《Rheological properties of highly flowable mortar containing limestone》.pdf

Cement and Concrete Research 35 (2005) 532– 539 Rheological properties of highly flowable mortar containing limestone filler-effect of powder content and W/C ratio A. Yahiaa,*, M. Tanimurab, Y. Shimoyamab a ´ ´ Civil Engineering, Universite de Sherbrooke, Sherbrooke, Quebec, Canada J1K 2R1 b Central Research Laboratory, Taiheiyo Cement Corporation, 2-4-2 Osaku, Sakura-City, Japan Received 29 March 2000; accepted 4 May 2004 Abstract The effect of a limestone filler addition in superplasticized cement mortar was investigated. The mixtures considered in this study are highly fluid, yet stable mortars that can be used to proportion self-consolidating concrete (SCC). All the mixtures were proportioned with a fixed unit water content of 250 l and various water–cement ratios varying from 0.35 to 0.45. A limestone filler with a specific surface area of 480 m2/kg was used at different addition percentages. This paper reports test results leading to the recommendation of suitable powder contents that can be used to proportion mortar mixtures containing a limestone filler and achieving adequate rheological properties. Test results show that the effect of limestone filler is mainly affected by the W/C and the limestone filler content in use. For a given W/C, the addition of a limestone filler within a certain range did not affect fluidity. However, beyond a critical dosage, the incorporation of some limestone filler resulted in a substantial increase of the viscosity of mortar. An accurate model that can be used to predict the viscosity of such mixtures is proposed and validated on various mixtures. D 2004 Elsevier Ltd