The Effect of Superplasticizer Dry Extract on Rheological and Mechanical Properties of Self-Compacting Concrete

Abstract

The self-compacting concrete (SCC) workability is usually ensured by the addition of superplasticizers in the mixture. The effect of some properties of superplasticizers was investigated by many researchers. However, in the literature, there is no study related to the effect of dry extract of superplasticizer admixture on the rheological and mechanical properties of self-compacting concrete.The objective of this work is to characterize the effects of six types of superplasticizers with various solids on the rheological properties as well as the compressive strength and elastic modulus of SCC.This experimental study shows that the dry extract of superplasticizer affects the various properties of concrete both in the fresh and hardened state: first, the dry extract allows controlling the flow properties (the lower its value, the more the concrete is self-compacting), and second, the dry extract allows the reduction of the water to cement ratio (the greater its value, the stronger the concrete). The statistical coefficients, analyzed in this work, indicate a high-level relationship between the dry extract and the rheological and mechanical behavior of SCC.