Visit: www Easyenginesring.net 10 CHAPTER 4 Introduction caught in trafic jams or are otherwise delayed. Retarding admixtures are particularly ‘useful for large pours where significant temperature increasee may cocur, They also prolong the plasticity of the concrete, enabling better blending or bonding of successive pours. Retarders can also slow the hydration of cement on expored concrete surfaces or formed surfaces ta preshuce attractive exposed aggregate finishes + Skperplasiicizers are admixtures: made from organic sulfonates, Their use enables engi neers to reduce the water content in concretes substantially while at the same time increasing their shmpe, Altheugh superplasticizers can alco be uaed to keep water-cement ratios constant while using less cement, they are more commonly used to produce work- able concretes with considerably higher suengths while using the same amount of cement. (See Scetion 1.13.) A relatively new product, selfconsolidating concrete, uset superplas- ticizers and modifications in mix designs to produce an extremely workable mix that requires no vibration, even for the most congested placement situations, + Winerproofing maseriats usually are applied to hardened concrete aurfaces, but they may ‘be added to concrete mixes. These admixtures generally consist of some type of soap or petroleum products, as perhaps asphalt emulsions, They may help retard the penetration cf water into porous concretes but probably don’t help dense, well-cured coneretes very mich, 1.11 Properties of Concrete A thorough inowledge of the properties of concrete ia necessary for the student before he or ahe begins to design reinforced concrete structures. An introduction to several of these propertics is presented in this seetion. Compressive Strength ‘The compressive strength of concrete, {/, 1s determined by testing to failure 28-day-old 6-In diameter by I2-in, conerete cylinders at a specified rate of loading (A-in. diameter by §-in. cylinders were fizst permitted in the 2008 code in lieu of the larger eylinders), For the 28-day period, the cylinders are usually kept under water or in a room with constant temperature and 100% humidity. Although coneretes are available with 28-day ultimate stengths from 2500 pai up te az high ax 10000 psi to 20,000 pal, most of the concretes ted fall into the 3000 pai to 7000-psi range. For ordinary applications. 3000-pa and 4000-psi conaretes are ‘used, whereas for prestresied construction, S-O0-psi and GOE0- pai strengths ate common. For some applications, such as for the columns of the lower stories of high-rise buildings, concretes ‘with strengths up to 9000 psi or 10,000 psi have been used and can be furnished by ready mix companies. As a result, the use of such high-strength concretes is becoming increasingly common, At'TWwo Union Square in Seattle, concrete with strengths up to 19,000 psi was used. ‘The valies obtained for the compressive alrength of concretes, as determined by testing, are tb a considerable degree dependent on the sizes and ahapea of the text units and the ‘manner in which they are loaded. In many counties, the test specimens are cubes, 200 mm (7.87 im) om each side. For the same batelcs of concrete, the testing of 6-in. by 12-in. cylinders provides compressive strengths only equal to about 0% of the values in psi determined with the cubes, ‘tis quite feasible to move from 3000-psi concrete to 5000-psi concrete without requiting excessive amounts of labor or cement. The approximate increase in material cost for auch a strength increase is 19% to 20%. To move above 3000-psi or 6000-pa concrete, however. requires very careful mix designs and considerable attention to auch details as mixing, placing, and curing, These requirements cause relatively larger increazes in cott. Visit : www Fasyengincering.net