VOL. 5, NO. 3, March 2010 ISSN 1819-6608 ARPN Journal of Engineering and Applied Sciences © 2006-2010 Asian Research Publishing Network (ARPN). All rights reserved. www.arpnjournals.com INVESTIGATIONS ON SELF-COMPACTED SELF-CURING CONCRETE USING LIMESTONE POWDER AND CLINKERS C. Selvamony 1 , M. S. Ravikumar 2 , S. U. Kannan 1 and S. Basil Gnanappa 3 1 Sun College of Engineering and Technology, Sathyabama University, Chennai, India 2 Sun Polytechnic College, Sathyabama University, Chennai, India 3 CSI Institute of Technology, Nagercoil, India E-Mail: muthu9678@rediffmail.com ABSTRACT Self-Compacting concrete is a type of concrete that gets compacted under its self-weight. It’s commonly abbreviated as SCC and defined as the concrete which can placed and compacted into every corner of a formwork; purely means of it’s self-weight by eliminating the need of either external energy input from vibrators or any type of compacting effort. Self compactability and stability are susceptible to ternary effects of chemical and mineral admixture type and their content. In this study, the effect of replacing the cement, coarse aggregate and fine aggregate by limestone powder (LP) with silica fume, quarry dust and clinkers respectively and their combinations of various proportions on the properties of SCC has been compared. Fresh properties, flexural and compressive strengths and water absorption properties of Concrete were determined. The use of SF in Concrete significantly increased the dosage of superplasticiser (SP). At the same constant SP dosage (0·8%) and mineral additives content (30%), LP can better improve the workability than that of control and fine aggregate mixtures by (5 % to 45 %). However, the results of this study suggest that certain QD, SF and LP combinations can improve the workability of SCCs, more than QD, SF and LP alone. LP can have a positive influence on the mechanical performance at early strength development while SF improved aggregate-matrix bond resulting from the formation of a less porous transition zone in Concrete. SF can better reducing effect on total water absorption while QD and LP will not have the same effect, at 28 days. Keywords: self-compacting concrete, limestone powder, silica fume, quarry dust, clinkers workability, strength, water absorption. INTRODUCTION The use of self-compacting concrete (SCC) is spreading world wide because of its very attractive properties in the fresh state as well as after hardening. The use of SCC will lead to a more industrialized production, reduce the technical costs of in situ concrete constructions, improve the quality, durability and reliability of concrete structures and eliminate some of the potential for human error. It will replace manual compaction of fresh concrete with a modern semi-automatic placing technology and in that way improve health and safety on and around the construction site. However, this type of concrete needs a more advanced mix design than traditional vibrated concrete and a more careful quality assurance with more testing and checking, at least in the beginning, when using SCC. It is possible to improve the mechanical properties of concrete by using chemical, mineral, polymer and fibre additives. For instance, producing of SCCs with the use of chemical additives, decreasing shrinkage and permeability and using mineral additives increased compressive strength. As it is well known, there are a wide range of cementitious mortars based on cement and components similar to those of concrete. The composition of concrete could sometime consist of more than one type of cement (i.e. special cement, like ultra-fine alumina cement) together with additions (i.e. silica fume, slag or lime stone powder), aggregates (normal, lightweight and special types, fillers), admixtures such as superplasticiser (SP), air entrainers and viscosity modifying agents, The use of industrial by-products, such as LP, SF, QD offers a low- priced solution to the environmental problem of depositing industrial waste. The viscosity of cement-based material can be improved by decreasing the water/ cementitious material ratio (w/cm) or using a viscosity-enhancing agent. It can also be improved by increasing the cohesiveness of the paste through the addition of filler, such as limestone (Ozawa et al 1995, Khayat 1999). However, excessive addition of fine particles can result in a considerable increase in the specific surface area of the powder, which results in an increase of water demand to achieve a given consistency. On the other hand, for a fixed water content, high powder volume increases interparticle friction due to solid–solid contact. This may affect the ability of the mixture to deform under its own weight and pass through obstacles (Nawa et al., 1998). The use of limestone powder can enhance many aspects of cement-based systems through physical or chemical effects. Some physical effects are associated with the small size of lime- stone particles, which can enhance the packing density of powder and reduce the interstitial void, thus decreasing entrapped water in the system. For example, the use of a continuously graded skeleton of powder is reported to reduce the required powder volume to ensure adequate deformability for concrete (Fujiwara et al 1996). Chemical factors include the effect of limestone filler in supplying ions into the phase solution, thus modifying the kinetics of hydration and the morphology of hydration products (Daimon and Sakai 1998). Partial replacement of cement by an equal volume of limestone powder with a specific surface area 1