Experimental Investigation on Performance of Internally Cured Self Compacting Concrete Using Sintered Fly Ash Aggregates

In recent decades, Self compacting concrete (SCC) plays a vital role in building construction due to its unique ability to fill formwork of complex steel reinforcements by its own weight with no mechanical vibrations. Due to severe environmental impact caused by over usage of natural aggregates and water in concrete production, a novel approach in producing a sustainable SCC is by replacing natural aggregates by light weight aggregate. The lightweight aggregate used plays a vital role in enhancing the fresh and hardened properties of SCC due to its better internal curing property. This experimental investigation was conducted to study the fresh and hardened properties of SCC incorporated with sintered fly ash aggregates (Sintag). In this experimental study the coarse aggregate is replaced with various percentages replacement of Sintag such as 5, 10, 15, 20, 25 and 30% respectively. The fresh properties of SCC were studied in accordance with EFNARC guidelines. Hardened properties include compressive strength, split tensile strength, flexural strength and hardened density testing. The optimum percentage replacement was obtained as 15% replacement. The presence of internal moisture content helps to obtain hardened cement paste compared to conventional SCC. The results showed that compressive strength, split tensile strength and flexural strength of internally cured SCC has increased significantly.