Flowing ability of the mortars formulated from self-compacting concretes incorporating rice husk ash

This paper presents the flowing ability of the mortars formulated from various self-compacting concretes (SCCs) incorporating rice husk ash (RHA). The mortars were produced with different RHA contents and water–binder (W/B) ratios, as used in their parent SCCs. The flowing ability of the mortars was determined with respect to the flow spread at various dosages of a polycarboxylate based high-range water reducer (HRWR). The effects of RHA, W/B ratio, and HRWR on the flowing ability of mortars were observed. The mortar flowing ability decreased with the higher RHA content and W/B ratio, but increased with the greater HRWR dosage. However, the excessive HRWR dosages were not conducive to the mortar flowing ability due to the segregation problem in the form of bleeding. The overall mortar flowing ability results were useful to examine the suitability of RHA, and to fix the HRWR dosages for different SCCs.