CONCRETE TECHNOLOGY/ CONCRETING

Definition

❖ It is a man-made stone made by mixing river sand, broken stones/quarry stones, cement and water in
pre-determined proportions.
❖ A man-made stone comprising of: natural aggregates, binding material, water and admixtures.
MATERIALS FOR CONCRETE

(i) Cement
❖ Cement is a binding material/matrix in concrete which binds materials together.
❖ After adding water, a chemical reaction takes place resulting in the cement setting hard afterwards, it is
called hydration.
❖ Hydration – a chemical reaction which takes place when water is added to a paste of cement.
❖ The hardening process which takes place when water is added in cement.
❖ Cement in bags absorbs moisture if not stored well in a dry, air tight place since water/moisture
absorption lead to loss of strength.
❖ A lump of cement should not be beaten into powder and used because it has already lost its strength.
❖ Cement should therefore be stored; in a water tight shed, on a raised platform and covered with plastic
sheeting.

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(ii) Water
❖ Should be clean, free from impurities.
❖ Water is an essential ingredient of concrete, it causes chemical reaction which results in the setting and
hardening of cement.
❖ The higher the content of water in concrete, the higher the concrete workability, as water makes the
concrete thinner.
❖ When water is added to concrete, it results in concrete hydration reaction, and hardening subsequently.
❖ Water should not contain salt in it if used for reinforced concrete, because it can cause the reinforcement
steel material to corrode.
❖ Water cement ratio refers to the right amount of water added into the concrete to make it workable.
❖ Too much water makes the concrete weak, too little makes it stuff.
AGGREGATES

❖ They play no part in chemical reaction but forms economical filler materials with good resistance to
volume changes (river sand and crushed stones)
❖ Aggregates improves the durability of concrete.
❖ They are divided into two categories namely fine aggregates and course aggregates.
❖ Fine aggregates - these are materials which pass through a 5mm sieve eg river sand.
WHY USE AGGREGATES

❖ Reduce the cost of the concrete

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 ❖ Reduce thermal cracking
❖ Reduces shrinkage
(iii) River sand
❖ Sources of river sand include river banks, and rain water deposits.
❖ Sea shore sand is not recommended for building use since it contains mineral salts.
Properties of river sand

❖ It should be free from dirty and silt.

❖ It should be free from organic matter
❖ It should be free from mineral salts
❖ Should be very clean.

Testing River sand for cleanliness

[a] Finger test/Thumb test – when rubbed between fingers the rivers sand should be free from silt.

[b] Decanting –

[c] Sedimentation test – a sample of rivers sand is put in a cylinder half filled with water.

❖ The mixture is shaken vigorously to have through mixture, river sand should be observed in layers
according to particle size.
❖ The purpose of river sand in concrete is to fill the spaces/voids created by concrete stones.
Course aggregates

❖ These are materials which cannot pass through a 5mm sieve eg crushed stones.
[iv] Crushed stones
❖ Should of different sizes so that spaces/voids created by bigger stone are filled by small stones.
GRADING OF AGGREGATES

❖ Aggregates should be graded which means small materials are mixed with large materials.
❖ ALL-IN AGGREGATE – this is a mixture of course and fine aggregates.
❖ Poorly graded aggregates contain particles of about the same size, while well graded aggregates contain
particles ranging from smallest size to the largest size.
BULKING OF SAND

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 ❖ This is the percentage increase of rivers sand when moist.
❖ A moisture content of 10% of dry weight will increase in volume up to 30%.
❖ Moist river sand tends to give inaccurate batch of concrete.
ADMIXTURES

❖ These are materials added to concrete to modify one or more properties of fresh or hardened concrete.
❖ Common admixtures are accelerators, retarders, water reducers and air entraining agents
CONCRETE TERMS

❖ Initial setting – the hardening process of concrete as soon as water is added to cement, initial setting is
first 30mins after water is added.
❖ The initial time refers to the time that cement turns into paste by mixing with water and begins to lose its
plasticity.
❖ In this time cement can be molded in any desired shape without losing its strength.
❖ This is the time at which the hardening of the cement starts and the only time available for mixing the paste and
placing it in position.
❖ Final Setting- the time that cement completely loses its plasticity by mixing with water and begins to have a
certain structural strength is known as the final setting time
❖ the final hardening process of concrete which takes about 10 hours.
SEGREGATION

❖ Segregation can be defined as the separation of the constituent materials of concrete.

❖ A good concrete is one in which all the ingredients are properly distributed to make a homogeneous
mixture.
❖ If a sample of concrete exhibits a tendency for separation of say, coarse aggregate from the rest of the
ingredients, then, that sample is said to be showing the tendency for segregation.

TYPES OF CONCRETE

[a] Plain/Mass or Ordinary Concrete.

❖ It is one of the most commonly used types of concrete. In this type of concrete, the essential constituents
are cement, sand and coarse aggregates designed, and mixed with a specified quantity of water.
❖ The ratio of essential constituents may be varied within wide limits.
❖ Plain concrete is mostly used in the construction of pavements and in buildings foundations, where there
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 is less demand for high tensile strength.
❖ It is also used in the construction of dams.
❖ Among the most important properties of ordinary concrete, the following may be mentioned.

[b] Reinforced Concrete

❖ It is also called RCC (Reinforced Cement Concrete).

❖ In this concrete type, steel in various forms is used as reinforcement to give very high tensile strength.

❖ In fact, it is because of the combined action of plain concrete (having high compressive strength) and
steel (having high tensile strength).

❖ The steel reinforcement is cast in the form of rods, bars, meshes, and all conceivable shapes.

❖ Every care is taken to ensure the maximum bond between the reinforcement and the concrete during the
setting and hardening process.

❖ Thus, the resulting material (RCC) is capable of bearing all types of stress in any type of construction.

❖ RCC is the most important concrete type.

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[c] Prestressed Concrete:
❖ It is a special type of reinforced concrete in which the reinforcement bars are tensioned before being
embedded in the concrete.

❖ Such tensioned wires are held firm at each end while the concrete mix is placed.

❖ The result is that when the concrete sets and hardens, the whole concrete members, so the cast is put
into compression.

Some of its advantages are the following.

1. The potential compressive strength of concrete gets considerably increased.

2. The risk of development of tension cracks in the lower sections of beams is considerably reduced.

3. The resistance to shear is greatly reduced. This eliminates the necessity of stirrups to a great extent.

4. Lighter members can be used than the un-tensioned (normal) reinforced-concrete.

5. The Prestressed concrete is greatly favored in the construction of;

● Bridges.
● Long span Roofs.
● Most structures with the heavy dead load.

[d] Precast Concrete:

❖ This term refers to numerous types of concrete shapes that are cast into molds either in a factory or at the
site.

❖ However, they are not used in construction until they completely set and hardened in a controlled
condition.

❖ Some of the examples of Precast Concrete are; precast poles, fence posts, concrete lintels, staircase
units, concrete blocks, and cast stones, etc.

❖ These structural and decorative members are prepared in a well-equipped place where all arrangements
are made for;

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1. Perfect proportioning of the ingredients of concrete.

2. Thorough mixing of the cement, aggregates, and water to obtain the mix of the desired design and
consistency.

3. Careful handling during transport and placement in the perfect design molds.

4. Perfect curing, under the controlled conditions of temperature and humidity. Even steam curing is used to
obtain precast products having high strength in much less time.

[e] Ready Mix Concrete.

❖ The concrete that mix is batched in a central mix plant is called ready-mix concrete.
❖ This concrete type is prepared in concrete plants and or transported by the help of truck mounted transit
mixtures.
❖ Once they are reached at the site then, there is no further treatment necessary.
❖ The plant location will be at an adjustable location so that the concrete can be supplied before the setting
time ca be started.

[f] Pumped Concrete.

❖ Pumped concrete is used for high rise buildings where concrete conveyance other than the pump is not
easy task.

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❖ They are made workable enough for an easy conveyance.

❖ Fines material are used for a better supply.

❖ The more, the finer material, the easy will be the discharge.

❖ The pump used for conveyance purposes is made from rigid or flexible materials to discharge the
concrete easily.

BATCHING/GUAGING OF CONCRETE

❖ The measurement of materials for making concrete is known as batching/ gauging.

❖ There are two methods of batching: ( i ) Volume batching ( ii ) Weigh batching

[i] Volume batching

❖ Volume batching is not a good method for proportioning the material because of the difficulty it offers
to measure granular material in terms of volume.

❖ Volume of moist sand in a loose condition weighs much less than the same volume of dry compacted
sand.

❖ The amount of solid granular material in a cubic meter is an indefinite quantity.

❖ Because of this, for quality concrete material have to be measured by weight only.

❖ However, for unimportant concrete or for any small job, concrete may be batched by volume.

❖ Cement is always measured by weight. It is never measured in volume.

❖ Generally, for each batch mix, one bag of cement is used.

❖ The volume of one bag of cement is 0.034 m3

❖ Gauge boxes are used for measuring the fine and coarse aggregates.

❖ The volume of the box is made equal to the volume of one bag of cement.

❖ The gauge boxes are made comparatively deeper with narrow surface rather than shallow with wider
surface to facilitate easy estimation of top level.

❖ Gauge boxes are generally called forms, they can be made of timber or steel plates.

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 Figure 1 Gauge box
Water is measured either in kg. or liters as may be convenient. In this case, the two units are same, as the
density of water is one kg. per litre..

[ii] Weight Batching:

❖ Strictly speaking, weight batching is the correct method of measuring the materials.

❖ For important concrete, weighing batching system should be adopted.

❖ Use of weight system in batching, facilitates accuracy, flexibility and simplicity

❖ Different types of weigh batchers are available, The particular type to be used, depends upon the nature
of the job.

❖ Large weight batching plants have automatic weighing equipment.

❖ The use of this automatic equipment for batching is one of sophistication and requires qualified and
experienced engineers.

❖ This type of plant is particularly only suitable for the production of ready-mixed concrete in which very
frequent changes in mix proportion have to be made to meet the varying requirements of different
customers.

❖ In small jobs, cement is often not weighed; it is added in bags assuming the weight of the bag as 50 kg.

❖ In reality, though the cement bag is made of 50 kg. at the factory, due to transportation, handling at a
number of places, it loses some cement, particularly, when jute bags are used.

❖ In fact, the weight of a cement bag at the site is considerably less. Sometimes, the loss of weight
becomes more than 5 kg.
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 ❖ This is one of the sources of error in volume batching and also in weigh batching, when the cement is
not actually weighed as designed is maintained.

FACTORS AFFECTING STRENGTH OF CONCRETE

1.Water-Cement ratio - It is water cement ratio that basically governs the property of strength.

❖ Lesser the water cement ratio, greater will be strength

2. Type of cementing material – It affects the hydration process and therefore strength of concrete

3. Amount of cementing material - It is the paste that holds or binds all the ingredients. Thus greater amount
of cementing material greater will be strength.

4. Type of aggregate - Rough and angular aggregates are preferable as they provide greater bonding.

5. Air content – The amount of air improves the concrete resistance on freezing and thawing. But in excess
lead to failure

6. Admixtures - Chemical admixtures like plasticizers reduce the water cement ratio and increase the strength
of concrete at same water cement ratio.

❖ Once the mixing was completed the mixture is said to be fresh concrete which is in plastic state and can
be moulded in any forms whereas the hardened concrete is the one which is fully cured.

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CONCRETE MIXES

❖ Concrete used for foundation footing, floors is called mass concrete and the ratio is 1:3:6
❖ 1 stands for cement
❖ 3 stands for river sand
❖ 6 stands for crushed stones
❖ Concrete can be made strong by adding reinforcements of deformed bars, it is called reinforced
concrete.
❖ The ratio is 1:2:4
❖ This type of concrete is used when casting pillars, columns, balcony, lintels etc.

Mixing of concrete

❖ Thorough mixing of the materials is essential for the production of uniform concrete.
❖ The mixing should ensure that the mass becomes homogeneous, uniform in colour and consistency.
❖ There are two methods adopted for mixing concrete(i) Hand mixing (ii) Machine mixing
FACTORS WHICH AFFECT THE CHOICE OF MIXING METHOD

❖ Location of the site.

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❖ Availability of mixing plant.
❖ The volume of concrete to be mixed.
❖ Presence of labour force.
❖ Efficiency of machines.
❖ HAND MIXING/MANUAL METHOD
❖ Hand mixing is practiced for small scale unimportant concrete works.
❖ The mixing cannot be thorough and efficient
❖ Hand mixing should be done over an impervious concrete or brick floor of sufficiently large size to take
one bag of cement.
❖ Spread out the measured quantity of coarse aggregate and fine aggregate in alternate layers.
❖ Pour the cement on the top of it, and mix them dry by shovel, turning the mixture over and over again
until uniformity of colour is achieved. [three times dry 3 times wet]
❖ Water is taken in a water-can fitted with a rose-head and sprinkled over the mixture and simultaneously
turned over.
❖ This operation is continued till such time a good uniform; homogeneous concrete is obtained.
❖ It is of particular importance to see that the water is not poured but it is only sprinkled.
❖ Water in small quantity should be added towards the end of the mixing to get the just required
consistency.
Machine Mixing/Mechanical Mixing

❖ Mixing of concrete is almost invariably carried out by machine, for reinforced concrete work and for
medium or large scale mass concrete work.
❖ Machine mixing is not only efficient, but also economical, when the quantity of concrete to be produced
is large.
❖ Many types of mixers are available for mixing concrete.
❖ They can be classified as batch-mixers and continuous mixers.
❖ Batch mixers produce concrete, batch by batch with time interval, whereas continuous mixers produce
concrete continuously without stoppage till the concrete is enough.
❖ In this, materials are fed continuously and are continuously mixed and continuously discharged.
❖ This type of mixers is used in large works such as dams.
❖ In normal concrete work, it is the batch mixers that are used.
❖ Batch mixer may be of pan type or drum type.

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 ❖ The drum type may be further classified as tilting, non-tilting, reversing or forced action type.
❖ The shape of the drum, the angle and size of blades, the angle at which the drum is held, affect the
efficiency of mixer.
❖ It is seen that tilting drum to some extent is more efficient than non-tilting drum.
❖ In non-tilting drum for discharging concrete, a chute is introduced into the drum by operating a lever.

Figure 2 drum type mixer Figure 3 Pan type mixer

ADVANTAGES OF MANUAL MIXING

❖ Can be efficiently used for small works which do not require mechanical means.
❖ Concrete works can be carried out in confined places where machines cannot be used.
DISADVANTAGES

❖ It is difficult to obtain a through mix if workers a lazy.

❖ Can be a laborious task if large quantity of concrete is to be mixed.
❖ Difficult to maintain consistency/uniformity of concrete mix.

ADVANTAGES OF MECHANICAL MIXING

❖ Machine mixing is not only efficient, but also economical, when the quantity of concrete to be produced
is large
❖ Faster method of mixing concrete.
❖ Requires few workers force to mix concrete.

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 ❖ Can be used to mix large volumes of concrete.
DISADVANTAGES

❖ Requires skilled manpower to operate.

❖ Need for fuel to start the engine which may be costly if large volume of concrete is being mixed.
❖ Blades can get rust if they are not thoroughly cleaned after a day’s work.
TRANSPORTING OF CONCRETE

❖ Concrete can be transported by variety of methods and equipment.

❖ The precaution to be taken while transporting concrete is that the homogeneity obtained at the time of
mixing should be maintained while being transported to the final place of deposition.
❖ FACTORS AFFECTING TRANSPORTATION METHOD
❖ Cost of transporting
❖ Type of concrete work.
❖ Distance where the concrete is to be placed.
❖ The place where the concrete is to be placed.
❖ The volume of concrete to be transported.
METHODS OF TRANSPORTING CONCRETE

FRESH CONCRETE

❖ Fresh concrete is that stage of concrete in which concrete can be moulded in its plastic state.
❖ This is also called Green Concrete.
❖ Another term used to describe the state of fresh concrete is consistence, which is the ease with which
concrete will flow.
❖ It is the concrete phase from time of mixing to end of time concrete surface finished in its final location
in the structure
❖ For fresh concrete to be acceptable, it should:
1. Be easily mixed and transported.
2. Be uniform throughout a given batch and between batches.
3. Be of a consistency so that it can fill completely the forms for which it was
designed.
4. Have the ability to be compacted without excessive loss of energy.
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 5. Not segregate during placing and consolidation.
6. Have good finishing characteristics

PROPERTIES OF FRESH CONCRETE

I Good workability.

❖ This is defined as the ease with which concrete can be compacted fully without segregation and
bleeding..
❖ The workability depends upon the quantity of water, grading, shape and the percentage of the aggregates
present in the concrete.
Workability of concrete is measured by;

● The slump observed when the frustum of the standard cone filled with concrete is lifted and removed.
● The compacted factor determined after allowing the concrete to fall through the compaction testing
machine.
● The time taken in seconds for the shape of the concrete to change from cone to cylinder when tested in
Vee-Bee consistometer.

2. Resist Segregation.

❖ Segregation is a situation in which the coarse particles separate from the green concrete.
❖ It occurs due to lack of sufficient quantity of finer particles in the concrete or due to throwing of the
concrete from greater heights at the time of placing the concrete
❖ . Because of segregation, the cohesiveness of the concrete is lost and honey combing results.
❖ Segregation results in the loss of strength of hardened concrete.
❖ Therefore, care should be taken to avoid segregation in fresh concrete.
3.Bleeding.

❖ This is the appearance of water along with cement particles on the surface of the freshly laid concrete.

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 ❖ It happens when there is excessive quantity of water in the mix or due to excessive compaction.
❖ Bleeding can be avoided by suitably controlling the quantity of water in the concrete and by using finer
grading of aggregates.

TESTS ON CONCRETE

Workability of Concrete

❖ The capability of being handled and flows into formwork or around any reinforcement, with
assistance of compacting equipment.
❖ The higher workability concretes are easier to place and handle but obtaining higher workability by
increasing water content decreases strength and durability
❖ . Workability is often referred to as the ease with which a concrete can be transported, placed and
consolidated without excessive bleeding or segregation.
❖ Consistence/Uniformity is sometimes taken to mean the degree of wetness; within limits, wet
concretes are more workable than dry concrete, but concrete of same consistence may vary in
workability.
❖ Because the strength of concrete is adversely and significantly affected by the presence of voids in
the compacted mass, it is vital to achieve a maximum possible density.
❖ This requires sufficient workability for virtually full compaction to be possible using a reasonable
amount of work under the given conditions.
❖ Presence of voids in concrete reduces the density and greatly reduces the strength.
❖ To determine the consistency in workability four tests are followed;
Slump test
Compacting factor test
Vee Bee test and
Flow table test

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[a] SLUMP TEST

❖ This test is performed to check the consistency of freshly made concrete

❖ . The slump test is done to make sure a concrete mix is workable.
❖ The measured slump must be within a set range, or tolerance, from the target slump
❖ . Workability of concrete is mainly affected by consistency i.e. wetter mixes will be more workable
than drier mixes, but concrete of the same consistency may vary in workability.
❖ It can also be defined as the relative plasticity of freshly mixed concrete as indicative of its
workability.

❖ Tools and apparatus used for slump test (equipment):

1. Standard slump cone
2. Bullet-nosed rod
3. Rule
4. Slump plate
5. Straight edge
❖ Procedure of slump test for concrete: 1. Clean the cone. Dampen with water and place on the slump
plate. The slump plate should be clean, firm, level and non-absorbent. Collect a sample of concrete to
perform the slum test. 2. Stand firmly on the foot pieces and fill 1/3 the volume of the cone with the
sample. Compact the concrete by 'rodding' 25 times. Rodding means to push a steel rod in and out of the
concrete to compact it into the cylinder, or slump cone. Always rod in a definite pattern, working from
outside into the middle. 3. Now fill to 2/3 and again rod 25 times, just into the top of the first layer. 4.
Fill to overflowing, rodding again this time just into the top of the second layer. Top up the cone till it
overflows. 5. Level off the surface with the steel rod using a rolling action. Clean any concrete from
around the base and top of the cone, push down on the handles and step off the foot pieces. 6. Carefully
lift the cone straight up making sure not to move the sample. 7. Turn the cone upside down and place the
rod across the up-turned cone. 8. Take several measurements and report the average distance to the
top of the sample. If the sample fails by being outside the tolerance (ie the slump is too high or too
low), another must be taken. If this also fails the remainder of the batch should be rejected.

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Compacting factor test Compacting factor of fresh concrete is done to determine the workability of
fresh concrete by compacting factor test as per IS: 1199 – 1959. The apparatus used is Compacting
factor apparatus.

Procedure The sample of concrete is placed in the upper hopper up to the brim. The trap-door is
opened so that the concrete falls into the lower hopper. The trap-door of the lower hopper is opened
and the concrete is allowed to fall into the cylinder. The excess concrete remaining above the top level
of the cylinder is then cut off with the help of plane blades The concrete in the cylinder is weighed.
This is known as weight of partially compacted concrete. The cylinder is filled with a fresh sample of
concrete and vibrated to obtain full compaction. The concrete in the cylinder is weighed again. This
weight is known as the weight of fully compacted concrete.

Compacting factor = (Weight of partially compacted concrete)/(Weight of fully compacted concrete)

= (W1-W2 / W2-W)

NOTE: The test is sufficiently sensitive to enable difference in work ability arising from the initial
process in the hydration of cement to be measured. Each test, there for should be carried out at a
constant time interval after the mixing is completed, if strictly comparable results are to be obtained.
Convenient time for releasing the concrete from the upper hopper has been found to be two minutes
after the completion of mixing.

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Vee Bee test To determine the workability of fresh concrete by using a Vee-Bee consistometer as per
IS: 1199 – 1959. The apparatus used is Vee-Bee consistometer.

Procedure A conventional slump test is performed, placing the slump cone inside the cylindrical part
of the consistometer. The glass disc attached to the swivel arm is turned and placed on the top of the
concrete in the pot. The electrical vibrator is switched on and a stop-watch is started, simultaneously.
Vibration is continued till the conical shape of the concrete disappears and the concrete assumes a
cylindrical shape.

When the concrete fully assumes a cylindrical shape, the stop-watch is switched off immediately. The
time is noted. The consistency of the concrete should be expressed in VB-degrees, which is equal to

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the time in seconds recorded above.

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