In this work, strength assessments and percentage of water absorption of high performance self compacting concrete containing different amounts of ground granulated blast furnace slag and CuO nanoparticles as binder have been investigated. Portland cement was replaced by different amounts of ground granulated blast furnace slag and the properties of concrete specimens were investigated. Although it negatively impacts the physical and mechanical properties of concrete at early age of curing, ground granulated blast furnace slag was found to improve the physical and mechanical properties of concrete up to 45 wt. (%) at later ages. CuO nanoparticles with the average particle size of 15 nm were partially added to concrete with the optimum content of ground granulated blast furnace slag and physical and mechanical properties of the specimens were measured. CuO nanoparticle as a partial replacement of cement up to 3.0 wt. (%) could accelerate C-S-H gel formation as a result of increased crystalline Ca(OH)2 amount at the early age of hydration and hence increase strength and improve the resistance to water permeability of concrete specimens. The increased the CuO nanoparticles' content more than 3.0 wt. (%), causes the reduced the split tensile strength because of the decreased crystalline Ca(OH)2 content required for C-S-H gel formation. Several empirical relationships have been presented to predict flexural and split tensile strength of the specimens by means of the corresponding compressive strength at a certain age of curing. More rapid appearance of the peaks related to hydrated products in X-ray diffraction results, all indicate that CuO nanoparticles could improve mechanical and physical properties of the concrete specimens.
concrete; ground granulated blast furnace slag; CuO nanoparticles; compressive strength; split tensile strength; flexural strength; pore structure; XRD; SEM
