Advantages And Improvements Of High Performance Concrete (SCC)

Self-compacting concrete (SCC) is an innovative concrete that does not require vibration for placing and compaction. It is able to flow under its own weight, completely filling formwork and achieving full compaction, even in the presence of congested reinforcement. The hardened concrete is dense, homogeneous and has the same engineering properties and durability as traditional vibrated concrete.

Making concrete structure without compaction has been done in the past. Like placement of concrete underwater by the use of termie without compaction. Inaccessible areas were concreted using such techniques. The production of such mixes often used expensive admixtures and very large quantity of cement. But such concrete was generally of lower strength

The improvements involved a combination of improved compaction, improved paste characteristics and aggregate matrix bond, and reduced porosity. In these systems a significant decrease in water-to-cement ratio is achieved through the use of plasticizers, further enrichment of some properties have been obtained through the addition of mineral micro fillers (supplementary cementing or pozzolanic materials such as silica fume and fly ash). Despite the fact that high performance concrete has the same basic ingredients as the normal concrete, its much higher qualitative and quantitative performances present them as new materials. High performance concrete is one in which certain characteristics are developed for a particular application and environment. High performance concrete gives excellent performance in the structure in which it will be placed, in the environment to which it will be exposed, and with the loads to which it will be subjected during its design life. Self Compacting Concrete (SCC) is a High performance concrete which has been developed for use in situations where sufficient vibration by external agency is difficult and reinforcing steel is highly congested. Self Compacting Concrete is a remarkable achievement in the construction industry that helped to surmount the problems associated with cast-in-place concrete. Unlike normal concrete, Self Compacting Concrete is unaffected by the skill of workers, the shape and amount of reinforcing bars or the arrangement of a structure and, due to its high-fluidity and resistance to segregation it can be pumped longer distances. Professor Hajime Okamura was the first who propounded the concept of Self Compacting Concrete in 1986, but the prototype was first developed in 1988 in Japan, by Professor Ozawa at the University of Tokyo. Self Compacting Concrete was developed at