ABSTRACT

The construction activities in last few decades have increased many

folds in almost

all the developing countries of the

world. Cement is becoming a scarce commodity globally because of its

growing demand day by day. . It is the need of time to search such
alternative materials that would partially or fully replace cement used
in concretes and mortars without affecting its quality, strength and
other characteristics. The use of supplementary cementitous materials
(SCMs) or non-conventional material is vital in developing low cost
construction. Although the silica fume is a waste of industrial materials,
it is relatively more recent pozzolanic material that has
received considerable attention in both research and application. It is a
byproduct resulting from the use of high quartz with coal in an electric
ore furnace . Reduction of the quartz to silicon is made at temperature
up to 20000C producing silicon oxide vapours which oxidize and
condense into minute spherical particles as the temperature diffuses.
These particles of non crystalline silica are removed by filtering the
gases into slag filters. The diameter of particles is 0.1-0.12 m and
there surface area is 15-25 m 2 per gram. Silica fume has gained rapid
popularity. Still, its annual use in the United States today is limited to
about 20,000 tons and worldwide to 150,000 tons to fly ash (7 million
and more than 60 million tons, respectively),The aim of present
investigation is to determine the usefulness of silica fume a waste
material, in the development of high strength concrete using ordinary
43 grade Portland cement procured from local market and silica fume
from Elkem metallurgy, Navi Mumbai.
The present study has been undertaken to study the effect of silica
fume on the mechanical properties of high strength concrete, when a
part of cement is replaced by silica fume in different percentages i.e.
5

0%, 5%, 10% and 15% with the use of superplasticisers. The main
parameters investigated were cube and cylinder compressive strength,
split tensile strength and flexural strength. The tests were conducted
on concrete grade M-35. The test result indicate that with the use of
silica fume partially replacing cement, there is no early strength gain
by concrete after 7 days of curing. The strength of concrete increases
with increase in percentage replacement of silica fume with cement for
5%, 10% and then gradually decreased with 15% at 7 days , 28 days
and 56 days of moist curing. The compressive strength and tensile
strength of silica fume concrete increased with increase in age i.e. the
56 days compressive strength and tensile strength of silica fume
concrete was found to be 15%-25% more as compared to the 28 days
compressive strength. and tensile strength. It can be concluded that
concrete containing 5% and 10% of silica fume showed significant
improvement in strength parameter as compared to conventional
concrete. Hence partiall1y replaced with 5% - 10% of silica fume
thereby reducing the environmental hazard and making the concrete
economical.