Influence of Desert Sand and Cooling Regime on the Compressive Strength of High Strength Concrete after High Temperatures

An experimental investigation is conducted to analyze the influence of desert sand replacement ratio and cooling regime on the compressive strength of desert sand-based high strength concrete (DS-HSC). According to the design of experiment, six desert sand replacement ratios (0%, 20%, 40%, 60%, 80% and 100%) are employed to concrete mixture. DS-HSCs are subjected to two cooling regimes (air cooling and water cooling) and various temperatures (20°C, 400°C, 500°C, 600°C, 700°C and 850°C, respectively) in this paper. The results indicate that the compressive strength of DS-HSC with air cooling is higher than that with water cooling. Moreover, the highest compressive strength appears with the desert sand replacement ratio of 20%. The compressive strength of DS-HSC gradually decreases with the increase of desert sand replacement ratio when the desert sand replacement ratio is more than 20%.