Appearance quality control of fair-faced self-compacting concrete

Fair-faced concrete can be applied as conventional structural materials but also as exterior wall materials due to its remarkable decoration performance. However, the wide applications of fair-faced concrete are limited due to its low workability and complex appearance quality process. In the present work, C40 concrete was prepared based on the fabrication theory of fair-faced concrete and self-compacting concrete, and materials design and appearance quality control methods were systematically analyzed. The results showed that the surface porosity ratio was only 1.37% when the content of the defoamer was 0.1%, and the ratio of hole area was only 1.8% with a combination of wooden molds and water-based release agents. Moreover, the color difference value could be controlled below 3.0 due to its inapparent color difference for human eyes.