Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Technology
Topics Covered
Constituents of concrete
Properties of good concrete
Strength
Workability
Durability
Grading of Concrete, Acceptance Criteria
Mix Design
Stress Strain response of concrete
What is Concrete?
Concrete is a mixture of cement, water, aggregate (fine and
coarse) and admixtures.
When reinforcing steel is placed in the forms and fresh
concrete is placed around it, the solidified mass is called
reinforced concrete.
Since concrete is a composite, the properties of concrete
depend on the properties and relative proportions of its
constituents.
The properties of concrete also depend on the temperature
and humidity at which it is placed and cured
Constituents
Each constitutent of concrete has an important
contribution to the overall properties of the composite.
None of the constituents can be wholly replaced by the
other.
For instance, could we use a combination of cement and
water alone as a building material and not use any
aggregate? The answer is most surely NO.
The reason why this is not desirable is not just because
of economics (cement is much more expensive than
aggregate)
Constituents
It is because hydrated cement paste undergoes large
volume changes due to shrinkage and creep
Thus a building material made of cement paste will
contain a large number of cracks and pores due to
shrinkage and creep, which would make it practically
useless.
Each constituent of concrete plays an irreplaceable role
in the admixture.
Next we will examine briefly each constituent and its
individual properties.
Cement
Cement is a material which acquires cohesive and
adhesive properties in the presence of water.
In the presence of water, bonds form between individual
cement particles, as well as between cement particles
and other constituents of concrete such as fine and
coarse aggregates.
Since water is essential for cement to acquire its
cohesive and adhesive properties, such cements are
called hydraulic cements.
They consist chiefly of silicates and aluminates of lime
obtained from limestone and clay.
3CaO.SiO 2
Dicalcium Silicate
2CaO.SiO2
Tricalcium Aluminate
3CaO.Al2O3
Hydration of Cement
As mentioned, for cement to acquire its adhesive and
cohesive properties water is essential. Why is it so?
This is because in the presence of water, the silicates and
aluminates in cement form products of hydration or
hydrates.
These hydrates, with time, produce a firm and hard mass
which is the hardened cement paste.
The hydration reactions for tricalcium silicate and dicalcium
silicate are as follows:
Hydration of Cement
The amount of tricalcium aluminate in most cements is
comparatively small.
However the hydration reaction of tricalcium aluminate
with water is very rapid it may lead to what is known
as flash set, or very rapid setting of cement. Gypsum is
added to cement clinker to prevent this.
The hydration reaction of tricalcium aluminate is:
C3A + 6H C3AH6 + heat
Portland Cement
The cement that we have talked about till now is usually
known as Ordinary Portland Cement (OPC), because of its
resemblance upon hardening to Portland stone
This cement is the most commonly used type of cement
and it is used most extensively.
Comprises about 59-64% lime (CaO), 19-24% silica (SiO 2),
3-6% alumina (Al2O3), 1-4% iron oxide (Fe2O3)
However there are various other types of cement which
are also used many for specialized purposes.
One of the other commonly used cements is Portland
Pozzolona Cement
Hydrophobic cement
Aggregate
Grading of Aggregates
Aggregate
Light weight aggregates e.g. slag and sintered fly ash are
primarily used for insulating purposes or masonry units.
Water
Admixtures
Admixtures
Properties of Concrete
A good concrete must have three basic properties:
Strength
Workability
Durability
Strength
Compaction of concrete
Workability of Concrete
Workability of Concrete
Usually however, wet concretes are not only more consistent i.e.
can flow easily but also, within limits possess more workability.
Workability of Concrete
Slump Test
Following
are commonly
adapted:
Degree ranges
of Workability
Slump
(mm)
Very Low
0-25
Low
25-50
Medium
25-100
High
100-175
Slump Test
Durability of Concrete
Durability of concrete
Ways of curing
Grading concrete
Uniaxial Compression
Biaxial Compression
Triaxial Compression
tensile
crack
e
Elastic strain
recovered on
unloading
c
Irrecoverable
plastic strain
Summary
Concrete is an extremely complex material
Designing a good concrete mix still involves some art
Analysis of concrete is also extremely complicated:
the stress strain response is nonlinear and inelastic
However whether for design or analysis, a good
understanding of concrete technology is essential.