NAME: Y V R A VISWANADH

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Question : Write a short notes on "Rheological Behaviour of Concrete".

Rheology:

 Rheology is the study of flow of matter which is primarily in a liquid state, but it also
deals with plastic flow rather than deforming elastically after the application of force.
 To understand Rheology, it is necessary to understand few concepts like
 Elasticity
 Plasticity
 Viscosity of fluids and
 Measurement of flow characteristics of concrete (Workability)
 Elasticity :
Elasticity is the property of the material that has a tendency to return to its original
position / shape after the removal of applied external force.
 Plasticity :
Plasticity is the property of the material which will deform permanently after
application sufficient of stress.
 Coming back to the concept of Rheology it deals with the plastic flow rather than
showing elastic deformations for the applied force.
 Viscosity :
Viscosity of fluids take major part in explaining the behaviour of fluids under the
application of stress.
 Describing the term in a formal manner, viscosity of a fluid is a measure of its
resistance to gradual deformation by shear stress.
 For example, honey has a lager viscosity compared to water and that is the
reason why honey does not flow as fast as water.
 Depending upon their viscosity behaviour as a function of shear stress, shear strain
rate, deformation history etc., the fluids are classified into
Newtonian and Non- Newtonian fluids.
 Newtonian Fluids :
The Newtonian fluids are named after Sir Isaac Newton, who described the flow of
fluids with a simple linear relation between shear stress and shear strain rate.

 The relation is called Newton's law of Viscosity.

 All the fluids which obeys Newton's law are called Newtonian fluids and the other
fluids which does not obey are called Non- Newtonian fluids.
 However, Bingham Plastics are Fluids that require minimum stress to be applied
before they flow.
 But, once if the flow starts, they behave like Newtonian fluids. Example for this kind
of behaviour would be Toothpastes.
 Non- Newtonian Fluids :
But, in reality most of the fluids are non- Newtonian; which means that their
viscosity is dependent on shear strain.
Why all the above concepts are needed to study Rheology of concrete?

 Rheology generally accounts for the behaviour of non-Newtonian fluids.

 To understand the concept better, it is better to explain with a simple tabular form

Elasticity
Describes materials that return to their
Solid Mechanics rest shape after applied stresses are
The study of the removed.
physics of Plasticity
continuous Describes materials
Continuum materials with a that permanently
mechanics defined rest shape. deform after a Rheology
The study of sufficient applied The study of
the physics of stress. materials with both
continuous Fluid Mechanics Non- Newtonian solid and fluid
materials The study of the fluids do not undergo characteristics.
physics of strain rates
continuous proportional to the
materials which applied shear stress.
deform when
subjected to a Newtonian Fluids undergo strain rates
force. proportional to the applied shear stress.

 Importance of Rheology in concrete:

When the concrete is mixed, placed and compacted, it essentially behaves as a fluid ,
semi-solid to be specific, because of which some empirical methods are followed to
measure its fluidity property.
 Workability of concrete:
 The ease with which concrete can be mixed, placed, consolidated , and
finished to a homogenous condition is called workability of concrete.
Workability of concrete is related to flow properties.
 Unless we measure the phenomenon we cannot understand the properties of
workability.
 Abram had suggested to determine the "relative consistency" term calculated
by measuring the distance fresh concrete slumped after being moulded in
cylinder - Slump Test.
 There are many Empirical tests for the measurement of workability of
concrete like Slump test, K- Slump test, Compaction factor test, Flow table
test, Kelly ball test and Vee -Bee Consistometer test.
 However, widely used test is Slump test. But, it is difficult to compare results
of one test with the other.
 Tattersall, a scientist who had contributed much for concrete Rheology,
splits up the workability tests as single-point and multi-point tests based on
curve relating shear stress and shear rate.
 According to him, single point tests are incapable of determining the fresh
concrete parameters. Multiple point tests are needed to describe the different
aspects of workability. This is because, 2 different concrete mixtures of same
slump value may flow differently and have different workability. This is due
to the complexity of the flow of concrete at different points.
 Yield stress and Plastic Viscosity are two important parameters which
describe the properties of concrete flow.
 Rheological measurements of concrete indicate that it is reasonable to
approximates the concrete flow behaviour using a Bingham model.
 This is the reason why, it is essential to know the basic concepts of
Newtonian and Non- Newtonian fluids.

 Because of these drawbacks of empirical methods, it became

necessary for a scientific approach.
 There are several methods, but Rheological techniques are most
commonly and widely used methods.
 Concrete Rheology:
 Concrete Rheology is the science that deals with the fresh properties of
concrete and evaluating them by using various available models or
constitutive equations.
 To determine Bingham parameters, there are 2 possibilities.
 The Fresh concrete is sheared at high rate before the Rheological test. Then,
the shear rate is decreased gradually and the stress is measured. The slope of
Shear stress - Shear strain rate will give the plastic viscosity.
 The stress applied to the material is increased slowly and the shear rate is
measured. When the stress is high enough the concrete will start flowing. The
point at which the concrete flows is yield stress and the slope of curve is
plastic viscosity.

 Rheometers:
 To measure the liquid, suspension or slurry in response to applied forces is
measuring by a device called Rheometer.
 Tattersall for the first time carried out systematic investigations in the field in
1973 and he suggested the use of a "Two Point test".
 All the rheometers measure the resistance to flow of concrete at varying shear
rate conditions.
  Rheometers for concrete fall into 3 configurations: Coaxial cylinders, parallel

plate and impeller type.

 There are several types of Rheometers:

Two - point test
BML
BTRHEOM
CEMAGREF - IMG
IBB
 Mixes can be differentiated based on the values of rheological parameters.
 Measuring the workability of fresh concrete based rheological properties is a more
fundamental scientific approach to offset the limitations of empirical tests.