Materials for Construction (2)

Concrete
 Reading

Concrete Notes available on CANVAS

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 Concrete as a Construction Material

Concrete is one of the most used (if not the most used) material for construction
because:
Fabric Formwork
- Resistance to water
- Easily formed in a variety of shapes and sizes
- Cheap
- No corrosion
Hoover Dam, USA
- Fire resistant
http://www.concretedecor.net/
- Cyclic loading resistant

Sculptural Formwork

https://n2history.com

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uZqdjE6qFfI
http://www.concreteconstruction.net/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GUdnrtnjT5Q
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 Components of Concrete
Concrete is a composite material that
consists essentially of a binding matrix
within which are embedded particles or
fragments of aggregate. In hydraulic
concrete, the binder is formed of a mixture
of hydraulic cement and water. Sometimes
admixtures are added to modify the
properties of concrete.
http://www.wbconcreting.com.au/

– Aggregate is a granular material such as sand, gravel, crushed stones,

crushed blast-furnace slag or construction and demolition waste that is used
with a cementing medium to produce concrete.
– Cement is a finely pulverised, dry material that by itself is not a binder but
develop binding properties as a result of hydration.
– Admixtures are materials other than aggregates, cement and water that
can be added in the concrete batch immediately before or during mixing.
These are widespread used nowadays as they can improve the concrete in
many different ways.
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 Fabrication of the Cement

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n-Pr1KTVSXo

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 Cement Despatch

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 Concrete Batching, Mixing and Transport

http://www.pile-driving.com/

http://www.worldconcreteequipment.com/
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 Concrete Placing
Belt -conveyers truck-mounted chutes The concrete should be
placed as near as possible
to its final position

The concrete mixture is

deposed in horizontal
layers of uniform thickness
and each layer is
http://www.cts-heavycivil.com/ http://www.valuetech.ie/
thoroughly compacted
before the next one is
mobile-boom pumps placed

http://www.meales.com.au/

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 Concrete Compaction
Compaction is the process which expels entrapped air from freshly placed concrete
and packs the aggregate particles together so as to increase the density of concrete
Hand Compaction:
- Rodding: method of poking with a 2m long and 16 mm diameter
steel road at sharp corners and edges.
- Tamping: method of compacting and levelling the concrete by
beating it with a flat surface tool (tampers)

Vibration:
- Immersion vibrators: also called ‘poker’ or ‘needle ’ vibrators,
immersion vibrators consist essentially of a tubular housing
which contains a rotating eccentric weight. The out-of-balance
rotating weight causes the casing to vibrate and, when
immersed in concrete, the concrete itself.
- Form vibrators: also called ‘external’ vibrators, they are useful
with complicated members or where the reinforcement is highly
congested. They are clamped to the outside of the formwork
and vibrate it, thus compacting the concrete.

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 Concrete Finishing
Different finishing operations can be performed depending on the final requirements:
- Screeding: This step in the finishing operation is the most important in producing a
true plane surface and takes place immediately after the placing and compaction
of the concrete. It must be completed before excess bleed water appears on the
surface. The purpose is to strike off freshly placed concrete and make it as level
as possible before finishing.
- Floating: to obtain a smoother finish than the screeded surface, once can use a
wood float or metal blade. Floating agitates the surface, compacts the material
and brings enough mortar to the surface to fill the voids.
- Troweling: for a very smooth finish, use a steel trowel after the concrete has
become quite stiff.
- Brooming: A surface is broomed by running a concrete broom perpendicular to
the slope, if there is one. On concrete that is intended to drain, though, broom
marks should be run towards the drain. A good broom finish is something of an art.
One can even create decorative effects by running the broom texture in various
directions.

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 Concrete Curing

Curing is the process of controlling the rate and extent of moisture loss from
concrete during cement hydration. It may be either after it has been placed in
position (or during the manufacture of concrete products), thereby providing
time for the hydration of the cement to occur. Since the hydration of cement
does take time – days, and even weeks rather than hours – curing must be
undertaken for a reasonable period of time if the concrete is to achieve its
potential strength and durability. Curing may also encompass the control of
temperature since this affects the rate at which cement hydrates.

Effect of curing on concrete strength:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uPBvdNvuJyY

Cement and
The University concrete association of Australia
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 Hydraulic Cement - Introduction

Water is essential as it will produce the reaction that will give the cement is
binding properties.

Most common hydraulic cement: Portland Cement

Patented in 1824 by Joseph Aspdin in the UK.
The name comes from its resemblance with a stone quarried on Isle of Portland
in the UK

https://en.wikipedia.org
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 Portland Cement – Raw materials

The four main ingredients for the production of the clinker are:
- Lime (CaO)
- Silica (SiO2)
- Alumina (Al2O3)
- Iron Oxide (Fe2O3)

Gypsum (CaSO4·2H2O)
is added to the clinker to
form the final cement powder
using ball milling

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 Chemistry of Portland Cement
4 major compounds are present in the clinker:
– Tricalcium silicate (C3S):
main contributor of early age strength of concrete. Usually makes 55 to 65% of the cement.
– Dicalcium silicate (C2S):
gives concrete strength at later age. Usually accounts for 15 to 25% of the cement.
– Tricalcium aluminate (C3A):
responsible for very early setting and strength gain. Usually makes 2 to 10% of the cement.
– Tetracalcium alumina ferrite (C4AF):
produces little strength and is dark in colour. Usually very low percentage in the cement especially
in white and off‐white cement.

Other compounds can be present in smaller quantities in the cement (AS 3972):
– Sulphate (SO3): not more than 3.5%
– Free lime: this should be kept very low
– Magnesia (MgO): not more than 4.5%.
– Alkali oxides (K2O or Na2O): not more than 0.6%

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 Types of cement
– General Purpose Cement – Type GP
Most used cement in Australia for construction
Composition (can vary from manufacturer from manufacturer):
‐ 89% clinker (min)
‐ 3.5% SO3 (max)
‐ 7.5% mineral additions (max)

– Blended Cement – Type GB

Second most used cement. Supplementary cementitious materials (SCMs) are
added to the Type GP cement.
Composition:
‐ 92.5% GP cement (max)
‐ 7.5% SCMs (min)

– General Purpose Limestone Cement – Type GL

“green” version of type GP cement. Contains limestone
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 Supplementary Cementitious Materials

Also known as pozzolans, they react with by products of the hydration reaction:
1) Cement reacts with water and creates the biding property (cementitious
paste) but also hydrated lime (Ca(OH)2) as a by product
2) SCMs react with hydrated lime to have more cementetious material
(binding material)

In Australia 3 sorts of SCMS are mostly used:

- Fly ash: dust collected in electrostatic precipitators used to clean the flue
gases from black coal burning stations.
- Ground granulated iron blast furnace slag: produced during the smelting of
iron ore to extract iron.
- Amorphous silica (silica fume): naturally occurring deposits or silica fume which
is a very fine particulate material collected in the refining of silicon metal.

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 Comparison of Type GP and Type GB Cements

Type GB cements can offer additional advantages over type GP cement:

- improved sulphate resistance
- greater alkali‐silica reaction resistance
- lower drying shrinkage
- higher chloride penetration resistance.
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Types of Cement – Special cements

– High Early Strength Cement – Type HE

Finer powder cement. Develops strength more rapidly

– Low Heat Cement – Type LH

Used in massive structure where heat produced by hydration can cause cracking

– Sulphate Resisting Cement – Type SR

Sulphate attacks can lead to cracking so it is sometimes important to limit them.

– Shrinkage Limited Cement – Type SL

Used for large area pours such as concrete roads. Different composition.

– White and Off‐White Cement

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 Comparison of the different cements

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 Aggregates - introduction

– Represent the larger volume fraction of concrete

– Influence concrete properties:

- workability
- drying shrinkage
- serviceability
- ultimate strength (especially for high strength concrete)
- durability.

– Commercial aggregates used in the production of Australian concrete are

selected from local materials according to the Australian standard AS
2758.1 and specification requirements.

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Classification of aggregates
– Coarse aggregates: particles above 4.75mm in size (can be as large as 150mm).
obtained from crushing and screening of rocks of igneous origin

– Fine aggregates: particles below 4.75 mm in size

water‐borne or air‐borne sedimentary deposits = sands with high proportion of
various forms of silica

– Silt and clay sometimes used as well (very fine particles below 75µm)

The University of Sydney http://www.concretenetwork.com/ Page 22

 General aggregate properties
– Bulk density: mass of the aggregate required to fill a container having a unit
volume. It usually ranges from 1.2 to 1.75 t/m3.

– Aggregate relative density: ratio of its mass to the mass of an equal volume
of water. An aggregate is said to be “Saturated Surface Dry” (SSD) when it is
fully saturated within its structure and does not have any excess moisture on its
surface. The value of the aggregate relative density ranges from 2.4 to 2.9.

– Aggregate absorption: Difference between dry and SSD aggregate weights.

It ranges from 0.2 to 5% for coarse aggregate and from 0.2 and 3% for fine
aggregate. High values might indicate weak or unsound aggregate.

– Abrasion resistance: resistance of being worn away by friction with other

materials.

– Aggregate alkali reactivity (AAR): can cause cracking through reaction with
alkalis present in cement
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 Dimensional aggregate properties
– Nominal size: size of the largest
particles of a material made up of
different sized particles

– Grading: particle size distribution

– Particle shape and texture: Smooth, http://onlinemanuals.txdot.gov/

rounded aggregate particles are
preferable to achieve the maximum
workability and compactibility. For
optimum strength a rough texture, cubical
shaped aggregate is preferred. Flat,
flaky or elongated particles are not
desirable.

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 Admixtures
Admixtures are the ingredients in concrete other than Portland cement, water, and
aggregate that are added to the mix immediately before or during mixing.

Why use them:

- to reduce the cost of concrete construction
- to modify the properties of hardened concrete
- to ensure the quality of concrete during mixing, transporting, placing, and curing

Types of admixtures:
- Supplementary Cementitious Materials
- Chemical admixtures

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 Chemical Admixtures
– Water-reducing admixtures usually reduce the required water content for a
concrete mixture by about 5 to 10 %. The treated concrete can have a lower water-
cement ratio. This usually indicates that a higher strength concrete can be produced
without increasing the amount of cement.
– Retarding admixtures, which slow the setting rate of concrete, are used to
counteract the accelerating effect of hot weather on concrete setting.
– Accelerating admixtures increase the rate of early strength development, reduce
the time required for proper curing and protection, and speed up the start of
finishing operations.
– Plasticiser, superplasticisers reduce water content by 12 to 30% and increases the
workability of concrete
– Corrosion-inhibiting admixtures are used to slow corrosion of reinforcing steel in
concrete.
– Shrinkage-reducing admixtures are used to control drying shrinkage and minimise
cracking.
– Alkali-silica reactivity inhibitors control durability problems associated with alkali-
silica reactivity.
– Air entrainment admixtures create tiny air bubbles in concrete to increase the
durability of the hardened concrete, especially in climates subject to freeze-
thaw and to increase workability of the concrete while in a plastic state.
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 Water
– Water is needed in concrete for two main reasons:
1) To react chemically with the cement
2) To give the cement adequate workability

– AS1379 states that mix water must be “drawn from a source of acceptable quality”
(being potable water is not enough).

– Water quality criteria:

- Solids in suspension: can affect setting time and creates variations in performance
- Organic matter (especially sugar): can affect setting time and rate of strength gain
- Acids: source of the acid is actually the problem, AS1379 put a limit of pH to 5
- Alkalis: can affect setting time and rate of strength gain but usually not present in
high enough quantities in water
- Salts: Chlorides and sulphates can affect setting time, rate of strength gain and
durability (especially in steel reinforced concretes). Sea water only for mass
concrete without steel reinforcements (other effects need to be checked)

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 Properties of concrete – Plastic state properties
Workability: Effort required to manipulate a concrete mixture with a minimum of
segregation.

Factors affecting the workability of concrete:

– Water content: as water content increases, workability increases but too much water can
decrease concrete strength by reducing binding properties of cement.
– Aggregate/cement ratio: lower aggregate/cement ratio gives better workability
– Size of aggregate: bigger size aggregate will give higher workability (less surface
area between cement and aggregate, less lubrication needed to move the concrete)
– Shape of aggregate: Angular, flaky & elongated aggregate reduces the workability of
concrete. Rounded or sub rounded aggregate increases the workability of concrete.
– Grading of aggregate: the larger the size distribution the higher the workability.
– Surface texture of aggregate: Porous and non-saturated aggregate will require more
water than a non-absorbant aggregate and will therefore reduce the workability of
concrete.
– Use of admixture: SCMs, plasticizer and super plasticizers greatly improve the
workability of concrete.

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 Properties of concrete – Plastic state properties

Workability can be defined by looking at two aspects of the concrete:

– Consistence/consistency: it describes the ease with which concrete will flow

or the degree of wetness of concrete (not to be confused with workability).
It is measure using the slump test.

– Cohesiveness: it is a measure of the concrete ability to resist segregation

of its different components during handling, placing and compacting or to
resist bleeding (migration of water to the surface).

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 Slump test

It is a popular test because it

provides a simple and convenient
way for controlling the batch‐to‐batch
uniformity of ready‐mixed concrete.

Element Typical range

of slump (mm)
Mass concrete 30-80
Plain footings, 50-80
substructure walls
Pavements and 50-80
http://www.lmcc.com/ slabs
Beams 50-100
AS 1012.3
Dimension of the cone: Reinforced footings 50-100
200mm diameter at the bottom, 100 mm
Columns 50-100
diameter at the top and 300mm high
Reinforced walls 80-120
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 Elastic Behaviour of hardened concrete

• Under loading, concrete deforms in

a non-linear, inelastic manner.

• However, an estimate of E is useful

for determining stresses induced at
low strains.

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 Elastic moduli and Poisson’s ratio
Tangent modulus: given by the slope of
a line drawn tangent to the stress‐strain
curve at any point on the curve.

Initial Tangent Modulus/Dynamic

Modulus: given by the slope of the
tangent to the curve at the origin.

Secant modulus: given by the slope of

a line drawn from the origin to a point on
the curve corresponding to a stress
equal to 40% of the failure stress.

Chord modulus: given by the slope of a

line drawn between two points on the Elastic moduli of concrete:
stress strain curve (usually use an offset between 14 and 41 GPa
strain of 50x10‐6).
Poisson’s ratio of concrete:
between 0.15 and 0.2
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 Elastic Moduli - Example

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 Compressive strength

– Most important property of concrete.

– It is a measure of the crushing load that concrete can sustain.
– It is tested according to the Australian standards AS1012.8 and AS1012.9.
Two specimens (cylinders) are tested at 28 days (sometimes early age
tested at the same time).
Specimen: 100mm diameter by 200 mm height
Specimens are casted into cylinder moulds in two equal layers and each
layer is compacted by rodding 25 times or by vibration.
After the required curing period they are then tested in compression after
being capped.

http://matest.com/ http://www.instron.us/
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 Characteristic strength

– It is the level of strength above which

95% of the concrete is expected to have
its strength.
– It can be calculated using the following
equation:

It is used in the design of structures, in the ordering of concrete and for its
acceptance upon delivery.

AS 3600 defines standard strength grades: 20, 25, 32, 40, 50 and 65 MPa

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 Factors affecting compressive strength: Water-cement ratio

Most important parameter as it governs the porosity in concrete and therefore

its strength.
It is calculated by dividing the mass of “free” water (includes water available
for hydration reaction, does not include water absorbed by aggregate) by the
mass of cement.

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 Factors affecting compressive strength: Other parameters
– Compaction (or vibration): voids in concrete decrease its
strength. Good compaction or vibration is necessary to
reduce amount of voids.
– Extend of hydration: concrete that is not kept moist by
curing may achieve as little as 40% of its normal
strength.
– Curing temperature: high temperatures promote faster
hydration of the cement and therefore higher strength.
– Type of cement: different types of cement will develop
their strength at different rates
– Admixtures: water reducers, plasticisers, and
accelerators can be used to improve the strength
characteristics of concrete while SCMs can slow down
strength development
– Aggregate: if the aggregate is weak, the failure of the
concrete will be caused by the failure of the aggregate
rather than the failure of the cement paste.

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 Tensile strength
- Concrete is relatively weak in tension and therefore reinforcements
are usually used when the material is subjected to tension or bending.

- However, concrete has some tensile strength and it is important when

it is used for pavements, floor slabs on the ground etc…

- Testing of specimens in pure tension is very difficult so two other types

of test are usually used:

Brazil test or indirect Flexural test

tensile strength test
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 Durability of Concrete

A long service life is considered synonymous

with durability.

Durability of Portland cement concrete is

defined as its ability to resist weathering
action, chemical attack, abrasion or any
other process of deterioration.

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 Properties affecting durability (1)
– Permeability and absorptivity of the concrete.
Permeability is a measure of the resistance of the concrete to gasses and liquids penetration.
Absorptivity can be described as the amount of water that the concrete will soak up when it
is immersed in it.

– Volume changes.
Volume changes are important as they impose stresses on the concrete that can cause cracks
formation. They can be caused by shrinkage, change in temperature, weather…

– Abrasion resistance.
Abrasion can be due to a variety of reasons: vehicular traffic, sliding objects on surfaces or
wear caused by materials in water. Usually the higher the compressive strength the better the
abrasion resistance.

– Chemical attack resistance.

Different chemicals (acids, sulphates etc) can attack cement paste and usually transform its
constituents into salts that can be dissolved by water. Low permeability concretes will
perform better in these conditions.
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 Properties affecting durability (2)

– Freeze-Thaw resistance.
Concrete that is subjected to freezing conditions suffers expansion as the water in the voids
and capillaries expands when it freezes and the contracts when it melts. The end result of
multiple cycles of freeze‐thaw (expansion‐contraction) can be scaling on the surface of the
concrete.

– Corrosion of reinforcements.
Normally concrete should protect steel reinforcements by 1) providing an alkaline environment
that passivates steels and 2) minimise access to moisture and oxygen. But this protection can
be breached by carbonation (CO2 reacts with hydration products, lowering the alkalinity and
depassivating steel) and chloride penetration in concrete.

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 Concrete Specifications
Normal class concrete (designed by the prefix ‘N’) will generally contain type GP or type GB
cement.

To qualify as a normal class concrete, the concrete must have the following properties:
‐ Mass per volume of 2100‐2800 kg/m3.
‐ Acid‐soluble chloride ion content of the hardened concrete shall not exceed 0.8 kg/m3.
‐ Acid‐soluble sulphate ion content of the hardened concrete shall not exceed 50g/kg of cement.
‐ Basic shrinkage strain shall not exceed 1000 x 10‐6 after 56 days drying.
‐ A mean compressive strength at 7 day.
‐ A cement complying with AS3972 which may have SCMs added.
‐ Normal weight aggregates.

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 Concrete Specifications

Special class concrete includes all the other concrete where specifications require
properties, parameters or compositions outside that of normal class concrete. It
is designated by the prefix ‘S’.

‐ Non‐standard strength graded (ex: 30 or 45 MPa)

‐ Different aggregate sizes
‐ Slumps such as 10mm, 75mm or 180mm
‐ Max w/c ratio
‐ Minimum cement content
‐ Shrinkage values less than 1000 microstrain
‐ Restriction on the use of admixtures or SCMs
‐ Specific type of cement
‐ Early strength at 3 days of specific values
‐ Specific flexural strengths
‐ Specific tensile strengths
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 Cracking and Crack Control

Cracks form for a variety of reasons.

Sometimes before hardening, sometimes long after settlement and hardening.

Cracking is inevitable but can be controlled.

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 Pre-hardening cracking (1)
Cracks which form before concrete has fully hardened.

Plastic shrinkage cracks

They formed in the surface of the concrete while it is in its
plastic state although they might not be visible until later.

They are due to rapid lost of moisture from the surface

(hot, dry or windy conditions).

They are form without any regular pattern, are between

25mm and 2m in length and 3mm max in width (can be http://civil-engg-world.blogspot.com.au/
only hairline cracks) and are fairly straight lines.

Cracks caused by formwork movement

If there is a movement of the formwork after the concrete has started to stiffen but
before it has gained enough strength to support its own weight, cracks may form.

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 Pre-hardening cracking (2)
Plastic settlement cracks
They are due to bleeding of concrete. The bleed
water evaporates and the total volume of the
concrete component decreases. If reinforcement
bars are present or if there is a change in the
depth of section then cracking will occur.
They follow a regular pattern replicating the
position of the reinforcements or changes in
section.
They are not deep so do not affect strength too
much but can affect durability.

How to prevent them or reduce their occurrence:

- Revibrating the concrete after settlement but just before it sets
- Use lower slump mix
- Use air entrainer to improve cohesiveness and reduce bleeding
- Increase cover of top reinforcement bars.
https://www.cornellengineers.com.au

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 Cracks in hardened concrete (1)
Two main reasons:
1) Volume changes in concrete (due to gain and loss of water, changes in
temperature)
2) Chemical reactions within the body of the concrete

Crazing
Very fine cracks that appear at the surface of
the concrete after it has been exposed to the
environment for some time.
It occurs as the concrete surface expands and
shrinks during alternate cycles of wetting and
drying.
In Australia, it does not lead to serious
http://quickmix.co.za/
durability problems.

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 Cracks in hardened concrete (2)
Drying Shrinkage cracks
Hardened concrete shrinks as it loses moisture due to
the hydration of the cement and evaporation. If the
concrete is free to move that is not a problem but if it
is restrained then tensile stresses will develop and
crack might occur.
How to prevent them from occurring:
- Adequate reinforcement distribution to carry https://www.nachi.org
tensile stresses.
- Add joints in the design to isolate restraints and
permit movement of concrete between parts

Thermal movement cracks

Thermal movements occur when the temperature of concrete changes
(environment or hydration reaction of cement)
Thermal movements due to changes in environment temperatures can be
controlled by adequate joints.
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Joints
Joints in concrete constructions can serve a number of purposes: either they
restraint movements (construction joints) or they allow it (contraction and
expansion joints).

Construction joints
Concrete-to-concrete joints to held two faces together to prevent any movement
across the joints. They are required when there is a break in concreting
operations long enough for the placed concrete to harden.

Contraction joints
It is a joint where the two surfaces are free to move away from each other as a
result of shrinkage or thermal movement.

Expansion joints
They are formed to permit concrete elements to expand as temperature of the
concrete increases.

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 Reinforced Concrete
Reinforced concrete is a composite material made up of concrete and some
form of reinforcement, usually steel rods, bars or wires.
The reinforcements are incorporated in the material to resist tensile and shear
forces.
The designer needs to determine:
- how much reinforcement
- where to place it within the component

http://www.waltonfencing.co.uk/
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 Prestressed Concrete

It is defined as reinforced concrete in which the reinforcement, high tensile steel

wires or bars, is stretched or tensioned before being bonded with the concrete
in some way. The force in the steel is transferred to the concrete, placing it in
compression and therefore increasing its ability to withstand tensile forces.

http://civilengineersforum.com/

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 Summary
Concrete is a composite material made of cement, aggregate (including sand),
and admixtures (optional)

Hydraulic cement concretes need water for the biding reaction of the cement to
occur and to maintain their workability.

Concrete is the most used material in construction:

- Cheap
- High compressive strength
- Corrosion resistant

But
- Low tensile and shear strength  reinforced and prestressed concrete
- Durability needs to be designed for
- Cracks needs to be designed against

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