Dry shrinkage and compressive strength of blended cement pastes with fly ash and silica fume

This paper reports the drying shrinkage and compressive strength results of cement pastes with fly ash and silica fume. In this study, Portland cement (PC) was used as the basic cementitious material. Fly ash (FA) and silica fume (SF) were used as cement replacement materials at levels of 0%, 5%, 10%, and 15%, 40%, 35%, 25%, and 15% by weight of the total cementitious material, respectively. The water/cement (PC + FA + SF) ratios (w/c) was 0.28 by weight. The samples produced from fresh pastes were demoulded after a day; then they were cured at 20 ±1°C with 50 ± 3% relative humidity (RH) until the samples were used for drying shrinkage and compressive strength measurement at various ages. The results show that drying shrinkage and compressive strength increase with increasing SF content, and the optimum composition of blended cement pastes is the cement paste with 30% fly ash and 10% silica fume, which possesses lower drying shrinkage values than that of plain cement paste and higher early age strength than that of blended cement pastes with fly ash. Furthermore, a linear relationship is established between compressive strength and drying shrinkage. By comparing the development of compressive strength and the drying shrinkage deformations, it appears possible to predict the drying shrinkage according to the acquired compressive strength.