A review of self-compacting concrete mechanical properties at high temperature

Several research projects have been lately aimed at investigating the thermo-mechanical properties of self-compacting/self-consolidating concrete at high temperature and/or after cooling down to room temperature (hot and residual properties). Hence, it is time to collect the results coming from different sources and to make comparisons between SCC and vibrated concrete - VC, in order to have the full picture of SCC’s heat sensitivity compared to VC and to answer the question whether the design provisions valid for VC in fire be valid also for SCC. In this paper ten different experimental campaigns from nine countries are considered (Belgium, China, Croatia, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Sweden and USA). The strength in uniaxial compression and the elastic modulus are systematically cross examined, something that is not as simple as one may expect, because the various experimental campaigns differ in many respects (heating rate, specimen type, test procedure, data treatment, presentation of the results, …). The agreement, however, is satisfactory, and shows that the mechanical behavior of SCC at high temperature is hardly different from that of VC, at least in quasi-steady thermal conditions and uniaxial compression.