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Making Concrete Durable - Part 3

By J im Shilstone, Sr.
Chairman, The Shilstone Companies, I nc.
Editor's Note: This installment of a four-part editorial on concrete mix designs
covers aggregate gradation. Part 4 will discuss air entrainment in concrete.
While consulting for construction of a major project for the Saudi Arabian
government during the early 1970s, this writer was charged with development of a
performance specification for a difficult cast-in-place architectural concrete
application.
There was a problem - there were no aggregate
standards and no suppliers of standard
aggregates. After casting and testing various
mixtures and research of old documents, the
solution was to address the grading of the
combined aggregate.
That led to the Coarseness Factor Chart (CFC)
(Figure 1), which is used widely by the U.S. Air
Force, a growing list of state highway agencies,
the American Concrete Institute, and the
American Concrete Pavement Association.
In 1985, Jay Shilstone developed proprietary
software program to help users proportion,
evaluate, and adjust mixture proportions (Ref. 1).
That program included the Coarseness Factor
Chart (CFC) and other means to analyze potential
performance of a concrete mixture and make mix
adjustments as necessary.
The feedback from hundreds of users and
consulting work has led to a unique
understanding of concrete mixtures and their
performance.

Figure 1 - Percent of aggregate
retained on the No. 8 sieve that
is also retained on the 3/8-inch
sieve vs. the percent passing the
No. 8 sieve. The trend bar is a
boundary between rocky and
sandy mixes.

Figure 2
The CFC, 0.45 Power
Chart, and "Percent of
Aggregate on Each
Sieve" (Figure 2)
provide valuable
information that can be
used to anticipate the
performance of any
concrete project.
The CFC addresses the
overall combined
aggregate effect on a
mixture by dividing the
grading of the
combined aggregate

into three parts: coarse
to fill volume,
intermediate to fill
voids in the coarse, and
fine to provide
workability.
The coarse is all aggregate retained on the 3/8" sieve, the intermediate aggregate
passes the 3/8" but is retained on the No. 8, and the fine passes the no. 8 sieve.
The X-axis is the percent of the combined aggregate retained on the No. 8 sieve
that is also retained on the 3/8" sieve. The Y-axis is the percent passing the No. 8
sieve with an adjustment in cementitious materials content from the base of 564
lbs/cuyd. Zone I projects segregation, Zone II identifies a range of potentially
optimized mixture using nominal maximum aggregate sizes from 2" to ", Zone III
is like Zone II except for minus " aggregate, Zone IV identifies mixtures that have
too much fine aggregate that contributes to many problems, and Zone V mixtures
are non plastic due to high coarse aggregate. Mixtures that plot at coordinates 60 -
35 have been found to result in high quality concrete. Literally thousands of
different aggregate blends can be used following this concept.
The 0.45 Power Chart chart shows trends. It was developed for asphalt but is now
widely used for concrete except less material passing the No. 8 sieve is required.
There should be no major deviations in trends. The best fit line can be determined
by human examination of the data once plotted. One should not try to fit it to a
given aggregate size.
The Percent of Aggregate Chart
(Figure 3) shows details. The
sum of percent retained on two
adjacent sieves should be more
than 13% or segregation will
occur at that gap. Many areas
are troubled by a shortage of
aggregate retained on the
number 16 and 30 sieves and
too much on the number 50
and 100 sieves. This leads to
"fatty mortar" that rises to the
top and creates many
problems.
There are other factors,
including segregation,
entrained air, and maturity
(and, of course, factoring the
Figure 3

effect of radiant heat from the
sun).
Improper curing of test specimens during the first 48 hours in hot weather can
reduce the reported compressive strength by as much as 1,000 psi.
______________________
References/Endnotes
(1) Shilstone Companies' proprietary software, seeMIX II for Windows, can be examined at
www.shilstone.com/products/seeMIXII.htm.
About the Author - Representing three generations of service to the transportation industry, Jim Shilstone,
Sr., is Chairman of the Shilstone Companies, Dallas, TX. For more than 60 years, Shilstone has conducted
extensive research on concrete mixture development and analysis. The research results led to standard
changes for several institutions, including the American Society for Testing and Materials; the American
Concrete Institute; and the U.S. Air Force.
Shilstone was recently recognized by the American Concrete Pavement Association, which awarded him its
distinguished Honorary Life Membership, an award reserved exclusively for those who have rendered
outstanding service to the concrete pavement industry and to the Association. Contact the author at The
Shilstone Companies, 9400 N. Central Expy., #105, Dallas, TX, 75231. Phone: 214-361-9681. Fax: 214-361-
7925.

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