Applying Theories of Particle Packing and Rheology to Concrete for Sustainable Development

CONCRETE IS ONE OF THE MOST IMPORTANT CONSTRUCTION MATE- rIALS. HOwEVER, IT IS NOT SO
COMPATIBLE wITH THE dEMANdS OF SUSTAINABLE dEVELOPMENT BECAUSE MANUFACTURINg OF
CEMENT gENERATES A LARgE AMOUNT OF CARBON dIOXIdE ANd THEREFORE
CEMENT CONSUMPTION PROdUCES A HUgE CARBON FOOTPRINT.
Currently, the cement consumption is generally lowered by adding supplementary cementitious
materials to replace part of the cement. Nonetheless, in order to maintain performance, there is a limit
to such cement replacement by supplementary cementitious materials. To further reduce the cement
con- sumption, the total cementitious materials content has to be reduced. This requires the packing
density of the aggregate particles to be maximized so that the amount of voids in the bulk volume of
aggregate to be filled with cement paste could be minimized and the surface area of the aggregate
particles to be minimized so that the amount of cement paste needed to form paste films coating the
surfaces of aggregate particle for rheological performance could be minimized. Such optimiza- tion is
not straightforward and modern concrete science based on particuology is needed. Herein, a number of
new theories regarding particle packing and rheology of concrete, which are transforming conventional
concrete technology into modern concrete science, are presented. These theories would help to develop
a more scientific and systematic concrete mix design method for the production of high-performance
concrete with minimum cement consumption.
INTRODUCTION
Sustainable development has become a set of self-evident rules. Although there may be political
conflicts between those who wish to preserve the environ- ment and those who support develop-
ment, sustainability and development are actually not mutually exclusive. In fact, we should
strike a balance between development in land use and environmental preservation, which is to
improve our quality of life without adversely affecting our environment.
It is the fact that cement rather than concrete is not particularly environ- mentally friendly. It has
been esti- mated that the production of each ton of cement generates approximately one ton of carbon
dioxide into the atmo- sphere. The excess amount of carbon dioxide is contributing to global warm-
ing and the cement industry alone is responsible for about 7% of all carbon dioxide generated in the
world (Meyer, 2009). For the concrete industry to sup- port sustainable development, the pri- mary
goal is to use as little cement as possible in concrete production.
There are conventional ways that the concrete industry can increase its compliance with the
demands of sus- tainable development, which includes increasing the use of supplementary
cementitious materials, and enhanc- ing the performance of concrete. The cement consumption per
unit volume of concrete mix can be reduced by partially substituting cement by vari- ous
cementitious materials. The most commonly used cement substitutes include fly ash (FA), ground
granulated blast-furnace slag (GGBS) and con- densed silica fume (CSF), all of which are by-
products of the industrial pro- cess. By turning the by-products of the industrial process into useful
cement substitutes, disposal cost of industrial waste can be avoided and hence value is added to the
industrial by-products. Although FA has problems associated with relatively slow rate of strength
development, one of the reasons that FA has still been widely utilized in con- crete production is
that it reduces the cost of concrete materials as it is gener- ally less expensive than cement (Meyer,
2009). Likewise, GGBS also has the problem of slow strength development. However, partial
replacement of cement with GGBS is found to greatly reduce the permeability of concrete as the pore
size in cement matrix is reduced through the reaction of GGBS with the calcium hydroxide and alkalis
released during the hydration of cement. The reduced in permeability can therefore improve the
durability of concrete (ACI committee 233, 1995). On the other hand, CSF has become a key ingredient
for high-perfor- mance concrete as the utilization of CSF in concrete substantially increases the
compressive strength and durability of concrete (Langan et al., 2002). Because of its importance for
the production of high-performance concrete, its cost has exceeded that of cement (Meyer, 2009). More
recently, it has been suggested that ground glass may also be used as supplementary cementitious
mate- rials (Shao et al., 2000). Although it has been known that the alkali in the cement paste
would react with the silica in the glass via the alkali-silica reaction (ASR) to produce a gel, which
might cause severe damage to the con- crete structures due to the ASR induced expansion so that it was
found unsatis- factory to use glass as substitutes for coarse aggregates in concrete because of the
substantial loss in compressive strength and the excessive ASR induced expansion. Nevertheless,
studies have shown that if the glass was grounded to an optimum fine particle size, the pozzolanic
behaviour of ground glass would be activated and even overwhelm the ASR (Shao et al., 2000). It was
found that a smaller particle size of ground glass would result in a higher activity of pozzolanic
reaction, a higher compres- sive strength in concrete as well as a
lower ASR induced expansion.Apart from reducing cement con- sumption per unit volume of
concrete mix by using supplementary cementi- tious materials, the overall cement con- sumption can
be dramatically reduced by enhancing the performance of con- crete. An increase in concrete
strength leads to a reduction of total volume of concrete needed. For example, it has been found that
the use of Grade 100 concrete instead of Grade 45 concrete can reduce the volume of concrete needed
for the vertical elements by 30% (Zheng et al., 2009). Since the Grade 100 concrete was produced by
adding FA and CSF to the concrete mix rather than increasing the cement used per unit volume of
concrete mix, the overall cement consumption dropped significantly due to the large volume of
concrete saved. On the other hand, an improvement in concrete durabil- ity leads to an increase in
service life of concrete structure, thus cutting the costs of future redevelopment and maintenance
work. Therefore, improv- ing the performance of concrete can conserve natural resources, reduce
overall cement consumption, and remarkably extend the service life of concrete structures and save
future redevelopment and maintenance work. Although enhancing the perfor- mance of concrete
can help reduce cement consumption and support sus- tainable development, the enhance- ment of
high-performance concrete (HPC) experiences a number of chal- lenges and many aspects of
concrete behaviour are still beyond our com- prehension. Consequently, to support sustainable
development, it is critical to transform conventional concrete technology to modern concrete sci-
ence, which enables us to look into the factors governing the performance of concrete so that the
performance of concrete can be improved in a more scientific and efficient way. After briefly
examining the problems faced by the enhancement of HPC, this arti- cle introduces two important
topics in particuology of concrete for sustain- able development, which are particle
 packing and rheology of concrete. The theories involved in the two topics give insights for future
practices in concrete production and may reform the way how concrete mix is designed.

Problems faced by the enhancement of

high-performance concrete
The development of HPC aims to enhance performance of concrete in various attributes, which
includes strength, workability, dimensional stability and durability. Nowadays, the concrete
technology has been advanced so much that with the use of CSF; HPC of compressive strength over
150MPa can be reached (Langan et al., 2002). Furthermore, the workability of HPC has been
improved which enables pumping to a great height. The self-consolidat- ing concrete, a derivative of
HPC that is highly workable, flowable and non- segregating, can spread into confined spaces, fill
formwork even to the far- reaching corners, and pass through even the most congested reinforcing
steel bars without any mechanical compac- tion but place itself by its own weight. The dimensional
stability of concrete has also been improved as the problems of thermal and shrinkage cracking
associ- ated with high cement paste volume has been resolved. The durability of con- crete structures
built today is also good enough to last for more than a century even in marine environment.
Although HPC has been ameliorated, there are still some problems associated with the enhancement
of HPC.
First, the mix composition of HPC is
still primarily designed by trial mixing, which means that the effect of the variation of concrete
constituents on the various performance attributes cannot be informed unless tests are carried out.
However, the trial mixing process is tedious and time-consuming and is therefore non-economical
and inefficient.
Second, even for the same design mix composition of HPC, the variationin physical properties of
concrete con- stituents such as particle size distribu- tion, particle density, packing density and
specific surface area would result in fluctuation of performance of HPC. As a result, the quality
control of HPC is made difficult. To cover the risk of fluctuation in performance of HPC, concrete
structures are often over- designed, resulting in an increase in production cost and a waste of natural
resources. Therefore, what we need is not just high performance, but also high robustness in the
production of HPC, which is the ability of concrete to have a consistent performance despite
expected or unexpected variations in the properties of concrete constituents. Third, the various
performance attri- butes of HPC are often contradictory to each other. For example, the use of CSF
can substantially increase the strength and durability of concrete. However, the concrete mix with
CSF added is often found to be too cohesive, which may not be flowable enough for pump- ing or
workable enough for filling form- works. Another example is related to the use of superplasticizers
(SPs). With the use of SPs, water demand for a cer- tain workability requirement can be reduced so
that a lower water/binder (cement and cementitious materials) ratio can be adopted to increase the
strength of concrete. However, just a slight over dosage of SPs could lead to segregation, bleeding
and sedimenta- tion. Therefore, mix optimization for all
round HPC is still a challenge.
Having analysed the problems asso- ciated with the enhancement of HPC, it is realized that an in-
depth understand- ing of how the various mix parameters would affect the behaviour of concrete is
needed for mix optimization and robustness design of concrete. In this regard, The University of
Hong Kong has been doing research on particuol- ogy of concrete, which aims to develop theories
for concrete science. A number of theories regarding particle packing and rheology of concrete have
beendeveloped through years of research. These theories help examine what the possible parameters
are governing the behaviour of concrete and explain how the variation of these parameters can affect
the performance of concrete, as presented herein.

Particle packing of concrete

Packing density: A key parameter affecting the performance of concrete

A concrete mix may be considered a pack of aggregate particles in a matrix of cement paste. The
pack- ing of aggregate particles comprises of aggregates of smaller than 75 μm (aggregate powder),
75 μm – 5 mm (fine aggregate), and 5 mm – 40 mm (coarse aggregate). Since the matrix of cement
paste is more expensive than aggregate and is responsible for large amount of carbon dioxide
generated, maximizing the packing density of aggregate particles is generally con- sidered a good
strategy both to reduce cost of concrete production and to sup- port sustainable development as less
amount of cement paste is required to fill the voids within the aggregate particles. Packing density of
aggregate particles can be maximized by proper proportioning the aggregate particles of various
sizes (that is to determine the particle size distribution of aggre- gate particles which gives the
highest packing density, which may be con- trolled by fine to total aggregate ratio) and by widening
the particle size range of aggregate particles (such as with the inclusion of powder content of size
smaller than 75 μm). Actually, packing density optimization is not only beneficial to cost reduction
and carbon footprint diminu- tion, but also to concrete performance amelioration as packing density
is one of the key parameters governing the behaviour of concrete. For example, the basic principle to
improve the dimen- sional stability of concrete is to reduce the cement content or paste volume as it
was found that high cement con- tent or large paste volume often led to large thermal expansion
or contrac- tion at the early age and large drying shrinkage at the later age (Kwan et al., 2010a).
To reduce and control the cement content, it has become a common practice to partially replace
cement with supplementary cementi- tious materials and a numerous labora- tory work has been
carried out on the effect of these supplementary cementi- tious materials on heat generation or
shrinkage of concrete (Zhang et al., 2003; Kwan et al., 2011a; Kwan et al., 2011b). Nevertheless,
maximizing the packing density of aggregate particles can also reduce the amount of cement paste
used and hence may improve the dimensional stability of concrete. However, very limited
research has been done on the relationship between packing density of aggregate particles and
dimensional stability of concrete. Furthermore, increasing the packing density of binder comprised of
cementi- tious materials and fillers may have positive effect on strength of cement
paste/mortar/concrete. It is known that small replacement of cement by CSF can dramatically
increase the com- pressive strength of concrete (Kwan, 2000; Chen et al., 2012). Although the
effectiveness of supplementary cementitious materials in improving the strength of concrete is
affected by a number of factors such as the amount of reactive silica and the rate of strength
development, fineness of particles of the cementitious materi- als also plays an essential role. It is
believed by the authors that supple- mentary cementitious materials of smaller mean particle
size are gener- ally more effective. The high fineness of CSF thus partially explains its high
effectiveness in improving the strength of concrete. Since CSF has a mean par- ticle size much smaller
 than that of cement particles, blending cement with CSF can increase the packing density of
binder. With the voids content reduced, the amount of water needed to fill the voids within the
cementitious materials in the binder decreases, resulting in a lower water/binder ratio which yields a
concrete of higher strength. Apart from blending cement with a single type of cementitious materials,
Kwan and Ng (2004) produced self-consolidating concrete of grade up to 100 by maxi- mizing the
packing density of binder through blending different types of cementitious materials. Likewise, Chen
and Kwan (2012) increased the packing density and strength of cement paste by incorporating superfine
cement.
Apart from strength, increasing the
packing density of binder by blending cement with supplementary cementi- tious materials and fillers
may also improve the durability of concrete attributed to reduction of porosity and permeability of
cement paste. The reduce in permeability can therefore improve the sulphate resistance of con- crete,
diminish the potential expansion due to alkali-silica reaction, reduce the penetration of chloride within
the concrete and improve the resistance to corrosion of reinforcement.
In fact, packing density is also a key factor influencing the workabil- ity and flowability of cement
paste/ mortar/concrete. In concrete science, the study of flowing behaviour of con- crete falls within
the scope of rheology of concrete. In the field of rheology, the flowing behaviour of concrete is often
examined by rheological properties such as yield stress and apprarent vis- cosity instead of
workability and flow- ability studied in concrete technology. Nevertheless, it was shown that yield
stress and apparent viscosity exhibit close relationship with flowability mea- surement of flow spread
and flow rate, respectively. Wong et al. (2007) found that by increasing the packing density through
blending cement, fly ash and silica fume, the rheological properties of cement paste can be improved.
Later, it was found that packing density isnot the only factor governing the flow- ability and
rheological properties of cement paste; excess water and solid surface area also play significant
roles (Kwan and Wong, 2008; Wong and Kwan, 2008). As packing density is not the only factor
determining the flowability and rheological properties of concrete, the various parameters governing
the flowing behaviour of con- crete will be discussed in more details in the section of rheology of
concrete. From the above, it is evident that packing density is a key factor govern- ing the various
attributes of perfor- mance of cement paste/mortar/con- crete. For the sake of packing density
optimization and robustness design of HPC, particle packing models that can accurately predict the
packing density of concrete constituents are called for.

Particle packing theories and models There are various structural effects describing how particles
of different size are packed together and they have positive or negative effect on packing density.
Understanding these struc- tural effects is therefore important to interpretation of packing
density of particle systems. Basically, the structural effects include the filling and occupying
effects, the more well- known loosening and wall effects (de Larrard, 1999), and the newly proposed
wedging effect (Kwan et al., 2013), as explained herein.
Consider a binary mix of fine and
coarse particles, there is an optimum volumetric fraction of fine/coarse par- ticles yielding the
maximum packing density. When the volumetric fraction of fine particles is less than optimum, the
coarse particles are dominant and the fine particles increase the packing density by filling into the
voids within the packing of coarse particles. This is known as the filling effect. On the other hand,
when the volumetric fraction of coarse particles is less than opti- mum, the fine particles are
dominant and the coarse particles increase the
 effects may be hindered by the loosen- packing models implicitly take
ing and wall effects, which decrease account of the loosening and/or wall
the packing density of the particle effects, such as those developed by
system. When the coarse particles Powers (1968), Aїm and Goff (1968),
are domi- nant, the loosening effect Toufar et al. (1977), Goltermann et al.
occurs when the fine particles are not (1997) and Dewar (1999). In most of
small enough to fit inside the voids the models with loosening and wall
within the coarse particles so that effects taken into account, the
the filling of the fine particles loosening effect is often explicitly
loosens the packing of coarse accounted for by a loosening effect
Loosening effect particles, as illustrated in Figure 1. parameter, while the wall effect is
Figure 1. The loosening effect When the fine particles are explicitly considered by a wall effect
dominant, the wall effect occurs parameter. Examples include the
when the coarse particles are not models developed by Stovall et al.
packing density by occupying large enough so that the coarse (1986), Yu and Standish (1987) Yu
volumes which would otherwise particles not only occupy solid and Standish (1991), Yu et al. (1996),
occupied by porous bulk volume of volumes in place of porous bulk Yu et al. (1997),
fine particles (i.e. the solid fine volume of fine particles but also and de Larrard (1999). With two
particles and voids are replaced by create additional voids in the vicinity param- eters account for the
solid coarse particles). This is known of the periphery of the coarse loosening and wall effects, these
as the occupying effect. The filling particles, as depicted in Figure 2. models may be collectively called the
and occupying effects thus explain Consequently, the loosening and wall 2-parameter models.
why there is an increase in packing effects depend on the size difference Figure 3 shows a typical case for
density of binder when cement is between the fine and coarse binary mix of spherical glass beads,
blended with supplementary particles, which is often expressed in which is extracted from Kwan et al.
cementitious materials or fillers with terms of size ratio (the ratio of the (2013) for illustration. With the above-
mean particle size smaller than that size of fine to coarse par- ticles). mentioned structual effects taken
of cement. The increase in packing When size ratio is smaller, the into account, the conventional 2-
den- sity due to the widening of the loosening and wall effects are also parameter models generally
particle size range of aggregate smaller, and vice versa. generates packing density curves
particles can also be accounted for, Many particle packing models have similar to the discon- tinuous lines
which may be interpreted as been shown in Figure 3, giving a sharp
successive filling of the voids by developed, which considered the peak at the optimum volumetric
smaller aggregate particles (the various structural effects. Some of fraction, r1*, which yields the
filling effect) or succesive occu- the particle maximum
pying the porous bulk volume of fine
aggregate particles by larger aggre- Experimental packing density
gate particles (the occupying effect). Theoretical packing density predicted by 2-parameter model
However, the increase in packing
Packing density

density by the filling and occupying

When coarse particles areWedging effect

dominant
When fine particals are dominant

r1*

Wall effect
Figure 2. The Wall effect Volumetric fraction of fine particles, r1

Figure 3. Packing density against volumetric fraction of fine particles for

a typical binary mix of spherical glass beads
 fine particles are dominant
some coarse particles are exceptionally
close to each other, thus impeding the
formation of complete layers of fine
particles between them. As a result,
additional voids appear at the gaps
between the coarse particles, as shown in
Figure 5.
By incorporating the wedging effect by
Wedging effect an additional parameter, a 3-param- eter
Figure 4. The wedging effect when the particle packing model (Kwan et al.,
coarse particles are dominant 2013) has been developed. The solid
line in Figure 5 shows the theo- retical
packing densities predicted by the 3-
packing density. In reality, however, parameter model, which provide good
the experimental packing densities agreement with the experimental results.
generally lie on a smooth curve with From Figure 3, the differences in packing
a blunt peak where the experimental density between the dis- continuous
packing densities are always lower and solid lines, as shaded, are attributed
than that predicted by the to wedging effect, which is shown to vary
conventional 2-parameter models. with the volumetric fraction.
From Figure 3, it can be shown that Meanwhile, a number of modifica-
the discrepancies between the tions were made based on some of
experimental and theo- retical the 2-parameters to take account of the
packing densities are especially large various factors affecting packing
when the volumetric fraction is close density. For example, Yu et al. (1996)
to r1*. To unravel the discrepan- cies, and Yu et al. (1997) also considered the
the authors have recently pro- posed effect of particle shape and abso- lute
a new structural effect, called the particle size on packing density,
wedging effect. When the coarse respectively. The effect of absolute size of
particles are dominant, the wedging particle is especially significant in
effect occurs when some isolated packing of very fine particles such as
fine particles disturb the packing of powder. Due to the relatively strong
coarse particles by wedging in the cohesive inter-particle forces such as
gaps between the coarse particles Van der Waals and electrostatic force,
and are entrapped there instead of fine particles do not behave individu-
filling the voids between the coarse ally and agglomerates may form, caus-
particles, as demonstrated in Figure 4. ing the packing density to be lower
On the other hand, when the fine (Yu et al., 1997).
particles are domi- nant, the wedging Likewise, de Larrard (1999) modified
effect occurs when the 2-parameter model of Stovall et al.
(1986) by incorporating a compaction
index to take account of the effect of
compaction and packing process on
packing density. Although the newly
developed 3-parameter model (Kwan et
al., 2013) has not yet accounted for some
of the factors influencing pack- ing
density such as particle shape, absolute
particle size and compaction and
packing method, the authors have been
Wedging effect working on the modifications. The

Figure 5. The wedging effect when the

modified 3-parameter model will be a enough liquid to fill the voids
useful tool for mix optimization and between parti- cles. In this case,
robustness design for HPC in the there is no free liquid
near future.

Rheology of concrete
Concrete mix appears to be solid and
rigid, but when subjected to an
external force, it flows and changes
its shape to fit the mould just like
liquid. Therefore, concrete exhibits
properties that are both solid-like
and liquid-like and is a typical yield
stress fluid. The rheo- logical
properties of yield stress fluid are
usually described by yield stress
and apparent viscosity, where yield
stress is the shear stress that initi-
ates the flow and apparent viscosity
describes the resistance to flow that
is defined as shear stress divided
by shear rate. Rheological models
are available for yield stress fluids,
such as the Bingham model and the
Herschel- Bulkley model. However,
these models are only useful in
providing phenom- enological
descriptions of rheological properties
in graphs of shear stress against
shear rate, but do not provide an
understanding of the behaviour of
yield stress fluids. To better
understand the rheological behaviour
of concrete, it is essential to explore
the factors determining its solid-
and-liquid-like behaviour so that a
scientific approach can be adopted
for mix optimization as well as
robustness design of HPC.
Robinson (1949) introduced a con-
cept that the specific viscosity is
not only proportional to the volume
con- centration of the suspended
solids but also inversely proportional
to the volume of free liquid in the
suspension. The free liquid is the
liquid outside the suspended
particles contributing to fluidity,
which is not entrapped within the
packed particles when the volume
concentration is sufficiently high. There
exists an upper limit of the volume
con- centration of the suspension,
which is reached when there is just
which makes fluid flow impossible the constituent particles while a negative water film thickness
and the suspension becomes a porous has a physical meaning that the water
solid with infinite viscosity. content is not enough for filling the
Later, Powers (1968) proposed voids within the particles in the mix. It
the excess paste theory by postulating was revealed that an increase in water
that it is the excess paste, the cement film thickness would usually increase
paste in excess after filling the voids flow spread and flow rate and decrease
between the aggregate particles, yield stress and apparent viscosity,
which contrib- utes to the workability and vice versa (Kwan and Wong, 2008;
of mortar and concrete. Therefore, Wong and Kwan, 2008). Consequently,
increasing the packing density of water film thickness is an important
aggregate particles would for a given parameter governing the flowability
volume of cement paste, improve and rheological properties of cement
workability; and for a given paste/mortar/concrete.
workability requirement, reduce the The concept of water film thickness,
amount of cement paste needed. which incorporates the effects of pack-
The free liquid introduced by Robinson ing density, water content and surface
(1949) and the excess paste proposed area, implies that maximum packing
by Powers (1968), despite of different density is not necessarily equivalent to
names, share the same notion that optimum packing density for best
the excess fluid, no matter in liquid performance in workability and flow-
form or in paste form, is one of the ability. For example, the inclusion of
major fac- tors affecting the very fine particles, such as supplemen-
rheological behaviour of fluids with tary cementitious materials and fillers,
suspended particles such as mortar may increase the packing density of
and concrete. binder but at the same time increase
Apart from packing density and
the total surface area of particles in
excess fluid, it was found that solid
the mix. In this case, addition of very
sur- face area of particles also exhibits
fine particles may increase or decrease
great effect on the flowability and
the water film thickness, meaning posi-
rheologi- cal properties of cement
tive or negative effects respectively on
paste/mortar/ concrete (Kwan and
workability and flowability of cement
Wong, 2008; Wong and Kwan, 2008;
paste/mortar/concrete. The increase
Fung and Kwan, 2010; Kwan and
or decrease in water film thickness
Fung, 2012). For example, for the
depends on whether the effect of
same amount of excess water, larger
increase in excess water or the effect
surface area generally results in
of increase in cohesiveness of the mix
lower flow spread and flow rate
contributed by increase in surface area
and higher yield stress and apparent
is more dominant. Consequently, to
viscosity for cement paste containing
optimize performance in workability
condensed silica fume and/or pulver-
and flowability, we should maximize
ized fuel ash. This may be explained
water film thickness but not packing
by the notion of water film thickness
density.
as proposed by Kwan et al. (2010b),
which may be evaluated by excess Conclusions
water to surface area ratio. Water film Enhancing the performance of con-
thickness has a physical meaning crete contributes to sustainability,
of average thickness of excess therefore, high-performance concrete
water (water that is not entrapped (HPC) can also be regarded as green
within the voids between particles) concrete. However, many aspects of
coating the constituent particles of concrete behaviour are still beyond our
cement paste/mortar/concrete. A comprehension, which makes further
water film thickness of zero implies
that the water content is just
enough for filling the voids within
improvement in performance of HPC the performance of concrete have various parameters governing the
challenging. In this regard, it is neces- been identified and explained, such performance of concrete such as
sary to transform conventional con- as packing density, excess water packing density and water film thick-
crete technology to modern concrete and surface area of particles. The ness can be computed from inputs such
science so that mix optimization of HPC theo- ries and models involved in as particle size distribution, particle
can be performed in a more scientific particle packing and the notion of density and surface area. This software
and efficient way. To do so, we have to water film thickness have also been can help perform mix optimization and
look into and understand the factors expounded. The University of Hong improve quality control in response to
governing the performance of concrete. Kong has been working on particle variations in physical properties of mix
This article introduces two major topics in packing and rheology modelling. It is constituents. In this case, we can slash
particuology for concrete science, which envisaged that the developed and carbon dioxide emission and support
are particle packing and rheol- ogy of modified models can be incorporated sustainable development by enhancing
concrete. A number of factors affecting in computer software that the the performance of HPC.
V. W O N G · K . W. CH A N · A . K. H . KWAN · A P P L Y I N G T H E O R I E S O F P A R T I C L E P A CK I N G A N D R H E O L O G Y T O CO N C R E T E F O R ...·
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