Strength and Durability Properties of High Performance Concrete incorporating High Reactivity

Concrete is probably the most extensively used construction material in the world. The addition of mineral admixture in cement has dramatically increased along with the development of concrete industry, due to the consideration of cost saving, energy saving, environmental protection and conservation of resources. However, environmental concerns both in terms of damage caused by the extraction of raw material and carbon dioxide emission during cement manufacture have brought pressures to reduce cement consumption by the use of supplementary materials. High Performance Concrete (HPC) is the latest development in concrete. It has become more popular these days and is being used in many prestigious projects. Mineral admixtures such as fly ash, rice husk ash, metakaolin, silica fume etc are more commonly used in the development of HPC mixes. Addition of such materials has indicated the improvements in the strength and durability properties of concrete. The utilization of calcined clay, in the form of high reactivity metakaolin (HRM) in concrete has received considerable attention in recent years. The present paper deals with the study of properties namely workability, compressive strength and durability of M60 grade HPC mixes incorporating different percentages of high reactivity metakaolin by weight of cement along with some suitable super plasticizer. The results of the study indicate that the workability and strength properties of HPC mixes improved by incorporating HRM up to a desirable content of 7.5% by weight of cement. HPC mixes have also indicated better resistance to the attacks of chemicals such as chlorides and sulfates when the HPC mixes were exposed to theses chemical for 180 days period.