Performance of concrete with high aggregate packing density

Today's worldwide emphasis on sustainability favors construction practices that reduce the amount of cement that is used in concrete. One strategy to reduce cement content is to increase the packing density of the aggregate system in concrete. An increase in packing density will decrease the amount of cement paste required to fill the interstitial space between aggregate particles. Concrete mixtures with high aggregate packing density were studied in this project. These mixtures had 15%-25% lower cement paste content than typical structural concrete, but were still workable by virtual of having a well-graded aggregate system. While reduced cement paste volume can adversely affect workability, there are clear improvements in the drying shrinkage and creep performance. The compressive and splitting tensile strengths of the different mixtures were not significantly affected by the aggregate content.