Effect of Metakaolin on the Strength and Pore Size Distribution of Concrete

Metakaolin, a supplementary cementitious material, together or separately with silica fume and fly ash, has been widely used as a replacement material for cement. This research is to determine the effect of metakaolin replacement of cement (0%, 7%, 9% and 12 %) to the 3, 7, 14 and 28-day compressive strengths of wet cured concrete at water/cement ratio of 0.4 and design strength of 40 MPa. The workability of the fresh concrete was measured through slump and compacting factor tests. Results show that the workability of the fresh concrete decreased up to 80% at metakaolin replacement of 12%. Replacing metakaolin by 12 %, on the other hand, had resulted in the highest compressive strength, which is 48.5 MPa at 28 days compared to control and other percentages of replacement. The porosity measured on the broken samples taken from the compressive strength test shows that the pore diameter size of metakaolin concrete is almost 93% finer than the controlled concrete, which had contributed to the increased in the strength. The use of metakaolin as supplementary cementitiuos material is hoped to be able to replace or stand tall as others similar to it in the market either due to its strength or cost.