Engineering Properties and Bonding Behavior of Self-Compacting Concrete Made with No-Cement Binder

Abstract

This study explores the engineering properties of a new self-compacting concrete (SCC), named as SFC-SCC, produced with a no-cement SFC binder and the bonding behaviors of embedded steel bar confined by this SFC-SCC using the pull-out test. The no-cement SFC binder was purely made from the mixture of slag (S), Class F fly ash (F), and circulating fluidized bed combustion (CFBC) fly ash (C). Experimental results showed that the 28-day compressive strengths of no-cement SFC-SCCs were in range of 32.3–42.6 MPa with the flowability of 62–65 mm at the fresh state. With equivalent 28-day compressive strength, the similar bonding strength of SFC-SCCs to that of the ordinary portland cement (OPC) concretes was observed with the required covering thickness of SFC-SCCs being lower than that of OPC concretes. The analysis on relationship between bonding and compressive strengths shows that the bonding quality of the SFC-SCCs is similar to that of the plain OPC concretes implying that the former also has a high potential of application as an alternative reinforced concrete for practical infrastructural construction.