CHAPTER - I

1.INTRODUCTION:

 Concrete is made by mixing: Cement, water, course fine aggregates and admixtures (if
required). The aim is to mix these materials in measured amounts to make concrete that is
easy to: Transport, place, compact, finish and which will set, and harden, to give a strong
and durable product. The amount of each material (i.e. cement, water and aggregates)
affects the properties of hardened concrete.

 The process of selecting suitable ingredients of concrete and determining their relative
amounts with the objective of producing a concrete of the required, strength, durability,
and workability as economically as possible, is termed the concrete mix design. The
proportioning of ingredient of concrete is governed by the required performance of
concrete in 2 states, namely the plastic and the hardened states. If the plastic concrete is
not workable, it cannot be properly placed and compacted. The property of workability,
therefore, becomes of vital importance. The compressive strength of hardened concrete
which is generally considered to be an index of its other properties, depends upon many
factors, e.g. quality and quantity of cement, water and aggregates; batching and mixing;
placing, compaction and curing.

 This depends on the quality control measures, but there is no doubt that the quality
control adds to the cost of concrete. The extent of quality control is often an economic
compromise, and depends on the size and type of job. The cost of labour depends on the
workability of mix, e.g., a concrete mix of inadequate workability may result in a high
cost of labour to obtain a degree of compaction with available equipment.

 We are see about the foundations and its properties, structure and its properties, selection
of materials like cement, coarse aggregate, fine aggregate, and water and concrete in
detailed manner and also learned about Brick work and columns and sub-structure, super-
structure.

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1.1 SITE DETAILS:

Name of the work : construction of Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital

Working place : Chennai (central railway station opposite)

Method of work : limit state method

No of floors : 8Nos

Spread over 4 lakh sq. ft., the facility will benefit 12,000 patients every day

 A spacious eight-storey building will soon house as many as 23 outpatient

departments at Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital (RGGGH).

 On an average, the hospital receives 12,000 outpatients every day and as the
outpatient block has insufficient space it remains overcrowded.

 “The old outpatient building was congested as it was a single-storey structure. The
objective of constructing a new building was to ease the congestion and do away
with discomfort for patients. When it is completed, it will be one of the largest
outpatient services in the government sector in the city,” a hospital authority said.

 Work on the new building commenced in August 2016. Initially, it was planned to
have four floors for which the State government sanctioned ₹58.65 crore.

 “Originally, the government planned to have a basement, ground floor and four
floors spread on an area of 2.68 lakh square feet. Recently, an order was issued
approving additional four floors. So, there will be an additional space of 1.64 lakh
sq. ft. Another ₹42.8 crore has been sanctioned for the work,” the official said.

 Presently, construction work on the fifth floor is under progress. The basement will
serve as a car parking for hospital employees including doctors and faculty
members. The building will a host of amenities for the outpatients including ramps
for the physically challenged persons, four bed-cum-passenger lifts and four
passenger lifts.

 “As of now, the outpatient departments are functioning in the old Madras Medical
College buildings. Once this new building is completed, it will house all outpatient
departments including urology, radiology and orthopaedics under one roof,” the
official said.

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  A multi-purpose hall and canteen for doctors have also been planned. The
construction work is likely to be completed by July 2019.

1.2 WORK PROGRESS:

 SITE CLEARANCE
 EXCAVATION
 STRUCTURAL WORK
 BRICK WORK
 PLUMBING WORK
 ELECTRICAL WORK
 FINISHING WORK

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 CHAPTER - II

2. CONSTRUCTION PROCESS AND MATERIALS USED:

2.1 SITE CLEARANCE:

 The very first step is site clearance which involves removal of grass and vegetation along
with any other objections which might be there in the site location.

2.2 EXCAVATION:

 Excavation was carried out both manually as well as mechanically. Normally 1-2 earth
excavators (JCB’s) were used for excavating the soil. Adequate precautions are taken to
see that the excavation operations do not damage the adjoining structures. Excavation is
carried out providing adequate side slopes and dressing of excavation bottom. The soil
present beneath the surface was too clayey so it was dumped and was not used for back
filling. The filling is done in layer not exceeding 20 cm layer and then it’s compacted.
Depth of excavation was 5’4” from Ground Level.

Soil Excavation Process

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2.3 FORM WORK:
 Formwork is a mould or open box, like container into which fresh concrete is poured and
compacted. When the concrete is set, the formwork is removed and a solid mass is
produced in the shape of the inner face of the formwork. The top of the formwork is
normally left open. False work is the necessary support system that holds the formwork
in the correct position.
Form work materials:
 Timber
 Metals
1.Timber
a. Lumber: Lumber is commonly available material and has excellent strength, weight and cost
factor.
b. Plywood: The use of plywood in concrete forming for form facing has improved the quality of
finished concrete .The relatively large sheets of plywood have reduced the cost of building and at
the same time have provided smooth surfaces that reduces cost of finishing of concrete surfaces.

2. Metals: The initial cost of metal formwork is more than timber formwork but the number of
reuses of metal formwork is higher than that of timber. In long run metal formwork can be
economical. İn heavy construction works metal form work may require a lifting mechanism to
handle the form work panels or props steel sheet form work has the problem of rusting also. To
avoid rusting, in every use the surfaces should be oiled with an appropriate releasing agent.

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2.4 STEEL WORK:
 Whenever a structure is loaded, it undergoes deformation (straining). This straining of
structure leads to development of internal stresses. In general, the stress at a point may be
regarded as the sum of two components:
1. The normal stress (compression or tension) perpendicular to the surface,
and

2. The shear stress that is parallel to the surface.

 Concrete as a material has good strength in compression, but is comparatively weak in

tension and Shear .

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2.5 CONCRETE WORK:
 Concrete is made up of three basic components: water, aggregate (rock, sand, or gravel)
and Portland cement. Cement, usually in powder form, acts as a binding agent when
mixed with water and aggregates. This combination, or concrete mix, will be poured and
harden into the durable material with which we are all familiar.

2.5.1 Cement: In mix design the most important property of a type of cement is its influence on
the strength of the concrete. First mix allows the properties of three standard cements to be used.
a.Calculation for Cement Content:
Water cement ratio = 0.40
Cement content = 140/0.40 = 350 kg/m3
From Table 5 of IS: 456, Minimum cement content for
Severe exposure condition = 320 kg/m3
350 kg/m3> 320 kg/m3
Hence OK
b. Storage of Cement: It needs extra care or else can lead to loss not only in terms of financial
loss but also in terms of loss in the quality. Following are the don’t that should be followed -

 Do not store bags in a building or a go down in which the walls, roof and floor are not
completely weatherproof.
 Do not store bags in a new warehouse until the interior has thoroughly dried out.
 Do not be content with badly fitting windows and doors, make sure they fit properly and
ensure that they are kept shut.
 Do not stack bags against the wall. Similarly, don’t pile them on the floor unless it is a
dry concrete floor. If not, bags should be stacked on wooden planks or sleepers.
 Do not forget to pile the bags close together.

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2.5.2 Coarse Aggregate: Coarse aggregate for the works should be river gravel or crushed
stone .It should be hard, strong, dense, durable, clean, and free from clay or loamy admixtures or
quarry refuse or vegetable matter. The pieces of aggregates should be cubical, or rounded shaped
and should have granular or crystalline or smooth (but not glossy) non-powdery surfaces.
Aggregates should be properly screened and if necessary washed clean before use.

 Coarse aggregates containing flat, elongated or flaky pieces or mica should be rejected.
The grading of coarse aggregates should be as per specifications of IS-383.
 After 24-hrs immersion in water, a previously dried sample of the coarse aggregate
should not gain in weight more than 5%.
 Aggregates should be stored in such a way as to prevent segregation of sizes and avoid
contamination with fines.

Depending upon the coarse aggregate color, there quality can be determined as:

Black --> Very Good Quality

Blue --> Good

Whitish --> Bad Quality

12.5mm-20mm 40mm

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2.5.3 Fine Aggregate: Aggregate which is passed through 4.75 IS Sieve is termed as fine
aggregate. Fine aggregate is added to concrete to assist workability and to bring uniformity in
mixture. Usually, the natural river sand is used as fine aggregate. Important thing to be
considered is that fine aggregates should be free from coagulated lumps. Grading of natural sand
or crushed stone i.e. fine aggregates shall be such that not more than 5 percent shall exceed 5 mm
in size, not more than 10% shall IS sieve No. 150 not less than 45% or more than 85% shall pass
IS sieve No. 1.18 mm and not less than 25% or more than 60% shall pass IS sieve No. 600
micron.

2.5.4 Water: In mix design water is assumed not to contain impurities that affect its suitability
for concrete and its specification is therefore irrelevant to mix design.

a.Amount of water required:

From Table-2, maximum water content = 186 liters (for 25mm – 50mm slump range and for 20
mm aggregates)
Estimated water content for 100 mm slump = 186 + 6/100 x186 = 197 liters
As super plasticizer is used, the water content can be reduced up to 20 percent and above
Based on trials with SP water content reduction of 29 percent has been achieved.
Hence the water content arrived = 19 x 0.71 =140 liters.

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2.7 COVER BLOCK:

 Cover blocks are placed to prevent the steel rods from touching the shuttering plates and
there by providing a minimum cover and fix the reinforcements as per the design
drawings. Sometimes it is commonly seen that the cover gets misplaced during the
concreting activity. To prevent this, tying of cover with steel bars using thin steel wires
called binding wires (projected from cover surface and placed during making or casting
of cover blocks) is recommended. Covers should be made of cement sand mortar (1:3).
Ideally, cover should have strength similar to the surrounding concrete, with the least
perimeter so that chances of water to penetrate through periphery will be minimized.
Provision of minimum covers as per the Indian standards for durability of the whole
structure should be ensured.
 Shape of the cover blocks could be cubical or cylindrical. However, cover indicates
thickness of the cover block. Normally, cubical cover blocks are used. As a thumb rule,
minimum cover of 2” in footings, 1.5” in columns and 1” for other structures may be
ensured.

Structural Cover to reinforcement

element (mm)

Footings 40

Columns 40

Slabs 15

Beams 25
25 for earth face
Retaining wall
20 for other face

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2.8 COMPACTION:
 Compaction of Concrete is an operation in which fresh concrete is compacted in forms
and make it encircle reinforcements and other embedded objects such as tubes in the
mold

1. Methods of Compaction of Concrete

Hand Compaction Method: Reasonably workable and flowable concrete mixtures are
consolidated by hand employing a rod. The bar should adequately reach the bottom of the form
work and rode diameter need to compact concrete between reinforcement spacing and form
works.The concrete is tamped by the rod tool repeatedly to consolidate it. Mixtures with low
slump value could be consolidated by hand if super plasticizers are added to decrease slump and
make the concrete workable. Further more, tools such as spade is used to provide good surface
appearance and hitting formwork sides make way to repel entrapped air out of the concrete.

Mechanical Compaction Method: The mechanical consolidation method is capable and

suitable for concrete mixtures with great amount of coarse aggregate content and low water to
cement ratio in heavily reinforced structural elements. Different types of mechanical compaction
methods are explained in the following paragraphs

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 Compaction of concrete using needle vibrator
2.6 BRICK WORK:
 Brickwork is masonry done with bricks and mortar and is generally used to build
partition walls. In our site, all the external walls were of concrete and most of the internal
walls were made of bricks. English bond was used and a ration of 1:4 (1 cement: 4 coarse
sand) and 1:6 were used depending upon whether the wall is 4.5 inches or 9 inches. The
reinforcement shall be 2 nos. M.S. round bars or as indicated. The diameter of bars was
8mm. The first layer of reinforcement was used at second course and then at every fourth
course of brick work. The bars were properly anchored at their ends where the portions
and or where these walls join with other walls. The in laid steel reinforcement was
completely embedded in mortar.

Bricks can be of two types. These are:

1) Traditional Bricks-The dimension if traditional bricks vary from 21 cm to 25cm in length,10

to 13 cm in width and 7.5 cm in height in different parts of country .The commonly adopted
normal size of traditional brick is 23 * 11.5*7.5 cm with a view to achieve uniformity in size of
bricks all over country.

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2) Modular Bricks- Indian standard institution has established a standard size of bricks such a
brick is known as a modular brick. The normal size of brick is taken as 20*10*10 cm whereas its
actual dimensions are 19*9*9 cm masonry with modular bricks workout to be cheaper there is
saving in the consumption of bricks, mortar and labour as compared with masonry with
traditional bricks.

Brick Laying Process

 There are many checks that can be applied to see the quality of bricks used on the site.
Normally the bricks are tested for Compressive strength, water absorption, dimensional
tolerances and efflorescence. However at small construction sites the quality of bricks
can be assessed based on following, which is prevalent in many sites.
• Visual check – Bricks should be well burnt and of uniform size and color.
• Striking of two bricks together should produce a metallic ringing sound.
• It should have surface so hard that can’t be scratched by the fingernails.
• A good brick should not break if dropped in standing position from one metre
above ground level

2.9 CURING:

 The minimum period for curing concrete to attain maximum strength is 28 Days. From
the below graph, it is clear that concrete attains 50% of its design strength when
it cured for 3-7 Days.

There are three basic ways of curing concrete.

 The first - involves keeping the surface of the concrete moist by the use ponding,
spraying/sprinkling, damp sand or damp hessian.

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 The second prevents the loss of moisture from the concrete by covering it with
polythene sheeting or leaving the formwork in place.
 The third involves the use of spray or roller applied curing compounds.

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 CHAPTER - III

3 CONCLUSION:

 There is no particular conclusion for advances in concrete technology. Since technology

is increasing day by day .But as civil engineers we have to concentrate on economy and
durability of structures.

 Since the only hopes of tomorrows wonderful construction.

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