This research articulates the development of a vibration-free concrete (VFC) for slip-form paving enabling a simple and rapid construction process. To achieve this, properties such as rheology including thixotropy, shape stability, and workability loss with time are mainly investigated. Concrete mixture with high thixotropic strength and its shape holding ability, flowability, and workability retention with time is evaluated. This study consists of two phases: (1) selection of paste component from rheology of cement paste incorporating various micro- and nano- sized particles (2) study of fresh properties of concrete mixtures using the excess paste layer concept.

From the cement paste study, it has been concluded that the structural build-up method provides a better understanding to assess the thixotropy development. A water-to-binder (w/b) ratio of 0.35 and PCE based superplasticizer were selected. The results showed that materials such as silica fume, slag and attapulgite clay are considered effective binder materials showing higher thixotropic build-up compared to other materials.

In the development of VFC, on decreasing the paste layer thickness, the workability loss increases and thixotropy development decreases significantly, which can mostly likely be attributed to the dispersing admixture. The binary concrete mixtures incorporating attapulgite clay showed low workability loss resulting consistent thixotropic buildup in early and extended time period. The ternary mixture with slag and attapulgite clay showed high thixotropic buildup suitable for the early and extended transportation time. The dosage of superplasticizer controls the workability loss but also affects the structural build up rate or thixotropy in both the cement paste and concrete mixture incorporating SCMs and mineral fillers.