Effect of Grade of Concrete on the Performance of Self-Compacting Concrete Beams Subjected to Elevated Temperatures

Self-compacting concrete (SCC) is a new generation concrete that consolidates without any external effort. Due to its advantages over the conventional concrete, the usage of SCC increases day by day. Understanding the behaviour of SCC is important in the design of structures subjected to elevated temperature. A study was carried out to understand the behaviour of SCC beams of various grades exposed to elevated temperatures under flexural loading. The beams were exposed to a temperature of 900°C. The heated specimens were cooled either by air or water. The research work was carried out for different grades of concrete. It is found from the results that the loss of strength of SCC beams of higher grades was more than that of the lower grade SCC beams. It was also found that the reduction in compressive, tensile and flexural strength of the specimens depends on type of heating and cooling conditions.