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Superplasticized concrete and ment to make consolidation difficult.

Ex t e rior walls
contained an inside and outside layer of horizontal and
bottom-up pumping minimize ve rtical re b a r s. Congestion was especially seve re
consolidation problems around each window opening because of extra vertical
b a r s, stirrups between windows and an additional
curved bar placed at the center of the wall above and
below each window opening (see Figure 1). Minimum
BY PAUL SOMMERS, RE.
CHIEF ENGINEER clear cover for rebars was 11⁄2 inches on exterior wall
ALGERNON BLAIR, INC. faces and 3⁄4 inch for interior faces. There wasn’t much
MONTGOMERY, ALABAMA room to get a vibrator into the concrete, especially near
the windows. Yet a smooth-surfaced architectural fin-
ish was specified.
A decision was made to pump the walls from the bot-
tom up using a superplasticized concrete that would re-
umping concrete from the bottom up made

P
quire only minimal vibration. While concrete for
good sense to our engineers and superinten- columns and piers has frequently been placed using this
dents assigned to the Providence Hospital con- method, it is seldom used for walls.
struction project in Mobile, Alabama. Massive
20-foot-high arches at ground level varied in thickness Concrete proportions and properties
from 8 to 20 inches and concrete could be placed us- Trial mix proportions for the 4000-psi concrete are
ing conventional methods. But serpentine walls above shown in Table 1. A 3⁄4-inch-top-size crushed limestone
the arches were 8 inches thick with enough reinforce- coarse aggregate was used and the cement content was
TABLE 2. SAND GRADING FOR
PUMPED CONCRETE

Sieve size Percent passing


3
⁄8 inch 100
No. 4 98
No. 8 90
No.16 79
No.30 55
No.50 17
No. 100 4

the plant to bring the slump up to about 8 inches for


placing. The combination of good sand grading, ade-
quate cement content, high slump, and extended slump
life helped to ensure pumpable concrete, even at high
placing temperatures.

Developing the pumping method


Tower wall forms were constructed of 3⁄16-inch-thick
steel plate panels 32 to 38 feet long. Gate valves (Figure
2) were installed in pumping ports 12 inches from the
bottom of wall forms used for the inside face of the walls.
These ports were spaced about 6 to 7 feet apart.

Figure 1. Additional steel around window openings made


consolidation difficult. Curved bars above and below window
openings restricted access for the vibrator.

564 pounds per cubic yard. An air- e n t raining agent


and a superplasticizer were also added, reducing the
water content and producing design strength levels in
5 to 10 days.
Pumpable concrete requires sand with adequate
amounts passing the No. 50 and No. 100 sieves. ACI
Committee 304 recommends that 15 to 30 percent of the
sand pass the No. 50 sieve and that 5 to 10 percent pass
the No. 100 sieve. As shown in Table 2, the sand grading
was within these recommended limits for the No. 50
sieve and slightly below the lower recommended limit
for material passing the No. 100 sieve.
Concrete was batched to produce a 2- to 4-inch slump Figure 2. Gate valves were installed in pumping ports 12
and the low-slump-loss superplasticizer was added at inches from the bottom of wall forms. Valves were at
approximately 6- to 7-foot intervals.
TABLE 1. TRAIL MIX PROPORTIONS
FOR PUMPED CONCRETE
Original plans called for a specially constructed man-
Material Batch weight
ifold connecting the 5-inch-diameter slickline from the
pounds/cubic yard
pump to 5 different ports about 6 to 7 feet apart. Con-
Cement 564 crete was to be pumped through all 5 ports simultane-
Water 278 ously. Howe ve r, this arrangement worked poorly. Con-
Sand 1320 crete didn’t rise uniformly in the wall and as the level of
Crushed limestone 1800 concrete rose at one port, resistance built up at that
point, diverting concrete flow to the other ports. Block-
ages later developed in the port through which concrete • The pump had a rated capacity of 90 cubic yards per
flow had stopped. Blockages also occurred in the mani- hour and 5-inch line was used.
fold itself. • Rebar location near the port was adjusted as needed
The pumping crew next tried a different setup. The 5- so bars didn’t restrict the flow of concrete entering the
inch-diameter slickline was connected by hose to a Y form.
section and 5-inch to 4-inch reducers were coupled to
each leg of the Y as shown in Figure 3. Two 4-inch diam- • A pencil vibrator (11⁄2 -inch-diameter head) was lowered
eter hoses were clamped to the Y and to form-mounted from the top of the form and placed as close to the
valves approximately 14 to 18 feet apart. For most of the ports as possible. The vibrator was left in the form un-
pours, window openings were centered between the two til the pour was topped out. This assisted the flow of
ports used for pumping. The entire section of wall was concrete and increased the rate at which concrete
then pumped with a single setup. Once pumping started could be pumped.
it took only 10 minutes to fill the nearly 11-foot-high sec- • Pumplines were thoroughly cleaned each day, as were
tion of wall with about 10 cubic yards of concrete. Con- the clamps and gaskets used at connections. Mo rt a r
crete flowed horizontally as well as vertically but no seg- lost through leaky connections can cause blockages.
• Concrete was delivered at the correct slump so there
would be no delays caused by having to add water or
additional amounts of superplasticizer.
• To assure adequate truck mixing of concrete and thor-
ough dispersion of the superplasticizer, loads were lim-
ited to 6 cubic yards. Concrete that wasn’t thoroughly
mixed appeared to set more rapidly.
• Signals were developed to provide quick communica-
tion between the pump operator and the placing crew.

Problems and solutions


Bottom up pumping progressed very smoothly up to a
height of 75 to 100 feet. Beyond that height, the older
model pump being used sometimes couldn’t produce
Figure 3. The 5-inch-diameter pumpline was split into two 4- enough pressure to overcome friction within the forms.
inch lines by using a Y connection and reducers. Concrete
When this happened, walls were pumped from the bot-
was pumped into two wall ports approximately 14 to 18
feet apart. tom until concrete was within 3 or 4 feet of the top of
the form. Then the rest of the concrete was placed from
the top of the form as in a normal pour.
Honeycombed areas were a concern, but very little vi-
bration was needed to consolidate the concrete. One vi-
regation occurred because the high-slump mixture was brator was left immersed near the pumping ports and
very cohesive. another small-diameter vibrator was used wherever it
When one section of wall was completed, a crane lift- would fit through the rebars. An 8-inch slump concrete
ed the Y connection and moved it to the next setup. To- pumped easily, consolidated well and produced smooth
tal elapsed time for moving the Y connection, recon- formed surfaces. When the slump was 9 or 10 inches,
necting the lines and topping out the next wall section though, there were some sand streaking problems. Thus,
was about 15 minutes. Up to 4 wall sections were com- slump control of the superplasticized concrete was cru-
pleted daily using this technique. The day following each cial in achieving defect-free surfaces.
wall pour, forms were stripped and reset and additional
One of the problems was unrelated to pumping. The
wall sections were pumped. Alternating panels were
metal forms expanded when exposed to the sun and to
placed on one day, and infill panels the next day. Bulk-
daily temperature variations of as much as 30 degrees.
heads were 2 x 4’s butted up against the taper ties.
This distorted the forms, sometimes causing an improp-
It wasn’t necessary to anchor the forms at the bottom.
er fit and poorly matched adjacent pours. The problem
Howe ve r, the forms were designed to withstand 125 per-
was solved by spraying water on the exterior form sur-
cent of a full liquid head for a 10-foot height. This was
faces to cool them.
done to accommodate any surges in form pressure
A plaster mix was applied to the exterior walls to pro-
caused by the pumping and vibration.
duce the final architectural finish.
Preventing line blockages
PUBLICATION #C860533
Se ve ral steps were taken to reduce the possibility of Copyright © 1986, The Aberdeen Group
work stoppages after pumping had begun. All rights reserved

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