THE UNIVERSITY OF HONG KONG

M.SC.CENG.) EXAMINATION

DEPARTMENT OF CIVIL ENGINEERING

CONCRETE TECHNOLOGY (CIVL6013)

Date: May 19,2011 Time: 6:30- 8:30pm (2 hours)

Answer any THREE questions.

All questions carry equal marks.

Use of Calculators:

Only approved calculators as announced by the Examinations Secretary can be used in

this examination. It is candidates' responsibility to ensure that their calculator operates
satisfactorily, and candidates must record the name and type of the calculator used on
the front page of the examination script.

1. (a) Upon full hydration, 100 gram of cement would react with 23 gram of water.
However, only about half of the water in the cement paste can react with the
cement even when the amount of water is less than that required for cement
hydration. Explain why this happens and discuss its importance. (17 marks)

(b) Explain why bleeding occurs in fresh concrete and discuss the adverse effects of
bleeding on the quality and uniformity of concrete. Suggest measures for its
mitigation. (17 marks)

2. (a) Write an account of how high-strength concrete may be produced by adding

mineral and chemical admixtures. (17 marks)

(b) What are the potential problems with high-strength concrete? Discuss how these
potential problems could be resolved so that the high-strength concrete produced
is also a high-performance concrete. Outline the basic principals for the mix
design of a high-performance concrete. (17 marks)

I
3. (a) Explain the causes of plastic settlement cracks, plastic shrinkage cracks and early
thermal cracks. Suggest methods of reducing the risk of having such cracks. In
the particular case of early thermal cracking, is the problem a design problem,
workmanship problem or material problem? (20 marks)

(b) Discuss briefly how cracks in concrete should be repaired. (14 marks)

4. (a) Describe two methods for non-destructive testing of concrete with particular
reference to their applications and the factors affecting their accuracy. (17 marks)

(b) What are the desirable properties of a concrete repair material? Compare
polymer modified cementitious mortar and epoxy resin mortar as concrete repair
materials. ( 17 marks)

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