COTM 6031-Construction Materials

and Laboratory
Harden Concrete Tests
H.K. Werku (Ph.D.)

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 What Affects Concrete Strength

1 H.K Werku
 Factors Affecting Strength
■ Effect of materials and mix proportions
■ Production methods
■ Testing parameters
■ Temperature
■ Curing
■ Age.

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 STRENGTH OF CONCRETE
■ The strength of a concrete specimen prepared, cured and tested
under specified conditions at a given age depends on:
■ w/c ratio
■ Degree of compaction

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 COMPRESSIVE STRENGTH

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 COMPRESSIVE STRENGTH
Compressive strength is the ability of material or structure to
carry the loads on its surface without any crack or deflection
Compressive Strength Formula
Compressive Strength = Load / Cross-sectional Area

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 Compressive Strength Test of Concrete Cubes or
Cylinder

For cube test two types of specimens either cubes of 15cm X 15cm X 15cm
or 10cm X 10cm x 10cm depending upon the size of aggregate are used. For
most of the works cubical molds of size 15cm x 15cm x 15cm are
commonly used.

Concrete cylinders cast for acceptance testing are typically 4x8in or

6x12in (100x200mm or 150x300mm) in diameter by length. 

American Society for Testing Materials ASTM C39/C39M provides Standard

Test Method for Compressive Strength of Cylindrical Concrete Specimens.

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Compressive Strength of Concrete at Various Ages

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 Compressive Strength of Different Grades of Concrete at 7
and 28 Days

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 COMPRESSIVE STRENGTH

Note:
Minimum three specimens should be tested at each selected age.
If the strength of any specimen varies by more than 10 percent
of average strength, the results of such specimens should be
rejected. The average of three specimens gives the crushing
strength of concrete. The strength requirements of concrete.

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 TENSILE STRENGTH
• Tensile Strength can be obtained either by direct methods or
indirect methods.

Direct methods suffer from a number of difficulties

related to holding the specimen properly in the testing
machine without introducing stress concentration and
to the application of load without eccentricity.

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 DIRECT TENSILE STRENGTH

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 SPLIT TENSILE STRENGTH

Due to applied compression load a fairly uniform tensile stress

is induced over nearly 2/3 of the diameter of the cylinder
perpendicular to the direction of load application.
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 Splitting Tensile Strength (σst )

2P
σst = P: applied compressive load
πDl
D: diameter of specimen
l: length of specimen

The test is simple to perform and gives uniform

results than other tension tests.
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 FLEXURAL STRENGTH
The flexural tensile strength at failure or the modulus of rupture is
determined by loading a prismatic concrete beam specimen.

The results obtained are

useful because concrete is
subjected to flexural
loads more often than it is
subjected to tensile loads.

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 FLEXURAL STRENGTH

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 PERMEABILITY OF CONCRETE
Permeability is important because:

1. The penetration of some aggressive solution may result in leaching out of

Ca(OH)2 which adversely affects the durability of concrete.
2. In RɸC opening of moisture of air into concrete causes corrosion of
reinforcement and results in the volume expansion of steel bars,
consequently causing cracks & spalling of concrete cover.
3. The moisture penetration depends on permeability & if concrete becomes
saturated it is more liable to frost-action.
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 PERMEABILITY OF CONCRETE
.
 The permeability of concrete is controlled by capillary pores. The
permeability depends mostly on w/c, age, degree of hydration.
 In general the higher the strength of cement paste, the higher is the
durability & the lower is the permeability.

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 PERMEABILITY OF CONCRETE

There are different methods to measure the Concrete Permeability  out

of them below mentioned tests are most commonly used

1. Rapid Chloride Permeability Test

2. Water Permeability by pressure
3. Ponding with a salt solution

For Detail Read from this link:

https://civilread.com/concrete-permeability/

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 PERMEABILITY OF CONCRETE

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 Thank you!

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