The Effectiveness of Pumice as a Supplementary Cementitious Material in High Performance Self-Consolidating Concrete

The primary focus of the experimental research was to evaluate the effectiveness of pumice as a supplementary cementitious material to offset the cement’s carbon footprint within high performance Self-Consolidating Concrete. Two grades of supplementary cementitious material Pumice (Hess NCS-3 and Hess NDS325) were evaluated during the experimental testing, which were compared against Metakaolin and conventional SelfConsolidating Concrete. The experimental research focused on workability, 7-day, and 28-day compressive strength testing. Initial testing was conducted on 0%, 5%, 10%, and 15% replacement alternatives within each mix design to arrive at the optimum percentage of replacement with cement. The mixture proportion was further refined to achieve SelfConsolidating Concrete. The results indicated that NCS-3 Pumice outperformed Metakaolin mixes. Based upon the above findings, it was concluded that NCS-3 Pumice can be used as an effective alternative supplementary cementitious material to Metakaolin for use in high performance Self-Consolidating Concrete.