Mechanical properties of silica fume based concrete: A review

The significant industrial growth accompanying rapid urbanization has spurred a heightened demand for concrete. Cement production, a primary ingredient of concrete, results in substantial carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. To mitigate this impact, alternative pozzolanic materials like silica fume (SF) can be incorporated. SF, an industrial byproduct, serves as a supplementary cementitious material (SCM), offering benefits of waste recycling. This study aims to comprehensively review the addition of SF as an SCM replacement, with a specific focus on the mechanical properties of concrete. Numerous scientific papers were analyzed and carefully examined from the period of 1998 to 2023, which forms the bibliometric core of this study. The entire scopus database was examined for co-occurrence of keywords and actively contributing countries and results were shown through network diagrams. The effect of SF addition on fresh properties as well as mechanical properties were discussed. The inclusion of SF in range of 10–25% by quantity of cement was found to have increased split tensile strength, compressive strength and flexural strength. However, the addition of SF beyond 25% replacement level can have an adverse impact on the overall characteristics of the composite mix. The present study summarizes the major trends as reported in the available literature where SF has been used as SCM. Apart from finding the general trends, various research gaps have been identified.