Effect of mineral admixtures and aggregate natures on the behavior of high performance concrete

This paper presents the results of an experimental investigation carried out to evaluate the effectiveness of various types of coarse aggregates and mineral admixtures on properties of high performance concrete (hpc). for this purpose,three different coarse aggregate types (crystalline,pure and marl limestone) were used to produce hpc containing ground granulated blast-furnace slag (ggbfs) or silica fume mineral admixtures. the water to binder ratio is maintained at 0.27 for all mixtures. the different mixtures were tested for mechanical strength at different ages,while durability measurements such capillary absorption was also carried out. the experimental results showed that the production of hpc using limestone aggregate is therefore possible. the use of the algerian blast furnace slag showed to be a good solution in terms of the material performance and it may offer a new approach to the valorization of this material in civil engineering construction. the ggbfs fillers contribute to improve the compactness of concretes and provide a relatively slow chemical activity. the microstructure analysis confirms all these findings.