1.

INTRODUCTION
It is well known that shape of aggregate plays very important role in Shaping the properties of concrete. Yet very little attention is given in controlling the shape characteristics to optimize the properties of concrete. The Indian standard codes do not even-mention the limits for Elongation and Flakiness. Aggregates constitute 90 to 95 % volume of concrete and shape of aggregates influence many a properties of fresh and hardened concrete. Well shaped aggregates have following advantages:1) Better shape reduces the water demand for a given mix, hence decides the cement consumption for a given workability. 2) It improves the compactability and cohesion characteristics of green concrete. 3) It also reduces the mortar content of concrete for making concrete mixes pumpable. 4) It reduces segregation and bleeding characteristics of green concrete. 5) It improves physical characteristics of hardened concrete including compressive strength, flexural strength, abrasion and impact resistance of concrete. 6) It also reduces the permeability and improves the durability of concrete.

2. SPECIFICATIONS
In India, the position of provisions in respect of specifications for Flakiness & Elongation Indices is as under:a) Bureau of Indian Standards publication IS-383 deals with Specifications for Coarse & Fine Aggregates from Natural sources for Concrete. This does not specify Flakiness Index & Elongation Index i.e. the properties in respect of shape of aggregate directly. However, it gives references of IS 2386 (Part I) for the same. b) Similarly IS-1343: Code of practice for Pre-stressed Specification also refers to IS383 for Aggregates. c) Indian Roads Congress publication IRC-21: Standard Specifications and Code of Practice for Road Bridges refers to the same IS-383 for aggregates. This code also mentions that coarse aggregate shall not contain pieces of disintegrated stones, soft, flaky, elongated particles etc. But, the limits for the same are not mentioned therein. d) MORT&H and NPC specifications limit Flakiness index and Elongation index to 15% each. This paper deals with importance of shape of particles in respect of fine and coarse aggregates and the need to develop standard specifications in our codes and also parameters for mix design.

3. EFFECT OF PARTICLE SHAPE

Particle shape plays equally important role in fine aggregate as much as in coarse aggregate. Because of environmental reasons as well as economic reasons, natural sand is being replaced by crushed stone aggregate or manufactured sand. While it is possible to measure shape characteristics of coarse aggregate, it is practically impossible to measure shape characteristics of fine aggregate. There are no provisions to differentiate shaped manufactured sand from crushed stone grit other than visual inspection and personal judgment. This results in malpractice of mixing crushed sand with dust powder of jaw crushers. Through a lot development has taken place in equipment for making shaped aggregates including cone crushes and VSI. The high initial cost of such equipment is preventing its popular use in construction. Shaped aggregates are available at premium over regular aggregates. However proper shape of aggregate would result in following advantages:1) It would help in reducing cement content of concrete. 2) It would bring down the cost of admixture by bringing down the dosage levels of superplasticisers. Even though the unit cost of shaped aggregates may be higher compared to those of unshaped aggregates, it may be economical to use them in view of above savings. The builder and contracting community cannot quantify the above savings and hence use of shaped aggregates is limited to projects where they are made mandatory in contract specifications. There is need for generating awareness on benefits of controlling flakiness and elongation of aggregates. While mix design methods differentiate between crushed and uncrushed aggregates in calculation of water demand, correction factors based on Elongation and Flakiness index have not been developed. This paper illustrates some correction factors for shape of aggregates in calculation of water demand This will help builders and

contractors to quantify the savings in cement and admixture and thus help them in deciding on investing in shaped aggregates. Need for introducing shape of aggregate as parameter for calculating water demand It is well known that the shape of aggregate influences the specific surface of concrete. The specific surface governs the water demand of concrete and water demand in turn determines the cement content. All the existing mix design methods have an inherent limitation of not having particle shape as an input parameter. Review of Mix design Methods The ACI Method This method considers size of aggregate and slump as input parameters for calculation of water demand a) This method does not differentiate between flaky / elongated and rounded (uncrushed) coarse aggregate for calculation of water demand. b) This method does not distinguish between crushed sand and natural sand for calculation of water demand. The DOE Method This method takes in to account the slump, size of aggregate and type of aggregate (crushed/uncrushed) for water demand calculation. While it specifies different water demands for crushed and uncrushed aggregate (coarse as well as fine aggregate), it does not give credit to their shape in terms of flakiness and elongation. The IS Method This method considers workability (compaction factor) and maximum size of coarse aggregate as parameters for calculation of water demand. While it does give a correction factor of -15Kg/m3 for rounded coarse aggregate, it does not classify separately crushed and natural fine aggregates. Neither does it take in to account the flakiness sand elongation of aggregates for the calculation of water demand. RRL method This method takes in to account the gradation of fine aggregates (zones), size, type of coarse aggregate (crushed, rounded, irregular gravel) and workability for calculation of aggregate to cement ratio. This method does not treat natural fine aggregate and crushed fine aggregates differently. Thus we find that:

1. All the above methods except the DOE method, do not give consideration to
different permutations of natural and crushed, coarse and fine aggregates.

2. None of the above methods give credit to flakiness of the coarse and fine
aggregates.

Effect of shape of coarse aggregate on water demand Mix designs done at our laboratory indicate following influence of flakiness / elongation on the water demand If slump is kept as a constant Combined (flakiness + elongation ) Index 0 to 10 % 10 to 20 % 20 to 30% 30 to 40% Water Demand + 0 Kg /m3 + 5 Kg/m3 + 10 Kg/m3 + 20 Kg/m3

Effect of shape of fine aggregate on water demand Natural sand Crushed sand (Shaped) Stone dust Economics of shape As evident from the above data, the shape of aggregate affects the cement consumption for a given workability. Most of the manufacturers of aggregates with jaw crushers do not change their blades as often as required, and also do not have intermediate crushing arrangement (primary and secondary crushing) for stepwise size reduction. This results in high flakiness index of aggregates especially smaller (10mm and below). Since most of the contract specifications do not specify limits for flakiness and elongation, the contractors have a tendency to minimize their raw material costs. The choice is often made in favour of flaky materials, which have the lowest costs. This is accentuated by tendency by the client / contractor to bargain for price, regardless of their shape characteristics. With advent of technologies like cone crushing and Vertical Shaft Impactors, the shape of aggregates can be controlled. The client /contractor is often not prepared to pay cost of producing shaped aggregates. This is because there is no method for estimating the impact of flakiness on the cement consumption and on the overall cost of concrete. In city like Pune following characteristic was observed: Size of aggregate (msa) 40 mm 25 mm 20 mm 12.5 mm and below Average flakiness 0 to 10% 10 to 15% 15 to 30% more than 40 % + 0 Kg / m3 + 15 Kg/ m3 + 30 Kg/ m3

Thus we find that the problem of flakiness is most acute in smaller size aggregates. Because of higher flakiness, there is increasing trend to eliminate 10mm aggregate and use gap graded aggregates. Use of oversize aggregates often results in problems like segregation and honeycombing. The user is often not aware that he is increasing his cost of raw materials as 20 mm aggregate is more expensive than 10 mm down aggregate.

Cost of aggregates in the city was as follows: Cost of regular aggregates Rs. 10 per cft Rs. 11 per cft Rs. 8 per cft VSI produced aggregates Rs. 12 per cft Rs. 11 per cft

Size of aggregate 40 mm 20 mm 10 mm

Comparison of cost of concrete using regular aggregates and shaped aggregates a) Cost of concrete with regular aggregates

Cost of concrete per m3 with regular aggregates works out as : Wt per m3 Cement Sand 10 mm 20 mm Total Cost 340 815 407 815 Kg Kg Kg Kg Cost per kg Cost per (Rs.) Rs. 2.6 884 Rs. 0.3 245 Rs. 0.2 81 Rs. 0.3 245 1455 m3

b) Cost of concrete with shaped Aggregates As indicated above, a reduction in flakiness of 15% can reduce cement consumption by 30 Kg/ m3 Wt per m3 Cement Sand 10mm 20mm Total Cost 310 823 411 823 kg kg kg kg Cost per kg Rs. Rs. Rs. Rs. 2.6 0.3 0.28 0.32 Cost per (Rs.) 806 247 115 263 1431 m3

Thus we find that although unit cost of shaped aggregates is more than that of flaky aggregates, concrete with shaped aggregates works out more economical. However the above economics can change based on the unit cost of cement and difference between the unit rates of shaped and regular aggregates.

Calculation of flakiness index - Need for a simpler method The old method of calculation of flakiness or elongation was based on weight of flaky material and total weight of sample taken. Although this method was simple it had following drawbacks:-

1. Since larger size particles would have more weight, flakiness in larger sieve
sizes had greater impact on flakiness index than those in smaller sieve sizes.

2. Lower sieve sizes had less weight and more number of particles. They had
less influence on the flakiness index. Considering the above limitation, the method of calculating the flakiness index was changed from using weight of flaky material to the number of flaky particles. The calculation of flakiness index as per new amendment is as follows: Sieve Size Retained No of weight on pieces sieve N w 31.5- 25 26 1 25- 20 316 22 140 83 28 0 Weight of No of X= flaky flaky n/N material particles N 0 0 0 90 256 56 18 0 8 38 16 7 0 0.36 0.27 .19 0.25 0 Y= w/W XY

.01 .16 0.59 .20 .04 0

0 .058 .16 .038 .010 0

20-16 1178 16-12.5 394 12.5- 10 80 10-6.3 W= 0 1994 gms

The calculation is done on a sample of 2 kg of coarse 20 mm down aggregate sample The flakiness index is calculated as the weighted average of proportion of no of flaky particles on each sieve and weight retained on that sieve . Flakiness index as per amendment 26.6 % The flakiness index calculated by the amendment is higher than that by old method. The amendment seems to give logical and more accurate representation of flakiness however it specifies that a minimum of 200 pieces should be retained on each sieve fraction for calculation. This is makes the flakiness test extremely laborious and difficult to carry out. For example in the above case if 200 pieces are to be made available on each sieve say 31.5 25, we will have to increase the sample size of the test by 200 times. It means that 400 kg of material has to be sieved to conduct the above test. This is neither practical nor logical. There is a need to simplify the method of determining flakiness, which can be implemented at laboratory as well as on field.

Need for method to differentiate crushed sand from crushed stone powder Because of environmental reasons and dwindling sources of natural sand, crushed sand is becoming popular in many parts of the country. The natural sand is not only inconsistent in terms of gradation but high silt contents affect durability and strength of concrete. Crushed sand is basically crushed stone powder of required gradation processed through a vertical shaft impactor or any such equipment to remove flakes and irregularities in shape and get cubical equi-dimensional particles. Crushed stone powder if used without such processing would have high proportion of flaky material. This would drastically increase the specific surface and thus increase the water demand. Higher water demand would increase the water cement ratio, reducing the strength and durability of concrete. Crushed sand can be differentiated from unprocessed stone powder by observing the shape of particles under a simple microscope. How ever there exists no quantitative method of differentiating crushed sand from stone dust. The cost of crushed sand and stone powder are as follows:Crushed sand Stone dust Rs. 13 per cft Rs. 6 per cft

With absence of any method of distinguishing the two, there is a distinct possibility of adulteration of crushed sand with stone powder or even supply of grit stone dust mixture in place of crushed sand. There exists no provision in IS 383 to prevent use of stone dust powder as fine aggregate. Also in case of crushed sand there is a need to check the quality of its processing as different technologies are available. This makes the choice a difficult proposition for the contractor with price becoming the only criteria for decision making. Particle shape is directly linked to specific surface of the aggregates. Comparison of specific surface of particles retained on different sieves would be a good indicator of shape. A method needs to be developed for checking the specific surface of fines in the fine aggregate with certain limiting values as in case of cement and flyash. This would make classification possible and help the contracting community in decision making.
4. CONCLUSIONS

1. The construction industry would do well in initiating development of proper standards for shape of aggregate. The IS 383 should specify the limits of elongation and flakiness of coarse aggregates. 2. Methods of mix design need to incorporate correction factors relating water demand with elongation and flakiness of aggregates. 3. Method of finding flakiness/elongation index needs to be simplified for quicker verification. 4. A quantitative method of measuring shape characteristics of fine aggregates needs to be developed to differentiate crushed sand from crushed stone aggregate. It would enable us to classify crushed sand of different qualities based on shape characteristics

S.No. 45

Shape of Aggregates The missing link in concrete

Ujwal Kunte, Managing Director Durocrete Engineering Services Pvt. Ltd. Pune, India. www.Durocrete.com

He graduated in civil engineering from Pune University in 1991. He worked with Afcons as trainee designs engineer, before doing MBA from Pune University. He started Concrete Mix Design & Material Testing laboratory Durocrete in 1995. Durocrete specializes in giving total quality assurance solutions including quality audits in construction. They are also involved in R & D activity in concrete. D. R. Gharpure, Executive Vice President Ameya Developers Pvt. Ltd., Pune, India

He graduated from Pune University in 1969. He has wide experience in the field of civil engineering as well as in the office. He obtained on-job-training in Japan through International Scholarship. He has presented technical papers in number National and International seminars. He holds memberships of various technical institutions.