01-10-2021

CEC203: Building Material, Construction and Management

Department of Civil Engineering
Indian Institute of Technology (Indian School of Mines) Dhanbad

Tensile cylinder strength of concrete

• Usually the tensile strength is

expressed in relation to the
compressive strength of the
concrete.
• Tensile strength is measured as
the ‘modulus of rupture’ or the
‘split cylinder’ strength.

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 01-10-2021

CEC203: Building Material, Construction and Management

Department of Civil Engineering
Indian Institute of Technology (Indian School of Mines) Dhanbad

Flexural strength of concrete

• Design of some concrete

structures is ‘governed’ by
flexural strength.
• Determining the flexural
strength of concrete by the
third point loading and the
centre point loading of
prismatic concrete specimens

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 01-10-2021

CEC203: Building Material, Construction and Management

Department of Civil Engineering
Indian Institute of Technology (Indian School of Mines) Dhanbad

MIX DESIGN
of
CONCRETE

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 01-10-2021

CEC203: Building Material, Construction and Management

Department of Civil Engineering
Indian Institute of Technology (Indian School of Mines) Dhanbad

Concrete as a multiphase composite

AIR

WATER

CEMENT

SAND

GRAVEL

Slice of normal
concrete Models showing constituent
elements
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 01-10-2021

CEC203: Building Material, Construction and Management

Department of Civil Engineering
Indian Institute of Technology (Indian School of Mines) Dhanbad

Properties that we look for

• Fresh state – shows behavior similar to that of a fluid,
can be pumped, acquires the shape of the mold in which
it is poured and little resistance to deformation.
• Hardened state – solid material with substantial
compressive strength and so on.

• Fresh Properties
• Workability • Hardened Properties
• Air content • Compressive strength
• Segregation • Tensile strength
• Setting time • Permeability
• Bleeding
• Temperature

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 01-10-2021

CEC203: Building Material, Construction and Management

Department of Civil Engineering
Indian Institute of Technology (Indian School of Mines) Dhanbad

Properties that we look for

Functionally, the concrete should satisfy laid down
criteria for:
a) Fresh state (e.g. have required workability, air
content, etc.)
b) Hardened state (e.g. have adequate strength)
c) Durability (in terms of restrictions on parameters
such as w/c, cement content)
d) Other properties, such as temperature rise during
setting, setting time, etc.

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 01-10-2021

CEC203: Building Material, Construction and Management

Department of Civil Engineering
Indian Institute of Technology (Indian School of Mines) Dhanbad

Objective of Mix Design

To find a suitable combination of relative amounts of sand,

water, coarse aggregate and cement, so that the concrete,
• has the required properties in the fresh and hardened state
• meets durability and other requirements depending on the
structure and the environment

Disclaimer: Though the use of both chemical and mineral

admixtures is highly prevalent, the discussion in this module
deals only with basic concrete ingredients: water, cement and
aggregates

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 01-10-2021

CEC203: Building Material, Construction and Management

Department of Civil Engineering
Indian Institute of Technology (Indian School of Mines) Dhanbad

Basic concepts
• Characteristic strength
• Target mean strength
• Water-slump relationship
• Water/cement ratio – strength relationship
• s/a ratio
• Free water-cement ratio

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 01-10-2021

CEC203: Building Material, Construction and Management

Department of Civil Engineering
Indian Institute of Technology (Indian School of Mines) Dhanbad

Characteristic strength and Target mean strength

If a large number of samples of a given concrete are tested for
strength – each sample will have different strength and likely
to get a set of results that are ‘normally distributed’.
Thus, a concrete can be characterized by a ‘mean strength’
and a ‘standard deviation’.

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 01-10-2021

CEC203: Building Material, Construction and Management

Department of Civil Engineering
Indian Institute of Technology (Indian School of Mines) Dhanbad

Characteristic strength and Target mean strength

What causes ‘variation in concrete quality ?

• Quality of constituents materials

• Proportioning (weighing) of constituents
• Mixing (e.g. time, method, mixer)
• Preparation of specimens
• Curing of specimens
• Testing of specimens (rate of loading, specimen
condition, etc.)
• Age – especially at early ages, the strength is likely to
vary higher than that at later ages !!
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 01-10-2021

CEC203: Building Material, Construction and Management

Department of Civil Engineering
Indian Institute of Technology (Indian School of Mines) Dhanbad

Characteristic strength and Target mean strength

Though it is an over-simplification of the issues involved, it can be stated that:
Mean strength is related to the quality and proportioning of the constituents
of concrete
Standard deviation is a measure of the ‘variation’ in the quality of concrete.

• Concretes A and C have

same ‘quality control’.
• Level of quality control in
C concrete B is less than
A
that of A
• Mean strengths of A and
B are same
B • Mean strength of
concrete C is greater than
that of A
Strength
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Mean (M1) purpose
Mean (M2)
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