Investigating the combination of natural and crushed gravel on the fresh and hardened properties of self-compacting concrete

Self-compacting concrete is widely used around the globe today due to its special and unique properties. This study examines the effect of natural and crushed gravel combinations in different percentages in short-and long-term properties of concrete. The best utilized sand had a fineness modulus of 2.7. In the mentioned mix designs, silica fume was used with 0 and 7% of the weight of the cement. In order to check the properties of fresh and hardened concrete, 9 and 5 test types were performed, respectively. The carried out tests were slump flow, V-funnel, J-ring, L-box, U-box and column segregation for fresh concrete, and compressive, tensile and flexural strengths for hardened concrete. A mix with only 100% natural gravel was considered as the control mix. According to the results, the control mix design and the one containing 100% crushed gravel with silica fume were the best in fresh and hardened concrete tests, respectively. Finally, using the optimization method, a mix design with 25% natural gravel, 75% crushed gravel and silica fume was introduced as the best mix in terms of the results of both fresh and hardened concrete tests.