## 2 Materials and Methods
### Concrete Preparation and Testing
#### 2.2.3 Properties of Hardened Concrete  
The Mechanical properties are the basic and most important characteristics of concrete upon which the durability, performance and deterioration resistant nature of concrete depend [39]. The properties, such as compressive strength, split tensile strength and flexural strengths are responsible for the behavior of concrete under specific loading conditions. These properties are largely affected by the materials used, size of aggregates, their types and also the WC ratio for the mix [41]. Using SF, Slag and MP as a replacement of cement in the concrete mix render it to achieve an elevated level of durability and strength increment. Testing of handed concrete plays a vital impact in studying the behavior of developed concrete; usually there are three major tests involved in studying concrete behavior: (i) compression test; (ii) indirect tensile test; (iii) flexural strength test (Figure 2).  
Compression test is related to the testing of load bearing capacity of concrete. To evaluate the strength of concrete, two types of samples are developed: cube (\(6^{\prime\prime}\times 6^{\prime\prime}\times 6^{\prime\prime}\)) and cylinder (\(6^{\prime\prime}\times 12^{\prime\prime}\)). The crushing strength or bearing capacity of concrete against crushing determines the load bearing  
Figure 1: Standard J-Ring and V-Funnel test apparatuses.  
\begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{c c c c} \hline \hline
**Materials** & \multicolumn{3}{c}{**Properties**} \\ \hline
**Cement Replacement \% Age** & **Slump Test** & **V-Funnel Test** & **J-Ring Test** \\ \hline  & **Slump (mm)** & **Time (s)** & **Distance (mm)** \\ \hline SF 5\% & 684 & 10.0 & 32 \\ SF 10\% & 700 & 9.7 & 34 \\ SF 15\% & 710 & 9.5 & 35 \\ SF 20\% & 702 & 9.6 & 33 \\ SF 25\% & 690 & 9.9 & 31 \\ GGBFS 5\% & 743 & 9.1 & 38 \\ GGBFS 10\% & 759 & 9.0 & 41 \\ GGBFS 15\% & 760 & 10.8 & 43 \\ GGBFS 20\% & 751 & 11.0 & 39 \\ GGBFS 25\% & 742 & 10.6 & 41 \\ MP 5\% & 760 & 9.6 & 35 \\ MP 10\% & 773 & 10.0 & 38 \\ MP 15\% & 782 & 11.3 & 39 \\ MP 20\% & 771 & 11.6 & 36 \\ MP 25\% & 767 & 11.0 & 34 \\ \hline \hline \end{tabular} Note: SF, Silica Fume; GGBFS, Ground Granulated Blast Furnace Slag; MP, Marble Powder.  
\end{table}
Table 3: Properties of fresh concrete.  
of concrete. Moreover, Indirect Tension test, also known as Brazilian and Japanese test, is conducted to test the vertical impact of compressive load on cylinder subjected to load in horizontal shape to test its tensile strength. To reduce the higher impact of stress on surface of concrete, a plywood strip is placed at point of application. One of the weak points of concrete is its resistance against tension, which is why steel reinforcement is used to bear the tensile loading but it is necessary to know the tensile strength or modulus of rupture [39]. Flexural test is conducted on concrete specimen of beam. Actually, there should be some resistance by concrete before cracking starts and load is shifted to reinforcement. The assembly shown in Figure 2 is a three-point loading mechanism for which cracks can produce at any part of beam. By evaluating concrete performance by these three tests, one can easily evaluate the concrete strength and behavior under changing behavior.