reversed and it had a signicant effect for providing resistance to instability. Similar results were observed for w/b ratio of 0.45 as shown in Fig. 2b. As expected by
increasing the w/b ratio to 0.45, the owability of the mixtures
substantially increased, but the mixtures were more prone to
instability as shown in Figs. 3 and 4. The addition of water progressively lls the interparticle porosity. When the initial porosity is
saturated, the excess water volume disperses the grains and keeps
the ne particles in suspension in the mixture, and so cohesiveness
and stability of the mixture decrease.

3.2. Viscosity and aggregate blockage

The T5 (ow time after 5 min of mixing) and T40 (ow time
after 40 min of mixing) of mixtures are presented in Fig. 5. It is

1033

noted that V-funnel ow time is related to the viscosity of SCC

when the mixture discharges uniformly. As expected, incorporation of MK enhanced the cohesiveness of the SCMs due to the high
surface area which resulted in higher viscosity. In addition, for w/b
ratio of 0.35, using FA in binary blends even at high dosages had
marginal reducing effect on the viscosity of the SCMs. On the other
hand, during the higher prolonged mixing time, mixtures with
higher w/b and also high replacement level of FA are prone to
aggregate blockage while owing narrow section of mini V-funnel
nozzle (T40). The reason is that, prolonged mixing time can break
down the formation of viscous behavior of mixture to retain the
aggregate in the suspension and consequently lead to aggregate
blockage.
Fig. 5b demonstrates the variation of ow time with mixing
time for ternary blends. The results show that, using ternary blends
of FA and MK can compensate the viscosity reduction and also
aggregate blockage especially for w/b ratio of 0.35. By increasing
the w/b ratio, the risk of blockage and segregation of the mixture
may be increased. In this case the content of using MK and FA plays
an important role for stabilizing the mixture. As the properties of a
SCC are characterized with a relatively low yield value to ensure
high owability and a moderate viscosity to resist instability, the
combined use of MK with FA seems to be effective to accomplish
the aforementioned requirements. Similar results were obtained
by Guneyisi and Gesoglu [12] who noted that, ternary use of FA
and MK, remarkably diminished a buildup of viscosity of MK.
3.3. Stability
3.3.1. Bleeding and VSI
In order to assess the stability of the mixtures, bleeding of SCMs
at 5 min (B5) and 40 min (B40) of agitation was measured indirectly through the mini-slump ow test. It should be noted that,
at 5 min of agitation, all mixtures exhibited no bleeding except
mixtures with high replacement level of FA (LF50 and HF50). The
B5 of these mixtures was measured to be 7 cm and 8 cm, respectively. Bleeding of SCMs at 40 min (B40) are summarized in
Fig. 6a and b for binary and ternary blends, respectively. The results show that, increasing the replacement level of FA in binary
system, leads to higher bleeding during prolonged mixing time.
In this case, mixtures with higher w/b are more prone to bleeding.
On the other hand, by using MK even at low dosages, bleeding of
the mixtures was completely disappeared. For example, in case
of w/b of 0.45, addition of only 10% MK resulted in bleeding reduction from 4.5 cm to 0 cm. The reason is probably due to the high
surface area of MK that results in higher water adsorbing that
could eliminate the bleeding.
As shown in Fig. 6b, for ternary blends, the bleeding of the binary mixtures with FA was signicantly decreased by addition of
MK in the mixtures. In the case of mixtures with equal content
of MK and FA in ternary system, no clear evidence of bleeding
was determined which resembled the binary blends of MK. Preventing bleeding is attributed to the dominant role of MK over
the FA in such mixtures with equal content for MK and FA. For
the second series of ternary mixtures, as the amount of the MK
was lower than 7.5% by the mass of total binder, the bleeding
was appeared. On the other hand, using MK higher than 7.5% had
signicant effect to prevent bleeding.
The inuence of prolonged mixing time on the dynamic segregation resistance of the mixtures was also evaluated through the
VSI during slump ow test. The VSI of the mortars for elapsed time
at 5 min and 40 min of agitation are presented in Table 4. The
obtained results show that increasing the replacement level of FA
in both w/b ratios of 0.35 and 0.45 reduces the resistance to
segregation and bleeding. For instance, for the binary mixture with
30% FA, increasing the w/b ratio from 0.35 to 0.45 increased the va-

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I. Mehdipour et al. / Construction and Building Materials 40 (2013) 10291037

Fig. 5. Flow time of the mixtures (a) binary blends and (b) ternary blends.

Fig. 6. Bleeding of the mixtures after 40 min of agitation (a) binary blends and (b) ternary blends.

lue of VSI from 1 to 2 for elapsed time at 5 min, while for elapsed
time at 40 min the VSI had the value of 3 for both w/b ratios.
Spherical shape of FA which tends to reduce friction at the interface of aggregate, results in some sedimentation of particles, as
shown in Figs. 3 and 4. In addition, results of the S-shaped test
which is common for the evaluation of the stability of SCC shows

Table 4
Visual stability index (VSI) of self-consolidating mortars.
Code

VSI
w/b = 0.35

Reference mix
10FA
20FA
30FA
40FA
50FA
10MK
20MK
30MK
5FA5MK
10FA10MK
15FA15MK
20FA20MK
25FA25MK
7.5FA2.5MK
15FA5MK
22.5FA7.5MK
30FA10MK
37.5FA12.5MK

w/b = 0.45

5 min

40 min

5 min

40 min

0
0
0
1
1
3
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
1
1
1
0
0

1
1
2
3
3
3
0
0
0
1
1
1
1
1
3
3
3
2
1

1
1
1
2
2
3
0
0
0
1
0
0
0
0
1
1
3
1
1

3
3
3
3
3
3
0
0
0
2
2
1
1
1
3
3
3
2
2

that mixtures containing FA have not been uniformly lled. In

addition, VSI of all SCMs containing binary MK exhibited highly
stable (VSI = 0) mixes with no changes in the status of stability
with prolonged mixing. Adequate cohesiveness to control bleeding
and segregation can be secured by incorporating MK as shown in
Fig. 3. In addition, using MK in the ternary blends reduces detrimental effect of FA and it improves stability resistance. On the
other hand, increasing the w/b may deteriorate the stabilizing effect of MK, especially for higher replacement level of FA. In this
case, the increase of inter-particle distance and reduction of the
cohesiveness through an increase in water content can lead to segregation. For example, ternary blends with w/b of 0.35 and incorporating equal value of FA and MK exhibited highly stable state
for elapsed time at 5 min (VSI = 0) however, for elapsed time at
40 min, slight bleeding on surface of the mixture was observed
(VSI = 1). On the other hand, for w/b ratio of 0.45, increasing the
mixing time resulted in bleeding, surface settlement and aggregate
segregation (VSI = 2). Therefore, based on the visual inspection can
be concluded that mixtures under continuous agitation are more
prone to instability as the accumulation of aggregate at the center
or bleed water at the edge of mixture.
3.3.2. Segregation index (SI)
Static stability of the mixtures was also evaluated by determining the aggregate segregation through the column segregation test.
The results of mini-column segregation test after 15 min of agitation are depicted in Fig. 7a and b for binary and ternary blends,
respectively. As expected, increasing water content, leads to a
reduction of the cohesiveness of the mixture and so, the resistance
to aggregate segregation decreases. For example, reference

I. Mehdipour et al. / Construction and Building Materials 40 (2013) 10291037

mixtures with w/b ratio of 0.35 and 0.45, show very stable
(SI < 30%) and instable (SI > 130%) conditions, respectively. In a
same level of powder replacement, all mixtures containing higher
water content exhibit higher SI than those mixtures with lower
w/b, which indicate that w/b has a critical effect on the aggregate
segregation. Similar results were reported by Libre et al. [20] who
showed that the most signicant parameters inuencing aggregate
segregation is w/c ratio.
Fig. 7a shows that mixtures incorporating FA have higher segregation index compared to reference mixture for both w/b ratios of
0.35 and 0.45. For instance, increasing the FA content from 0 in the
reference mixture to 20% and 50% of total binder mass in w/b ratio
of 0.35 increased the segregation index by about 48% and 160%,
respectively. On the other hand, the addition of FA by 50% in the
reference mixtures with a w/b of 0.45, led to an increase in segregation index from 166% to 196%. On the other hand, using MK
seems to be very affective to enhance segregation resistance of
the mixtures. All SCMs with MK exhibited very stable status for
both w/b ratios of 0.35 and 0.45 which completely eliminated
the static segregation by higher MK replacement. In this case,
due to the high neness of MK, the addition of MK would markedly
increase the surface area of the solid particles. Hence, the addition
of MK could greatly decrease the water lm thickness and also increase cohesiveness and stability of the mixture. Moreover, the effect of MK to stabilize self-consolidating composites was more
pronounced at higher w/b ratio. For example, in the mixtures with
w/b of 0.45, the addition of MK by 10% of cement mass, led to a decrease in segregation index from 160% to 16.8%, while in the mixtures with a w/b of 0.35, the effect of addition of MK by 10% on the
segregation index of SCMs was negligible. In addition, based on the
obtained results, the application of MK (10%, 20% or 30%) was more
effective in reducing the SI of the sample with w/b = 0.45 compared to the decrease of w/b to 0.35. For example, increasing w/b
ratio from 0.35 to 0.45 in the reference mixture increases the SI
from 20% to 166% while, addition of 30% MK in the reference mixtures with a w/b of 0.45, leads to decrease in segregation index
from 166% to 2%.
Fig. 7b demonstrates that, the detrimental effect of FA on the
stability of SCM mixtures with binary replacement of FA is reduced
by ternary blends of FA and MK. In the case of mixtures with equal
content of MK and FA in ternary blends and lower w/b ratio, all the
SCMs exhibited very stable states, while at higher water content
and low replacement of MK (5%FA5%MK), SCM exhibited semi stable state. On the other hand, while the amount of MK was higher
than 10%, all the mixtures met very stable state. Similar results
were observed for ternary mixtures with one-third ratio of MK to
FA replacement. In this case, test results show that a content of
MK around 10% by weight of total binder should be adopted when

1035

high volume of FA is used in the mixture. Therefore, based on the

results, using MK is an effective way to increase stability of the
mixture subjected to prolonged mixing time.
3.4. Relationship between uidity, viscosity and stability of SCMs
Fig. 8 shows three regions of stability index as a function of uidity and viscosity after 40 min of agitation. These regions correspond to SI values ranging lower than 30% (workability region 1),
between 30% and 130% (workability region 2), and more than
130% (workability region 3) which exhibit very stable, semi stable
and instable mixtures, respectively. Regression analysis of the results shows that there is a close relationship between uidity
and stability of the mixtures. The results show that slump ow
diameter of SCMs in the workability region 1 is mostly less than
35 cm, while other mixtures in the workability regions 2 and 3 exhibit uidity greater than 35 cm and ow time lower than 3 s. In
addition, the results show that mixtures with higher segregation
index have lower ow time. Therefore, either decreasing uidity
or increasing the ow time has improving effects on stability of
SCMs. As shown in previous section, in mixtures with binary
blends of FA, as the FA content increases, the owability of the
mixture improves, but at the same time due to the increased free
water content, the segregation resistance of the mixtures gradually
decreases. On the other hand, in mixtures incorporating binary
blends of MK, the cohesion and resistance to instability increases,
but the mixtures would suffer from poor uidity. Based on the results, mixtures containing ternary blends with a balance between
FA and MK provide sufcient cohesion to the fresh concrete; it reduces the intrinsic shear strength of the mixture and interparticle
friction, and in addition, exhibits high stability resistance. Therefore, to achieve both high owability and high segregation simultaneously, it is necessary to improve the cohesiveness and reduce
the particle interlocking of the concrete mixture.
The relationship between uidity and stability of mixtures after
40 min of agitation is demonstrated in Fig. 9. Besides, in Fig. 9, the
lled makers were used to show the mixtures with w/b = 0.35. The
results show that segregation index of the mixtures exponentially
increases as the uidity increases. Some researchers [15,20] have
found that, there is an exponential relationship between stability
and uidity of SCC. Fig. 9 is divided into four regions as a function
of uidity and segregation index for binary and ternary mixtures.
Mixtures in the rst region have the uidity lower than 25 cm
and ow time greater than 7 s. In addition, these mixtures have
the SI less than 5% and VSI = 0, which correspond to highly stable
mixture, while suffering from high viscosity. Test results show that
binary mixture incorporating 30% of MK is placed in the rst
region, but this mixture does not have sufcient uidity to ow

Fig. 7. Static segregation index of mixtures (a) binary blends and (b) ternary blends.

1036

I. Mehdipour et al. / Construction and Building Materials 40 (2013) 10291037

Fig. 8. Relationship between uidity, viscosity and stability of mixtures.

Fig. 10. Aggregate dispersion through a cross section (a) SI 6 30%; (b)
30% < SI < 130% and (c) SI P 130%.

Fig. 9. Relationship between stability and uidity of mixtures.

readily under their own weight. Therefore, mixtures with a ow

time greater than 7 s may suffer from poor workability.
Mixtures in the second region (mixtures with uidity between
than 25 cm and 35 cm and also segregation index less than 30%)
correspond to stable and highly owable mixtures. Based on the
obtained results from mini-slump ow (Figs. 1 and 2) and minicolumn segregation (Fig. 7) tests, mixtures with equal amount of
MK and FA have shown sufcient uidity and high segregation
resistance (SI 6 30%) which are placed in the second region. Furthermore, the obtained results from hardened visual stability index
(HVSI) indicate that mixtures in the second region correspond to
high segregation resistance and uniform dispersion of aggregates
as shown in Fig. 10a. On the other hand, all of the mixtures with
ow diameter more than 35 cm have a stability index above 30%
and instability may occur in all the cases. This is due to the high
water to binder ratio or high replacement level of FA which can increase the uidity, while decreases the segregation resistance. Mixtures in the third region have the uidity between 35 cm and
40 cm and are categorized as semi stable mixtures (30% < SI
< 130%). Mixtures in this region correspond to HVSI of 2 which
is related to the evidence of a mortar layer less than 25 mm thickness at the top of the hardened specimen (Fig. 10b). All placed mixtures in the fourth region, with a slump ow diameter greater than
40 cm are prone to severe segregation (SI P 130%). As shown in
Fig. 10c, HVSI of the mixtures with SI higher than 130% rates as 3
exhibiting a non-uniform distribution of aggregates and mortar
layer thickness greater than 25 mm. Based on these results, for
obtaining high uidity, increasing the w/b should not be applied
due to instability aspects. Moreover, higher w/b may, also, lead
to poor mechanical behavior of hardened concrete.

The regression analysis shows that in order to achieve stable

mixtures, there exists a threshold value of uid capacity for each
series of binary and ternary mixture. By increasing the uidity
above a threshold value of uid capacity the risk of instability
including bleeding and aggregate segregation increases. Test results show that, mixtures containing ternary blends of MK and
FA have higher uid capacity than binary mixtures incorporating
FA. In other words, the detrimental effect of increasing w/b ratio
and also FA content on the stability of SCM mixtures can be eliminated by ternary use of MK and FA, and therefore, it leads to higher uidity with appropriate stability. This may be explained by the
fact that using MK can decrease the water lm thickness which
lead to an increase in the cohesiveness and so increase the stability
of the mixture. Therefore, when highly uid mixtures are needed,
using MK in the mixture composition can increase the uid capacity of the mixture without any signs of instability.
4. Conclusions
The objective of this paper is to investigate the effect of water to
binder ratio, binary and ternary blends use of FA and MK, and also
prolonged mixing time on uidity, viscosity and stability of
self-consolidating mortars. Moreover, this study attempts to investigate the relationship between uidity and stability of SCMs subjected to prolonged mixing time. Based on the obtained results
from this study the following conclusions can be drawn:
 By prolonged mixing time, occulated cement particles are dispersed and as a result, water lm thickness and uidity of the
mixture increases. An increase in water lm thickness causes
a decrease in solid contacts and so cohesiveness and stability
of the mixture decreases.
 For w/b ratio of 0.35, using FA up to 20% does not have a significant effect on the variation of uidity with mixing time, and
mixtures are very stable. However, incorporation of FA higher
than 20%, mixtures are more prone to instability such as segregation and bleeding.
 MK blends can strongly control the instability due to high neness of MK which decreases the water lm thickness and so
increases the cohesiveness of the mixture. Thus, in order to provide stability retention particularly when prolonged mixing is
into consideration, using MK in mixtures incorporating FA can
be benecial.

I. Mehdipour et al. / Construction and Building Materials 40 (2013) 10291037

 The effect of MK to stabilize self-consolidating mixtures was

more pronounced at higher w/b ratio. For example, in the mixtures with w/b of 0.45, the addition of MK by 10% of cement
mass, led to a decrease in segregation index from 160% to
16.8%, while in the mixtures with a w/b of 0.35, the effect of
addition of MK by 10% on the segregation index of SCMs was
negligible.
 The application of MK (10%, 20% or 30%) was more effective in
reducing the SI of the sample with w/b = 0.45 compared to
the decrease of w/b to 0.35. For example, increasing w/b ratio
from 0.35 to 0.45 in the reference mixture increases the SI from
20% to 166% while, addition of 30% MK in the reference mixtures with a w/b of 0.45, leads to decrease in segregation index
from 166% to 2%.
 In order to achieve a stable mixture, there exists a threshold
value of uid capacity for each series of mixtures. By increasing
the uidity higher than the threshold value, the risk of instability increases. When highly uid mixtures are needed, using MK
in the mixture composition can increase the uid capacity of
the mixture without any signs of instability.
 Mixture containing ternary blends with a balance between FA
and MK, provides sufcient cohesion for the fresh mixture. Furthermore, as the behavior of hardened concrete is greatly inuenced by its properties in the fresh state, further research is
needed to investigate the effect of stability on mechanical and
durability properties of self-consolidating mixtures.

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