CE 305- BUILDING MATERIALS

BY:
Eng. WILLIAM P. L. TOMBE (B.Sc, M.Eng, P.E)

Contacts:-
E-mail: williampitia@yahoo.com
williampitia@gmail.com
Mobile No:- 0912345030, 0921889990.
 FRESH CONCRETE
Fresh concrete or plastic concrete is a freshly mixed material
which can be molded into any shape or Fresh concrete is
defined as a fully mixed concrete in a rheological state that
has not lost its plasticity.
The plastic state of fresh concrete provides a time period for
transportation, placing, compaction, and surface finishing.
 The relative quantities of cement, aggregates and water
mixed together, control the properties of concrete in the wet
state as well as in the hardened state.
 Workability of Fresh Concrete
Workability of concrete is defined in ASTM C125 as the
property determining the effort required to manipulate a
freshly mixed quantity of concrete with minimum loss of
homogeneity (uniform).
BS defined the workability of fresh concrete as “the amount
of mechanical work, or energy, required to produce full
compaction of the concrete without segregation.”
Workability of fresh concrete consists of two aspects:
consistency and cohesiveness.
Consistency describes how easily fresh concrete flows, while
cohesiveness describes the ability of fresh concrete to hold
all the ingredients together uniformly.
Traditionally, consistency can be measured by a slump-cone
test, the compaction factor, or a ball penetration.
Cohesiveness can be characterized by a Vebe test as an index
of both the water-holding capacity (the opposite of bleeding)
and the coarse-aggregate-holding capacity (the opposite of
segregation) of a plastic concrete mixture.
The flowability of fresh concrete influences the effort
required to compact concrete.
The easier the flow, the less work is needed for compaction.
A liquid-like self-compacting concrete can completely
eliminate the need for compaction. However, such a concrete
has to be cohesive enough to hold all the constituents,
especially the coarse aggregates in a uniform distribution
during the process of placing
 Measurement of workability
 There is no universally accepted test method that can directly
measure the workability as defined earlier.
 The difficulty in measuring the mechanical work defined in terms
of workability, the composite nature of the fresh concrete, and the
dependence of the workability on the type and method of
construction makes it impossible to develop a well-accepted test
method to measure workability.
 The most widely used test, which mainly measures the
consistency of concrete, is called the slump test. For the same
purpose, the second test in order of importance is the Vebe test,
which is more meaningful for mixtures with low consistency. The
third test is the compacting factor test, which attempts to
evaluate the compactability characteristic of a concrete mixture.
The fourth test method is the ball penetration test that is
somewhat related to the mechanical work.
Apparatus for Workability test
 Slump test
The equipment for the slump test is indeed very simple. It
consists of a tamping rod and a truncated cone, 300mm in
height, 100mm in diameter at the top, and 200mm in
diameter at the bottom.
 To conduct a slump test, first moisten the slump test mold
and place it on a flat, nonabsorbent, moist, and rigid surface.
Then hold it firmly to the ground by foot supports.
Next, fill 1/3 of the mold with the fresh concrete and rod it
25 times uniformly over the cross section.
Likewise fill 2/3 of the mold and rod the layer 25 times, then
fill the mold completely and rod it 25 times.
If the concrete settles below the top of the mold, add
more. Strike off any excessive concrete. Remove the
mold immediately in one move. Measure and record the
slump as the vertical distance from the top of the mold
to average concrete level. The sequence of a slump test
If slumping occurs evenly all around, it is regarded as a
true slump. If one-half of the cone slides down along an
inclined plane, it is regarded as shear slump.
 Shear slump is caused by insufficient cohesiveness and
the concrete proportions should be adjusted. Mixes of
very stiff consistency have zero slump, so that in the
rather dry range no slump can be detected between
mixes of different workability.
 Compaction factor
 the compaction factor test apparatus consists of two hoppers and
one cylindrical mold stacked in three levels.
 To perform an experiment, the upper hopper is first fully filled
with fresh concrete. Then the hinged door is slid open and hence
the concrete will fall into the lower hopper by gravity.
 Next, the hinged door of the power hopper is slid open and the
concrete free falls into the 150 ×300mm cylindrical mold.
 After the excessive concrete is struck off on the top of the mold,
the weight of the cylinder is measured
 Another cylinder is made with same concrete by three layers with
25 times rodding on each layer and striking off any excessive
concrete.
 Usually, the range of compaction factor is from 0.78 to 0.95 and
concrete with high fluidity has a higher compaction factor.
 Vebe test
 The test equipment, which was developed by Swedish engineer V. Bahrner, It
consists of a vibrating table, a cylindrical pan, a slump cone, and a glass or plastic
disk attached to a free-moving rod, which serves as a reference endpoint. The cone is
placed in the pan. After it is filled with concrete and any excessive concrete is struck
off, the cone is removed. Then, the disk is brought into a position on top of the
concrete cone, and the vibrating table is set in motion. The time required for the
concrete cone to shorten and change from the conical to a cylindrical shape, until the
disk on the top is completely covered with concrete, is the index of workability and
is reported as the number of Vebe seconds.
 The Vebe test is a good laboratory test, particularly for very dry mixes. This is in
contrast to the compacting factor test where error may be introduced by the tendency
of some dry mixes to stick in the hoppers. The Vebe test also has the additional
advantage that the treatment of concrete during the test is comparatively closely
related to the method of placing in practice. Moreover, the cohesiveness of concrete
can be easily distinguished by Vebe test through the observation of distribution of the
coarse aggregate after vibration.
 Ball penetration test
 ASTM C360 covers the Kelly ball penetration test. The test setup
is shown in Figure 3-5. A 152-mm-diameter hemisphere hammer
of weight 13.6kg is connected to a handle with a ruler. The
hammer is fixed on a box container through a pin. When taking
measurements, the box is placed on the top of the concrete to be
tested with the surface of the hammer touching the concrete.
When the pin is removed, the hammer will sink into the fresh
concrete by its own weight. The depth of the hammer penetration
can be read from the ruler and is used as an index of workability.
A concrete with higher consistency leads to a deeper ball
penetration. Since the measurement is related to the work done
by the hammer penetration, ball penetration measurement is close
to the definition of workability given by Mindess et al. (2003).
The penetration test is usually very quick and can be done on
site, right in the formwork, provided it is wide enough. The ratio
of slump value to penetration depth is from 1.3 to 2.0.
 Factors affecting workability
In general, through the influence on consistency and/or
cohesiveness, the water content, the cement content, the
aggregate grading, and other physical characteristics, and
admixtures can affect the workability of concrete mixtures.
 .

Water content.
Regarded as the most important factor influencing the
workability of concrete.
Additional water fills the spaces among the particles and
“lubricates” the particles by a water film
Decreasing the water content will result in a low fluidity
The water content in a concrete is determined by w/c or w/b
and cement or binder content.
 Cement content
Cement content influences the workability of concrete in two
ways.
I. For given w/c ratio, the larger the cement content, the
higher the total water amount in the concrete; hence, the
consistency of concrete will be enhanced.
II. Cement paste itself plays the roles of coating, filling, and
lubrication for aggregate particles. In normal concrete, a
considerably low cement content tends to produce a harsh
mixture, with poor consistency and, subsequently, poor
finishability.
increase of the cement content at a low w/c ratio, both
consistency and cohesiveness can be improved
Segregation
Refers to a separation of the components of fresh
concrete, resulting in a non-uniform
mix.

This can be seen as a separation of coarse aggregate

from the mortar, caused from either the settling of
heavy aggregate to the bottom or the separation of the
aggregate from the mix due to improper placement.
Factors that increase segregation are:
 Larger maximum particle size (25mm) and proportion of the
larger particles.
 High specific gravity of coarse aggregate.
 Decrease in the amount of fine particles.
 Particle shape and texture.
 Water/cement ratio

Good handling and placement techniques are most important

in prevention of segregation.
Bleeding

defined as the appearance of water on the surface of

concrete after it has consolidated but before it is set.

Bleeding is generally the result of aggregates settling

into the mix and releasing their mixing water. Some
bleeding is normal for good concrete.
 Bleeding may be reduced by:

 Increasing cement fineness.

 Increasing the rate of hydration.
 Using air-entraining admixtures.
 Reducing the water content.
 Setting time of concrete
Setting of concrete is distinguished as the initial and
final setting of cement paste.
The initial setting is defined as the loss of plasticity
or the onset of rigidity (stiffening or consolidating)
in fresh concrete.
The final setting is defined as the onset point of
strength.
Hardening is the development of useable and
measurable strength; setting precedes hardening.
Properties of hardened concrete
Fully cured, hardened concrete must be strong
enough to withstand the structural and service loads
which will be applied to it.
must be durable enough to withstand the
environmental exposure for which it is designed.
The properties of hardened concrete are: Strength,
Creep, Durability, Shrinkage, Modulus of Elasticity
and Water tightness (impermeability).
 Strength of concrete
we generally talk about compressive strength of
concrete. Because, concrete is strong in compression
but relatively weak in tension and bending.
Concrete compressive strength is measured in
(MPa).
Compressive strength mostly depends upon amount

and type of cement used in concrete mix.
It is also affected by the w/c ratio, mixing method,
placing and curing.
Concrete tensile strength ranges from 7% to 12% of
compressive strength
Both tensile strength and bending strength can be
increased by adding reinforcement.
Cube Test
 Creep of concrete
Creep of concrete is the continued deformation with
time under applied load.
The rate of creep decrease with time and the creep
strains at five years are taken as terminal values.
Creep increases rapidly with the stress, loading at an
early age of concrete, broken ballast, soft and porous
aggregate, poorly graded and improperly compacted
concrete.
 The Causes of Creep are:

Closer of internal voids of concrete

Viscous flow of the cement paste inside
concrete
Flow of water out of the cement gel inside
concrete.
Durability of concrete
Durability might be defined as the ability to maintain
satisfactory performance over and extended service life.
The design service life of most buildings is often 30 years,
although buildings often last 50 to 100 years.
Different concretes require different degrees of durability
depending on the exposure environment and properties
desired.
Appropriate concrete ingredients, mix proportions, finishes
and curing practices can be adjusted on the basis of required
durability of concrete.
Shrinkage in Concrete
Concrete is subjected to changes in volume either
autogenous or induced.
Volume change is one of the most detrimental properties of
concrete, which affects the long-term strength and durability.

Shrinkage can be classified in the following way:

a) Plastic Shrinkage
b) Drying Shrinkage
c) Carbonation Shrinkage
 Modulus of Elasticity
Modulus of Elasticity 0f the concrete ingredients and their
mix proportions.
The value of the concrete could be predicted based on the
compressive strength of concrete.
The values modulus of elasticity are derived from the
following equation.
 Water tightness (impermeability) of concrete.

If concrete is impermeable, corrosive agents cannot

penetrate and attack it.
Concrete basically has two types of pores, which
determine permeability.
These are capillary pores (with a diameter varying
between 0.01 to 10 micron) in the cement
paste which coats the aggregates and larger micro
voids, between 1 mm to 10 mm, which are caused by
faulty compaction of fresh concrete.
When voids are interconnected because of their
larger number and size a continuous link is formed,
which makes the concrete permeable.
 There are three major factors which
determine the permeability in concrete.
a) Water cement ratio,
b) Compaction and
c) Curing

Each factor is equally important, if one of these

factors is not controlled, the result will be increase,
in permeability of the concrete.
It can be shown that permeability increases as water
cement ratio increase.
Typically, at a water cement ratio of around 0.4,
permeability is practically zero.
Questions or Comments