Computational Technique

FAMILIARIZATION WITH Chapter 4
CONSTRUCTION EQUIPMENT
CONSTRUCTION EQUIPMENTS
CONSTRUCTION EQUIPMENT
Construction equipment refers to the tools, machinery, and vehicles used in the
construction industry to build, repair, and maintain structures, roads, and other
infrastructure.
This equipment can include but not limited to: excavators, bulldozers, cranes,
backhoes, loaders, compactors, and trucks.
ADVANTAGES OF USING CONSTRUCTION
EQUIPMENT
Large and complex works can be carried out easily
Faster rate of work can be achieved
High quality of work can be achieved
They can work in adverse weather, topography
Equipments are free from social and emotional factors
Helps make construction site safer
Helps reduce costs
DIS-ADVANTAGES OF USING CONSTRUCTION
EQUIPMENT
Requires huge initial capital
Costly repair
Requires skilled operators
Replaces huge number of labors, may cause unemployment
Less environmentally friendly
Makes work monotonous
Loss of skill
TYPES OF HEAVY CONSTRUCTION
EQUIPMENT
Excavators
Backhoe
Dragline Excavator
Bulldozers
Graders
Wheel Tractor Scraper
Trenchers
TYPES OF HEAVY CONSTRUCTION
EQUIPMENT
Loaders
Tower Cranes
Pavers
Compactors
Telehandlers
Feller Bunchers
Dump Trucks
Pile Boring Machine
Pile Driving Machine
EQUIPMENT FOR EXCAVATION
Excavator
Their general purpose is to excavation but
other than that they are also used for many
purposes like heavy lifting, demolition, river
dredging, cutting of trees etc. Excavators
contains a long arm and a cabinet. At the end
of long arm digging bucket is provided and
cabinet is the place provided for machine
operator.
By changing the bucket it can be converted to

driller, breaker etc.
Excavator on Trails and on Wheels

Dozer/Bulldozer on Trails and on Wheels

Dozer/Bulldozer
Used to push large quantities of soil, sand, rubble.
Used to push with high force
Backhoe
Also called drag shovel or back shovel
It has long handle and one digging unit
Used in digging trenches, footing, pits
Also, found in small sizes
Backhoe
Also called drag shovel or back shovel
It has long handle and one digging unit
Used in digging trenches, footing, pits
Also, found in small sizes
Backhoe
Loader
It has square tilting bucket on the
end of moveable arms to life
and move material around.
The bucket may be removable.
They can be on crawler (trailer)
or on pneumatic wheels
Loader
Loader
Drag Lines
Dragline excavator is another

heavy equipment used in
construction which is generally
used for larger depth
excavations. It consists a long
length boom and digging bucket
is suspended from the top of the
boom using cable. For the
construction of ports, for
excavations under water,
sediment removal in water
bodies etc. can be done by
dragline excavator.
Drag Lines
Dragline excavator is another

heavy equipment used in
construction which is generally
used for larger depth
excavations. It consists a long
length boom and digging bucket
is suspended from the top of the
boom using cable. For the
construction of ports, for
excavations under water,
sediment removal in water
bodies etc. can be done by
dragline excavator.
Clamshell excavator
Bucket shape is like a clamp.
It is used to digging, excavation, lifting
Trenching Machines
Special machines to dig trenches
Used for excavating ditches
Trenching Machines
Special machines to dig trenches
Used for excavating ditches
Grader
Graders also called as motor graders are another type of

equipment used in construction especially for the
construction of roads. It is mainly used to level the soil
surface. It contains a horizontal blade in between front
and rear wheels and this blade is lowered in to the ground
while working.
Grader
Grader
Scrapper
Scrapers are earth moving equipment used to provide flatten soil surface through
scrapping. Front part contains wheeled tractor vehicle and rear part contain a
scrapping arrangement such as horizontal front blade, conveyor belt and soil
collecting hopper. When the front blade is lowered onto the ground and vehicle is
moved, the blade starts digging the soil above the blade level and the soil excavated
is collected in hopper through conveyor belt. When the hopper is full, the rear part is
raised from the ground and hopper is unloaded at soil dump yard.
Scrapper
Scrapper
Power Jack Hammer
Used to drill holes, break concrete

Break rock.
Drilling bit is mounted over the jack hammer.
Power Jack Hammer
Used to drill holes, break concrete

Break rock.
Drilling bit is mounted over the jack hammer.
Breaker
Breaker
Pile boring equipment
Pile boring equipment is used to make bore holes in the

construction site to install precast piles.
Pile driving equipment
This equipment lifts the pile and holds it in proper position and
drives into the ground up to required depth. Different types of
pile driving equipment are available namely, piling rigs, piling
hammer, hammer guides etc. in any case the pile is driven into
the ground by hammering the pile top which is done
hydraulically or by dropping.
Difference between Wheel mounted and Crawler (trailer) mounted equipments
1. Crawler mounted have better capacity to operate in soft soil, rough and rocky
surface
2. Crawler mounted can push large blade load. It has less speed
3. Operating crawler mounted machine gives more fatigue
4. Crawler mounted machines when driven in road, they damage the road
5. Wheel mounted is more flexible and easy to transport
EQUIPMENT FOR TRANSPORTATION
Earth moving work is done by transportation equipment.
A. Trucks/Trippers:
B. Mini dumpers
C. Rail Wagons
D. Loaders
E. Belt conveyor
F. Bucket conveyor
G. Ropeway
Trucks or Tippers
Trucks provide transportation facility for excavated materials or transportation of
sand, cement, aggregates.
Dump trucks are able to dump the materials automatically by lifting body with the
help of hydraulic attachment
Mini Dumper
Front end dump trucks with a small capacity in the front.
Dumping automatically.
Rail Wagon
Mostly used in tunnel excavation or mining
Used when large quantity is to be hauled to large distance.
Loader
Front end loaders are used to carry the loose earth or materials over a short distance
and haul to transporting device or bins of crushers.
Belt conveyor
They are fixed type of transporters, generally used to transport sand, gravels from
quarry sites.
Bucket conveyor
Used to transport materials in vertical direction.
Ropeways
Used when the site is remote, doesn’t have good accessibility for vehicle transportation
They are manually loaded and unloaded. Generally used for quarrying purposes.
Very much useful in Nepal.
EARTH COMPACTING EQUIPMENT
Compaction is done to remove entrapped air in the soil, increase density.
Rollers are used for compaction
1. Smooth wheel roller
2. Sheep footed roller
3. Grid roller
4. Vibrating roller
5. Tamping roller
6. Pnuematic tired roller
7. Frog hammer
8. Plate compactor
9. Hand-held roller
Smooth wheel roller
For compaction of cohesive soils.
Sheep footed roller
Consists of hollow steel drum. Suitable for clayey soil.
The roller pads are shaped like sheep’s foot.
Grid roller
The drum of roller is covered by steel chain grids which gives more pressure on the
surface to be compacted. Used in granular materials when size of grain is larger
Vibrating roller
Ordinary roller, generally single drum steel wheel.
Tandem or tamping roller
2 wheel steel drum type rollers.
There may even be 3 steel wheels.
There may be one wheel vibrating or all wheels vibrating
Pnematic tired roller
Surface rollers
Consists of rubber tires, suitable for clayey soil. They are non-vibrating rollers
Also, suitable for compaction on bitumen pavement.
Monkey Jumper or Frog Hammer
For small area compaction. Used in simple house construction.
Easily portable and hand-held used.
Plate compactor
Handy, small area compaction. Also, used to smoothen the level
Hand held roller
Small drum rollers.
AGGREGATE HANDLING EQUIPMENT
After receiving stones and boulders from quarry, they are crushed into smaller sizes as
required to meet the standard design size. Crusher material is then sieved and
different sizes are separated.
The crushers are classified based on the stage of crushing as:
1. Primary crusher: Stones are received from quarry, then first reduction in size takes
place. Jaw crushers, Gyratory crusher and hammer mill equipments are used in the
stage.
2. Secondary crusher: The crushed stones received from primary stage are put in
secondary crusher to further reduce size. Cone crusher, roll crusher and hammer
mills are the equipments used.
3. Tertiary crusher: This is the final stage after which the aggregates of required size
are obtained. Roll crushers, roll mills, ball mills are the equipments used.
Jaw crusher:
It operates by allowing the stones to flow into space between two jaws one which is
stationary and another is movable. Stone is fed between the jaws, and the crushed
stones get out from the bottom.
Gyratory crusher:
It consists of heavy cast iron or steel frame with an eccentric shaft and a driving gear.
As the gear rotates the stones are crushed into finer pieces.
Cone crusher:
Used as secondary or tertiary crushers. Can produce uniformly fine aggregates.
Roll crusher:
Used as tertiary crushers. Can produce uniformly fine aggregates.
Impact crusher:
They use impact rather than pressure to crush.
Screeing Plant:
Screening is necessary to separate the aggregates by size. Likewise washing of
aggregates is also an essential and important task for mass production of
aggregates.
They are of two types:
1. Revolving screens: used to wash and screen sand and gravel, maintenance and
repair costs are low.
2. Vibrating screens: screen used for large amount of aggregate production with
high efficiency. Screens are installed one above the another.
1. Revolving screens: used to wash and screen sand and gravel, maintenance and
repair costs are low.
CONCRETE CONSTRUCTION EQUIPMENT
Steps in production of cement concrete and different equipment used
1. Form work construction: made of steel or timber, plywood, steel pipes, jacks are
used
2. Proportioning: Proportion of materials in concrete is determined using lab tests.
3. Batching: It is measuring different materials of concrete to correct proportion and
quantity. It is generally done by weight. For small construction, batching is done by
volume. For large scale construction, batching is done using batching plant.
4. Batching plants are of 3 categories: Manual, Semi-automatic, fully automatic
1. Mixing: objective of mixing is to coat the surface of all ingredients of concrete.
Dry mixing of ingredients needs to be done for atleast two minutes before adding
water. Mixing can be done by either hand or machines
 Hand mixing: done for small works
 Machine mixing: two types: Batch mixers and Continuous mixers
Batch mixers
 Drum Types Mixer
 Tilting drum mixers
 Non-tilting drum mixer
 Reversing drum mixer
 Pan Type Mixer
Batch mixers: Concrete mix obtained by this mixer is collected batch by batch and
time by time. So, it is called as batch mixer. After pouring all the materials into pan or
drum, it mixes all of those for some time and finally discharges.
In general Batch mixers are two types.
Drum type mixers
Pan type mixers
In drum type mixers, concrete ingredients are mixed in a drum which is actually in
double conical frustum shape. Drum types mixers are classified into three types:
1. Tilting drum mixers
2. Non-tilting drum mixers
3. Reversing drum mixers
Tilting Drum Mixers Tilting drum mixer means the drum will discharge
concrete by tilting downwards. It is rapid discharge process and used for
larger projects. Rapid means it delivers concrete by gravity that is tilting
the drum downwards because of this the concrete mix obtained will be not
subjected to segregation. Low workable concretes which contains large
sized aggregates of size greater than 7.5cm are also mixed efficiently
with this tilting type mixers.
The only disadvantage of this mixer is sticking of concrete to bottom of
drum. To overcome this a method called buttering of mixer is applied in
which some amount of cement mortar is mixed in the mixer before mixing
first batch of concrete.
Non-Tilting Drum Mixers Non- tilting drum mixers are not allowed to tilt
and the drum rotates about its horizontal axis. For the discharge of
concrete a chute is arranged in inclined position which will receives the
concrete mix from drum and discharges out.
In this case, the drum is opened at two ends and consists blades insides
when materials are poured through one end and mix is collected through
another end. Rapid discharge of concrete is not possible in this case. Due
to this delay, the concrete may be vulnerable to segregation. The larger
size aggregate is not discharged easily with the mix. So, size of
aggregate not more than 7.5cm is preferable for this type of mixers.
Pan Type Concrete Mixers
Pan type mixers consists a circular pan in which concrete is mixed. The
mixing is done by blades which are arranged in star shape inside the
pan. There are two types of pan mixers are available. In one case, the
circular pan is constant and only star blades rotate about vertical axis of
pan. In the other case, circular pan rotates while the blades are at static
position. But in both cases, the mixing is efficient and concrete mixture is
collected through central hole provided in the pan.
We can say among the all types of batch mixers pan type mixer are
more efficient.
Continuous Concrete Mixers
mixing and discharging of mix is continuously done until the work is
complete.
The loading of materials is done continuously by screw feeders.
Continuous mixtures are used for very large projects such as dams,
bridges, construction of high rise buildings, etc.
CONCRETE TRANSPORTATION EQUIPMENT
Transportation of concrete
Transporting the concrete mix is defined as the transferring of concrete
from the mixing plant to the construction site. The main objective in
transporting concrete is to ensure that the water-cement ratio, slump or
consistency, air content, and homogeneity are not modified from their
intended states.
Transportation of concrete
1. Discharge directly into forms through short chute
2. By barrows:
1. Wheel burrows and handcarts.
2. Power barrows or power buggies
3. Dumpers and trucks (agitating or non agitation)

4. Monorail system
5. Elevating towers and hoists
6. Skips operated by cranes or overhead cable ways
7. Belt conveyers and boom conveyers, it can use on small location
8. Tremie
9. Concrete pumps and pneumatic placers
10. Any combination of above.
Direct Discharge, Manual Transport in Containers and short chutes
1. Free fall of concrete over a height of 2 m should be avoided.
2. Long chutes are less desirable as they have the tendency to cause segregation in the concrete mix
Barrows / wheelbarrow
•Manual wheel barrow has capacity up to 80 kg of concrete (2.5 Cu-ft). It is used for long horizontal
distances.
•Power barrows' capacity is up to 800 kg and can be used for horizontal distances upto 300m. They
can also be used to haul concrete to a gradient of 20%. Part of the mixer is single burrow. If you
take a part of concrete in one burrow and the other part of concrete in another burrow, it might be
problematic because uniformity of concrete will be disturbed.
Dumpers and Trucks
•Dumpers and trucks (Horizontal transport) are used for long hauls. Because of the jolting on the
ground, ordinary trucks and dumpers tend to cause segregation of concrete during transit
•Monorail system
•Monorail system needs a track and consists of a power wagon mounted on the single rail track,
which can move at a speed of 80-90 m/min. This kind of tracks are used in construction of tunnels,
dams and other such kind of constructions.
Elevating towers and hoists (Vertical transport)
1. Elevating towers are used for lifting concrete buckets, which can be distributed
using a chute or by other means such as barrows, etc. This kind of transport can
be used for construction of multi-storey building, bridges and towers.
2. Hoists operate on similar principle; a cantilever platform hoist operates along a
steel lattice mast.
3. Concrete skip can be used directly, that can till and discharge the concrete on
some distribution system.
Cranes and Cable way (Two or three dimensional transport)
1. It can be used in projects where concrete is to be transferred across a valley or
some obstruction like a river, sea or road. Cranes can be used for various high
rise buildings and many other type of constructions also.
2. Cranes or cableways may be used for three dimensional transport of concrete.
Cable way is useful in river valley projects; cranes of various types are also
useful in high rise building construction in congested sites.
3. The main consideration in selecting the crane is height and radius of operation.
Belt Conveyor
1. Belt conveyor is used for very short distance, not for large distances
2. Discharge can be as high as 115 cu-m/hour on a narrow strip of belt the main
consideration in selecting the crane is height and radius of operations
Concrete Pumps
1. Concrete is transported through pumps in tunnel construction
2. Generally done for shotcreteing and concrete lining
Tremie
The most common way to use concrete under water
is tremie; this is done by tremie pipe. There are 2
retaining walls beside the tremie pipe. This pipe is
made piece by piece, and concrete is discharged at
the bottom. Only the cement of top surface will
contact with water, rest of the concrete will not
contact with the water. The other method which can
be used for mixing and can transport over a large
distance is through "ready mixed concrete". This is
very much used where the area is congested and
one cannot mix the concrete on site.
COMPACTION OF CONCRETE
Concrete compaction removes entrapped air and voids, transforming the concrete
into a dense mass. According to studies, just 5% of air voids in hardened concrete
can lower its strength by 30% to 35%. This shows how critical it is to compact fresh
concrete.
Methods of Compaction
1. Hand Compaction
1. Tamping
2. Ramming
3. Rodding
2. Rolling Compaction
3. Jolting Compaction
4. Spinning Compaction
5. Vibrating Compaction
1. Needle Vibrator
2. Surface Vibrator
3. Formwork Vibrator
4. Table Vibrator
1. Hand Compaction
One of the oldest methods of compacting concrete is by hand. For minor projects, this technique is
still utilised. This type of compaction method is particularly helpful and cost-effective for compacting
thin parts such as slabs
1. Rolling compaction: concrete is recirculated between rubber rollers under
pressure
2. Jolting compaction: the mould containing dry concrete is jolted at a frequency
of 100 to 150 jolts per minute. This method is used in precast construction like
hollow blocks.
3. Spinning compaction: This compaction procedure is used to make most circular
parts, such as concrete pipes. The excess water in the mix is forced out of the
mould. The initial water cement ratio for successful compaction is 0.35 to 0.4,
which decreases to 0.3 after spinning.
1. Vibrator compaction: Compaction of concrete by vibrators is one of the most
used and beneficial method from all the above mentioned methods of
compaction. In this method vibrators are used for compacting concrete.
This method of compaction is classified into four main types:

Needle Vibrator
Surface Vibrator
Formwork Vibrator
Table Vibrator
Needle Vibrator
1. Needle vibrators are more often used because of their compact size and flexibility in
concrete applications. They’re also known as immersion vibrators, poker vibrators, or internal
vibrators.
2. The needle vibrator is made up of a vibrating steel tube with a flexible shaft and a power
unit. The needle diameter ranges from 20 to 75 mm, while the tube length ranges from 250
to 900 mm. The average vibrating frequency of this vibrator is 3500-5000 cycles per
minute.
3. The distance between the two needle insertion locations should not exceed 500-600 mm. The
time it takes to vibrate the concrete at a certain location should be between 30 seconds and
2 minutes.
4. When the reinforcement becomes too clogged for the needle vibrators to function correctly,
the needles are replaced with blades.
Surface Vibrator
1. Surface vibrators are used to vibrate flat surfaces such as floor slabs, flat roof slabs, and so
on. Surface vibrators have a structure that is comparable to a shopping cart without wheels.
2. The vibrating machine is mounted on top of a flat, heavy square plate fastened at the
bottom. Unlike needle vibrators, these vibrators remain on top of the concrete surface rather
than being inserted into it.
Formwork Vibrator
1. Concrete columns, thin walls, and precast modules are all
done with formwork vibrators. These are firmly secured to the
formwork, forcing it to vibrate and, as a result, transmitting
vibrations to the concrete.
2. When directly coupled to formwork, the performance of
these vibrators is often poor. The vibrator is attached to a
steel plate that runs along the formwork, touching the form
stiffeners, and is attached to a channel or an I-beam.
3. The formwork and shuttering must be solid, sturdy, and
watertight to use this method of compaction. The vibrators
have a frequency ranging from 3,000 to 9,000 cycles per
minute.
Table Vibrator
1. A table vibrator is just a vibrating table that is more
commonly found in laboratories and industries than on
construction sites. Typically, these are used to compact
concrete specimens for quality testing.
2. The table vibrator’s structure is made out of a strong steel
platform supported by flexible springs and powered by a
powerful electric motor.
CRANES FOR LIFTING
Cranes are used to hoist load from one location to another within a reasonable distance.
They provide three dimensional movement.
Classification of cranes:
Broadly classified into four categories
Stationary Crane: A stationary crane can be mounted on a fixed base or more flexible “semi-mobile”
crane base. They have high lifting capacity and can be used for many works. It consists of;
1. Mast
2. Boom
3. Bull Wheel
4. Guys
CRANES FOR LIFTING
Overhead or Gantry Cranes:
Used to handle loads in factories or workshops.

It consists of hoisting mechanism
CRANES FOR LIFTING
Mobile Cranes:
Mounted on mobile units. They can be mounted on trucks, wheels or crawlers.
Tower Cranes:
Used in construction of multistory buildings.
Heavy Lifting cranes:

These are arrangements and systems which allows crawler cranes to significantly increase the
lifting capacity.
CRANES FOR LIFTING
TUNNEL CONSTRUCTION EQUIPMENT
Tunnel construction methods:
1. Cut and Cover: Remove the soil, then cover with circular concrete
2. Using tunnel boring machines: Using special design machines. The daily excavation output of
TBM cans up to 40m. However, it takes more time in case of hard rock and not economical
compared to the drill and blast method.
TUNNEL CONSTRUCTION EQUIPMENT
3. Drill and Blast method
In this method holes are drilled in rocks and explosives are loaded. Blasting is carried out by triggering the
detonator which is connected to the explosives. And the rock particles carried out from the tunnel. The
blasting should be controlled and make sure that adjacent rock mass didn’t get and faults due to blasting.
Otherwise, it will affect the stability of the tunnel.
4. Sequential Excavation Method or NATM:

This method is also known as the New Austrian Tunneling Method (NATM). In this method, the site
for the tunnel divided into several segments, and each segment mined using an excavator. After
the rock or soil mass removed support is given such as pressurized concrete is applied to the
sidewalls and roof (rock bolts, steel mesh, fiber reinforced concrete used as supports) to stabilize
the structure. This method is slow but helpful to work in areas where existing structure nearby
which can’t be replaced.
EQUIPMENT FOR HYDRAULIC CONSTRUCTION
Hydraulic constructions are done in deep sea harbours, off shore drilling oil rigs, construction in a
large lake, etc. In shallow water, construction is done by diverting water with help of coffer dams
and dewatering is done using pumps.
EQUIPMENT FOR HIGHWAY AND PAVEMENT
CONSTRUCTION
Highway construction involves 3 phases:
1. Rough Grading (earth moving)
2. Fine grading (sub grade preparation)
3. Surfacing (gravel, concrete, asphalt)
Equipments used are:

1. Air track drill: A drilling machine for quarry or opencast blasting, equipped with tracks
CONSTRUCTION
CONSTRUCTION
Chip spreader: A chip spreader lays down the aggregate on top of a bituminous binder which is
then rolled by a compactor.
CONSTRUCTION
3. Compactors
4. Concrete plant: A concrete plant (batching plant) combines various ingredients to form
concrete. Some of these inputs include sand, water, aggregate, fly ash, cement.
5. Curb machine: A curb machine takes concrete and creates a continuous curb and gutter
CONSTRUCTION
6. Crushers
7. Motor Grader
8. Oil Distributor: Application of prime or tack coat by oil distributor
9. Paver: Used to lay ashphalt
CONSTRUCTION
10. Asphalt paving plant: It is plant used to manufacture asphalt concrete, blacktop
11. Ready mix truck:
12. Sweeper: Sweeper machines to sweep dirt
13. Water truck: for compaction and dust control
14. Rolers
SELECTION OF APPROPRIATE EQUIPMENT
It is not possible to buy all types and sizes of the equipment. It becomes essential to
select the most owning equipment various factors are to be considered.
1. Type of equipment
2. Operating cost
3. Repair and maintenance cost
4. Availability of manpower and spare parts
5. Economic life
6. Geological condition
7. Weather condition
8. Site condition
9. Transport facilities
SELECTION OF APPROPRIATE EQUIPMENT
1. Availability of fuel/electricity
2. Suitability
3. Reputation of equipment manufacture
4. Environmental criteria
5. Energy efficiency
6. Safety
7. Time limit for work completion
8. Design
9. Accessibility of location
10. Financial consideration
END

Computational Technique

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FAMILIARIZATION WITH Chapter 4

By changing the bucket it can be converted to

Excavator on Trails and on Wheels

Dozer/Bulldozer on Trails and on Wheels

Dragline excavator is another

Dragline excavator is another

Graders also called as motor graders are another type of

Used to drill holes, break concrete

Used to drill holes, break concrete

Pile boring equipment is used to make bore holes in the

3. Dumpers and trucks (agitating or non agitation)

This method of compaction is classified into four main types:

Used to handle loads in factories or workshops.

Mounted on mobile units. They can be mounted on trucks, wheels or crawlers.

Heavy Lifting cranes:

4. Sequential Excavation Method or NATM:

Equipments used are:

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