10/7/2017 CONCRETE WORKABILITY FOR DIFFERENT CONDITIONS

CONCRETE WORKABILITY FOR DIFFERENT

CONDITIONS

Workability Requirements for Different Concrete

Placement:
Requirement of concrete workability varies with different types of construction. Workability of
concrete is decided by design engineers based on concrete strength requirements, durability
requirements and ease of construction at site.

For a construction with use of large percentage of reinforcement, where the gap between
reinforcement is less and compaction can not be done effective, highly workable concrete such as
self compacting is recommended.

Since workability of concrete is achieved by more water, it reduces the strength of concrete. Thus
it is recommended to use workability enhancing concrete admixtures such as air-entraining
agents. But use of admixtures may also affect the strength of concrete. So, for critical components
of building such as slab, beam and columns, and for structures where strength of concrete is of
much importance, degree of workability recommended is very low. For mass concrete where and
lightly reinforced concrete structures, low degree of workability can be used.

The degree of workability is measured with slump test of concrete during mixing. The slump value
recommended for each degree of workability for different placing conditions of concrete is given in
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10/7/2017 CONCRETE WORKABILITY FOR DIFFERENT CONDITIONS

table below:

DEGREE OF WORKABILITY FOR DIFFERENT PLACING

CONDITIONS
Placing Condition Degree of concrete Slump (mm)
workability
Binding concrete, Very low Use compacting factor test
Shallow Sections as per IS: 1199
Pavement using pavers
Mass concrete, Low 25-75
Lightly reinforced sections in
slabs, beams, walls, columns,
foors, hand placed pavements,
canal linings, strip footings
Heavily Reinforced sections in Medium 50 100, 75 100
slabs, columns, walls, slipform
work, pumped concrete
Trench fill, in-situ piling High 100 150
Tensile concrete Very high Use determination of flow
test as per IS: 9103

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