Effect of Fly Ash and Silica Fume on the Sorptivity of Concrete

Abstract Despite their ability to perform better than CEM I, available data have shown that cement combination concetes have been under-utilised in construction. To investigate the permeation resistance of cement combination concrete, this paper examined the sorptivity of CEM I and some binary and ternary cement concretes containing fly ash and silica fume at equal water/cement ratios and strengths. At equal water/cement ratio, fly ash binary cement concretes have higher sorptivity than CEM I and while their sorptivity increased with increasing content of fly ash, they decreased with curing age. Silica fume binary and ternary cement concretes have lower sorptivity than CEM I and fly ash binary cement concretes at both early and later ages and their sorptivity reduced with increasing content of silica fume. At equivalent strengths, cement combination concretes generally have lower sorptivity than CEM I and they reduced with increasing total content of the cement additions