CE 0931522:

Construction Methods

Concrete Equipment

Review
• Ingredients
• Aggregate (fine to coarse)
• Cement
• Water

• General Operations
• Batching
• Mixing
• Transporting
• Placing
• Consolidating
• Finishing
• Curing
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Aqq3a0GTjY&feature=related
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zhgh1buqUFM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tjPsvSmlLtQ&NR=1&feature=fvwp

1
 Batching
• The process of proportioning the ingredients of the
concrete mix

• Batching Plants
• Manual ‐ small jobs (< 500 cy or approx. 20 cy/hr)
• Semiautomatic ‐ automated termination of
charging/discharging of batchers
• Fully Automatic ‐ preprogrammed quantities are run
automatically

2
Mobile
batch
plant

Example at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=coZODyW6dS8&feature=related

Batching

3
 Mixing

• Addition of water to the

other concrete mix
ingredients using agitation
device. Drum mixing is most
prevalent.

• Mixing Operations
• Job‐batched
• Central‐batched

Transporting
• Ready‐Mixed Concrete: proportioned in a remote
central location and transported to the purchaser
after mixing either at the plant or en route
• Central‐mixed
• Shrink‐mixed
• Truck‐mixed (or transit‐mixed)

4
 Transporting

• Mixer Trucks
• 6 to 15 cu yd capacities
• Mixing accomplished in 70‐100
revolutions
• ASTM C94 allows 1.5 hours from
addition of water to placement
or 300 drum revolutions,
whichever comes first.
• Additional water (with
limitations) or plasticizer added
at site to lessen stiffness

Placing Concrete
• Placing Equipment
• Buckets or hoppers (0.5 –4 cu yd)
• Buggies (10‐30 cu ft capacities; up to 15 mph travel
speeds)
• Chutes and drop pipes
• Belt conveyors
• Pumps (up to 200 cy/hr; up to 170 ft vertical or 150
horizontal for truck mounted)
• piston pumps
• pneumatic pumps
• squeeze pressure pumps

5
Placing Concrete

Placing Concrete

6
Placing Concrete

Placing Concrete

7
 Consolidation

• Mechanical action to
remove trapped air
voids

• Vibrating Methods
• Internal vibrators
• Surface vibrators
• Form vibrators

Finishing
• Shaping the surface to the desired elevation and
texture
• screeding: striking off at desired elevation
• floating: smoothing and compacting the surface while
embedding the coarse aggregate
• troweling: imparting a smooth surface
• brooming: dragging a broom across the surface to
provide skid‐resistant textured surface

8
Finishing

Finishing

Laser screed

9
 Finishing

Finishing

10
Finishing

• Slip‐form Pavers: used

to distribute, vibrate,
screed, and finish
concrete
• Pavements
• Curbs and gutters
• Slump less than 1 inch

Finishing

11
Finishing

Finishing

12
 Curing
• Maintaining moisture to support completion of
hydration

• Preferred temperatures 65‐85°

• Curing Methods
• Wet burlap covering
• Ponding water on the surface
• Spray application of curing compound

Curin
g
Blanket for
Ponding
cold
on
weather
house
concrete
slab
curing

Wettin Application
g of curing
burlap agent
bags

13
 Curing

Curing and
Texturing
Machine

Productivity
• Regardless of the placement method, try to order
enough trucks to maintain a smooth placement
rate.

• Pump productivity: estimated from manufacturer’s

technical literature

14
 Productivity

Bucket productivity:

bucket volumeoperational efficiency

Productivity =
cycle time

Productivity

Buggy productivity:

buggy volumeoperational efficiency

Productivity =
cycle time
Cycle time = load time + travel time + dump time

15
Productivity

Each 10‐inch concrete slab foundation measuring

70’ by 140’ is to be poured in a single 8‐hr work day
using motorized concrete buggies, each able to
carry 12 cu. ft. of ready‐mixed concrete. Average
one‐way travel distance is 90 feet. and loading and
unloading each buggy takes 1.5 minutes. Average
buggy speeds are 1 mph loaded and 2 mph empty.
Efficiency is 45 minutes per hour. How many
buggies are required for each slab?

Productivity

• Solution:
• Cycle Time = 1.5 min + 90 ft / [(1 mph)(88 ft/min per mph)]
= 90 ft / [(2 mph)(88 ft/min per mph)]
= 1.5 + 1.0 +0.5 = 3.0 min.

• Productivity = [(12 cf)(45 min/hr)] / [(3 min)(27 cu/cy)]

= 6.7 cy/hr

• Volume = [(70 ft)(140 ft)(10 in)] / [(12 in/ft)(27 cf/cy)]

= 302.5 cy

• Number of Buggies = (302.5 cy) / [(6.7 cy/hr)(8 hr)] = 5.6

→ at least 6 buggies needed

16