Review study towards effect of Silica Fume on the fresh and hardened properties of concrete

This paper presents a review on the use of Silica Fume (SF) as a mineral admixture in the concrete. Distinctive outcome from several researches have been demonstrated here, particularly emphasizing on the fresh and hardened properties of concrete when blended with Silica Fume (Micro-silica or Nano-silica). The results showed a substantial enhancement in the mechanical properties of concrete when replaced with SF. The review also presented a brief idea of percentage replacement of SF in case of normal and high-strength concrete. A decreasing trend in workability (slump value) has been identified when there is a increase in percentage replacement of SF. It can be concluded that the optimize percentage of replacement with SF lies in the range of 8-10% particularly for compressive strength. However the variation of blending goes up to 12-15% in case of split tensile and flexure strength of concrete. The study also demonstrates the effect of silica fume on durability parameters like water absorption, permeability, sulphate attack and chloride attack.