Effect of sand to aggregate ratio and dosage

of admixture on high strength concrete

properties
Cite as: AIP Conference Proceedings 1903, 050004 (2017); https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5011543
Published Online: 14 November 2017

Mukhlis Sunarso, Gambiro Soeprapto, and Ferryandy Murdono

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AIP Conference Proceedings 1903, 050004 (2017); https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5011543 1903, 050004

© 2017 Author(s).
 Effect of Sand to Aggregate Ratio and Dosage of Admixture
on High Strength Concrete Properties
Mukhlis Sunarso1, a), Gambiro Soeprapto1, b), and Ferryandy Murdono1, c)
1
Research and Development Department, PT Wijaya Karya Beton, Tbk, Gedung JW, Jalan Raya Jatiwaringin 54,
Pondok Gede, Bekasi 17411, Indonesia.
a)
Corresponding author: mukhlis@wika-beton.co.id
b)
gambiro@wika-beton.co.id
c)
ferryandymurdono@gmail.com

Abstract. The concrete structural requires a criteria design such as the compressive strength and modulus of elasticity. The
empirical formulas to determine the value of concrete modulus of elasticity has been provided based on the compressive
strength of the concrete. The theoretical value of modulus of elasticity could be different from the results obtained from
experimental laboratory tests. This may be influenced by a material proportion, admixture dosage, and curing process. To
determine the magnitude of these affects, the test method is made by comparing various proportions of concrete material.
Experiments conducted on concrete containing sand to the aggregate ratio that is S/A 35%, 43%, and 50% with the design
fc’ 55 MPa. It has the slump shown 8, 18 and 55 cm. The sample is made each 3 pieces for testing compressive strength
and modulus of elasticity at 3, 7, 14 and 28 days age. This experimental explained that the same of w/c will produce the
same relative compressive strength at 28 days, but modulus of elasticity for S/A variation of concrete in age 3, 7, 14 and
28 days had shown the different. The development of the modulus of elasticity value had a different pattern with the
development of concrete compressive strength. The determination of concrete modulus of elasticity should take the
coefficient factor that influenced by sand to aggregate ratio and admixture dosage.

INTRODUCTION
High strength concrete has compressive strength more than 40 MPa. In general, the concrete design use admixture
and additive to give workability.
The mechanic properties of concrete are very important in a prestressed concrete analysis is modulus elasticity. In
this case installation concrete box girder segmentally done by balance cantilever methods, which every segment must
be installed with balance and opposite direction in a single column. In each stage, geometric analysis is performed to
get the last segment from one column to another to be synchronized the last segment. Influence the geometry analysis
are the accuracy of the coordinates and mechanical property of segments. The usage modulus elasticity is done at
design and construction stage.
The relationship compressive strength and modulus elasticity have provided the empirical formulas and done at
design, but at the construction that modulus elasticity is taken from the test laboratories result actually which can be
different with empirical formulas. The material proportion of concrete may be influenced in value modulus elasticity.
In the same of strength, concrete can be made with a different slump. When proportional material as a sand
aggregate ratio (S/A) is used high, the concrete will have a higher slump and opposite with lower slump. The different
value between theoretical and actual concrete modulus of elasticity can result in an incorrect structure design.

Proceedings of the 3rd International Conference on Construction and Building Engineering (ICONBUILD) 2017
AIP Conf. Proc. 1903, 050004-1–050004-8; https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5011543
Published by AIP Publishing. 978-0-7354-1591-1/$30.00

050004-1
 STUDY OF SAND TO AGGREGATE RATIO AND ADMIXTURE DOSAGE
EFFECT ON CONCRETE
The effect of admixture in mixing for workability concrete can be done repeatedly as needed until before the
concrete has an initial setting. During fresh concrete has not occurred the initial setting (less than 2 hours), the slump
loss can be fixed by the addition of admixture according to the specified dose. The admixture fixing the slump up to
2 hours with the creation shows Fig. 1.
The admixture content superplasticizer and accelerator to get high workability and strength acceleration. Most
superplasticizers are in the form of sodium salts or calcium salts [1]. Generally, the accelerator is used calcium chloride.
Calcium chloride is effective in accelerating hydration in calcium silicate, particularly C3S. The effect of an
accelerator such as NaCl salt provides to increase hydration heat, thus accelerating strength at an early age, but will
reduce strength at 7 days and beyond.

FIGURE 1. The effect of Napthalen Admixture dose repetition on slump [1]

The curing of concrete during the hydration process affects the strength of the concrete. Different curing
temperatures has significant effect on concrete compressive strength [1] as Fig. 2 shown.

FIGURE 2. Effect of curing temperature for 28 days [1]

The conditions of the wet concrete are affected for the modulus elasticity. This is in contrast to the dry strength
property of concrete that has a higher strength than wet concrete. The possible reason is that wet concrete is saturated
with water, suffers from a slight strain for the applied stress and therefore, provides a high elastic modulus. While the

050004-2
dry concrete shows a higher strain for the given stress, due to the small amount of water gel and the absorbed pore
water. Fig. 3 shows the effect of moisture on the relationship of the modulus of elasticity and age of curing.
The important factor affecting the modulus of elasticity of concrete is the strength of concrete. This can be
represented as such as the relationship between the ratios of cement water mixture. The correlation of the effects of
aggregates, paste and concrete are shown on the graph of the relationship between stress and strain.

FIGURE 3. Effect of moisture on the relationship of elastic modulus and age. [3]

The modulus of elasticity of concrete is substantially affected by the change in the aggregates content of coarse
aggregates as shown Fig. 4.

FIGURE 4. The relationship between strain and tension for cement paste, aggregate and concrete [1].

METHODOLOGY
The experimental program was carried out by making a mixture of fc 55 MPa by concrete from S/A 35%, 43%,
50% and testing of mechanical properties of concrete.The material used in the manufacture of the specimens is
conditioned equally. The differences are based on the S/A and slump visualizations, which are engineered by using
different admixture doses.
The three groups of compositions have similarities in the amount of cement, water and total aggregates. Different
variables are the ratio of S/A (sand/total aggregates) shown also in the slump difference. In order to obtain a slur,
slump is adjusted with appropriate dosage of super plasticizer admixture. The higher the slump is set, the larger the
given admixture. Amount doses were given for slump 8 cm (1.3%), 18 cm (1.4%) and 55 cm (2%) as Table 1.
The test specimen is based on the test sequence plan. Group-1 is made first and followed by group-2 on the second
day and so on. Each group of specimens represents the proportion of the specified material. The number of specimens
of each group was made 12 for the compressive strength test and 12 for the modulus of elasticity of the concrete. Of

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these 12 specimens, 3 pounds were taken each test age at 3, 7, 14 and 28 days. All test specimens are made of cylinders
with diameter size 15 cm and height 30 cm.
TABLE 1. Material Proportion for Laboratory Test.
Slump 8 Slump 18 Slump 55
Material
cm cm cm
Cement (kg) 515 515 515
Sand (kg) 625 768 891
Coarse (kg) 1160 1016 891
Water (kg) 125 125 125
Admixture (kg) 6.70 7.21 10.30

All effects on the strength and modulus of elasticity were analyzed from the results of sample measurement and
testing. All samples were flattened by grinding machine before testing as Fig. 5.

FIGURE 5. Grinding Machine.

The weight of the concrete volume measured from the weighing is calculated on average as the weight of the
concrete volume held by the proportion of the concrete variant.

FIGURE 6. Weight measurement.

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 FIGURE 7. S/A and weight sample average.

Ultrasonic pulse velocity test was used to examine the quality of concrete used ultrasonic pulse velocity test, in
which the specimen is categorized well if the speed obtained above 4000 m / ms. Fig. 8 shows how to test UPV.

FIGURE 8. UPV testing.

Result of ultrasonic pulse velocity was shown Table 2.

TABLE 2. S/A and pulse resistance time.
Waktu (ߤ
ߤs) berdasar S/A, Slump Kec. (m/s) berdasar S/A, Slump
Umur S/A 35% S/A 43% S/A 50% S/A 35% S/A 43% S/A 50%
8+/-2 18+/-2 55+/-2 8+/-2 18+/-2 55+/-2
3 69.80 67.20 67.70 4300 4460 4430
70.20 66.60 66.60 4270 4510 4510
70.80 67.50 68.90 4240 4440 4350
7 68.30 68.00 68.00 4390 4300 4410
68.50 68.00 68.70 4380 4300 4365
67.10 70.00 69.30 4470 4290 4335
14 68.10 67.20 67.70 4410 4460 4430
68.00 66.60 66.60 4410 4510 4510
68.00 67.50 68.90 4410 4440 4350
28 66.60 67.40 68.50 4510 4450 4380
67.00 67.90 67.90 4480 4420 4420
65.40 67.70 69.70 4590 4430 4300

In the analysis of compressive strength development, an average compressive strength was obtained for each group
and age. This is to know the patterns that occur in the compressive strength of concrete due to curing effect and
admixture that accelerate the hardening (high early strength). Development of strength was shown in Fig. 9 and Fig.10.
Effect of admixture usage with the aim of obtaining high initial compressive strength as the fulfillment of precast
concrete productivity acts to accelerate strength on the prediction of strength at subsequent concrete age.

050004-5
 FIGURE 9. Relationship between compressive strength and age of curing.

FIGURE 10. Trend of relationship compressive strength and age.

Below is a formula that provides prediction of concrete strength with the following high initial strength variables
[2]
:

ଶ଼
f c (t ) ‡š’ሾ• ቂͳ െ ξ
௧Ȁ௧ଵ
ቃሿ ݂ܿ (MPa) (1)

where:
s = 0.2 (high early strength)
t = time
fc = compressive strength at 28 days

050004-6
 TABLE 3. Multiplier factor k. Fc, to predict the compressive strength of the concrete age.
Age(days) k, high early strength k, normaly early strength
3 0.66 0.45
7 0.82 0.65
14 0.92 0.88
28 1 1

ANALYSIS
Significant influences are also caused by the temperature during casting and during curing. The impact of this
temperature is to increase or decrease the compressive strength of concrete at the age of less than 28 days that shows
in Fig. 11.

FIGURE 11. Trend of compressive strength at initial curing 38°C.

The elasticity modulus value obtained from the non-linear function graph of the relationship between stress and
strain is shown in Figure 12 that the development of the modulus of elasticity of concrete with time.

FIGURE 12. Modulus elasticity vs age.

The modulus of elasticity also depends on the wet concrete, and in contrast to the dry strength property of concrete
which has a higher strength than wet concrete because wet concrete is saturated with water, suffers a slight strain for
the applied stress, thus providing a high elasticity modulus. This can be seen in the development of elastic modulus

050004-7
when the age of 3 to 7 days increase, while the age of 14 days down value, except in the proportion of S/A 35%
because the sand content is less so that the water content is less. Figure13 shows a development for modulus elasticity.

Age (day)

FIGURE 13. Development of modulus elasticity vs age.

In the 3 variants of mixed proportions given, the compressive strength of the concrete is determined by the water-
cement ratio, especially for normal concrete with a compressive strength of less than 60 MPa. However, the modulus
of elasticity of the concrete is substantially influenced by changes in the aggregates content of coarse aggregates.
Proportion with S/A 43% has a stable trend, but at S/A 35% tends to increase an S/A 50% has the lowest value.

CONCLUSION
The concrete that has 3 types proportional with the same w/c and amount of cement, there are differences in S/A
and slump with admixture settings. The results of the analysis explain that some conclusions can be drawn as follows:
x Differences of S/A with cement and w / c have the same compressive strength at the age of 28 days is relatively
the same that is around 69 MPa.
x Testing with ultrasonic pulse velocity (UPV) provides equivalent value of compressive strength of concrete
in all variants of the proportion of the relationship between velocity with qualitative performance concrete has
shown 4000 m/s.
x The development of compressive strength in increasing age tends to be high at age 3 days, decreases at 7 days,
and returns up at 14 days or 28 days due to curing temperature above 23oC, and open space with high
temperature.
x The compressive strength of the concrete is influenced by admixture with high early strength, so the age at the
beginning has a high compressive strength, but the age of 28 days tends to fall.
x The elasticity modulus shows the effect of material proportion that S/A is 50% lower than S/A 43%, and the
highest is S/A 35% at 28 days.
x The pattern of elasticity modulus development is different from the compressive strength pattern, which at 3
days to 7 days shows an increase, decreases at 14 days and increases at 28 days.
x The effect of wet concrete conditions that is up to the age of 7 days, will increase the value of modulus of
elasticity of concrete, and contrary to the compressive strength of concrete that has a low value during wet
conditions.
x The modulus of elasticity at S / A 50% was below the modulus of elasticity of concrete at S / A 43% and 35%
in age progression.

REFERENCES
1. A. M. Neville, Properties of Concrete Fourth and final edition (John Wiley & Sons, Inc, New York, USA, 1996).
2. P. Kumar Metha, Paulo J. M. Monteiro, Concrete Microstructure Properties, and Material (McGraw-Hill, New
York, USA, 1986).
3. M.S. SHETTY, S, Concrete Technology Theory and Practice (Chand & Company Ltd, New Delhi, India, 2005).

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