International experience with roller compacted concrete in hydraulic engineering: a review

Dam construction using roller compacted concrete (RCC) dams has been in use for half a century. The number of RCC structures built during this time s approachina 1.000, and the highest such dam is close to 300 meters. RCC technology involves the virtually continuous placement and compaction of concrete, allowing dams to be built at a rate of up to 10 meters per month. Due to the speed and flexibility of the process, this method also offers significant economic advantages. RCC mixtures are rigid (no slump), despite having a higher water-cement ratio than conventional concrete, as they contain less cement and water. Along with Portland cement, the binder in RCC typically includes acidic fly ash from thermal power plants. Mixes with a higher binder content often contain more ash than cement. Ash not only reduces heat generation during concrete curing but also provides the mix with the fine particle size necessary for dense placement, which is achieved under a certain mechanical load. Therefore, the the properties of concrete mixtures and RCC concrete are only to a limited extent subject to the laws and rules known for conventional concrete. This is why the composition of RCC mixes is selected based on specially developed methods, which requires numerous trial batches and full-scale testing of the mix at the construction site.