Concrete Technology Assignment: Group 60

1. Why concrete is the most widely used construction material? Give 5 reasons.
Concrete is used because of its beneficial properties which include: a high resistance
to water, strong and wear resistant, ability to take many forms varying in shapes and
sizes, quite cheap and widely available and is resource and energy efficiently.

2. State typical values of the following engineering properties of concrete? (a)

Compressive strength (b) Tensile strength (c) Elastic modulus (d) Thermal expansion
Typically concrete has the following strength parameters: a compressive strength of
20-50MPa, a tensile strength of concrete is typically 8-12% of its compressive
1.5
strength, an elastic modulus defined as” 𝐸𝑐 = 𝜌 0.043√𝑓′𝑐 “ and a thermal
−6
expansion is defined “10 × 10 ∘𝑐 ”

3. What is the difference between the terminologies cement and concrete? Can they
be used interchangeably?
Cement and concrete are discrete, ‘Cement’ is a core ingredient in concrete that
binds other materials together whereas concrete is a building material made from
ingredients such as cement, water and rocks/sand (aggregate).

4. What are the major ingredients that make up concrete? What are the essential ones
and what are the optional ones.
Concrete consists of various ingredients such as – aggregates that have
classifications called ‘coarse’ which are usually rocks between 5mm and 20mm sieve
size and ‘fine’ aggregate which are 5mm or smaller sand or sand-like material.
Water is included to produce a chemical reaction which heats and strengthens the
mix. Cement (Portland) is added to bind all of these materials together. Non-
essential materials include pozzolans (Flay ash, silica fume and slag) which have the
benefits of reduced costs and are more environmentally sustainable and admixtures
which accelerate or retard the rate of hydration of the cement affecting the strength
parameters.

5. Why steel reinforcement is used in concrete?

Steel reinforcements are used to increase the tensile strength of the concrete and
also increase the bending resistance of the concrete.

6. Describe the two major factors that contributed to the success of reinforced
concrete. Hint: One involves why the steel in concrete does not normally corrode.
The other is during daily temperature cycles, both concrete and steel work well
together.
 The first major factor is that concrete’s surface which protects against water;
preventing it from rusting and damaging the steel reinforcements within the
concrete. The other factor is that the temperature cycle of steel and concrete are the
same which allows both materials to expand or contract at the same rate within
itself preventing damage.

7. What are the major ingredients of modern cement? Is it different from the ancient
Roman concrete? If yes, what is the difference?
The major ingredients that make up modern cement include limestone, iron ore and
clay. The ancient roman concrete is different from modern concrete as it uses
limestone, volcanic rock and ash and sea water to make their concrete.

8. How old is the modern cement and concrete history? What were the major turning
points?
Modern concrete is roughly 200 years old, and concrete-like materials were used in
ancient Egypt and Roman civilizations. The two major turning points of concrete was
the invention of modern cement in 1824 by joseph asdpin and

9. Define fresh concrete and state two important fresh concrete properties that are
relevant to the engineer.
‘Fresh concrete’ is the concrete’s state before it has set. Properties that are relevant
to the engineers are the workability and consistency of the fresh concrete.

10. How is the quality of the concrete assessed on site? State the most commonly used
quality control test that is used for this purpose.
The quality of the concrete is determined through the process called the “SLUMP
test”, which determines the workability of the concrete.

11. There is one particular parameter in concrete mix design that directly correlates with
the strength of concrete. What is this parameter? Describe the relationship between
the strength and this parameter in words or graphs (no equations necessary).

The parameter that dictates the strength of the concrete is the water to cement
ratio. The ratio indicates that the less water there is the stronger the concrete is.
(graph below indicating the relationship)
12. What is shrinkage in concrete? There is a 5 m concrete slab that is cast on the
ground and it is free to shrink without any restraints. After shrinkage occurs over
time (eg. 1 year), estimate the shortening length of the slab due to shrinkage. Use
only approximate calculations to choose in which range the answer is likely to be: (a)
0.01 to 0.05 mm; (b) 0.05 to 1 mm; (c) 1 to 5 mm; (d) 5 to 10 mm; (e) 10 to 50 mm;
(d) 50 to 100 mm; (e) 100 to 500 mm; (f) 500 to 1000 mm.

After a year a concrete slab will typically shrink 1 to 5mm (c).

13. How long does a typical concrete take to set? Choose one of the following answers:
(a) 1 min; (b) 10 mins; (c) 30 mins; (d) 2 hours; (e) 5 hours; (f) 10 hours; (g) 24 hours;
(h) 7 days; (i) 28 days.
It typically takes 28 days for the concrete to reach ~90% strength.

14. What is the difference between ready-mixed concrete (or premixed concrete) and
site mixed concrete? Which one is the most commonly used type in Australia.
Ready-mixed concrete has been prepared and mixed before packaging which
provides consistency over site mixed as it needs to be mixed physical on site possibly
lower the quality of the concrete. In Australia ready-mixed concrete is more
prevalent due to the benefits listed earlier.
Sleipner A-North Sea Oil Platform 1991

The Sleipner platform was taken for scheduled testing on the morning of August 23 rd, 1991.
The testing was to bring the GBS to a depth where it would mate with its deck, but with 5m
to go to this depth there was a large noise that came from within one of these cells [1]. The
deballasting pumps could not handle the amount of water that was flooding the cells and
the whole structure was underwater within 18 minutes [1]. Straight after the accident a
team set to investigate what happened to the structure and what the causes were.

When the structure hit the bottom of the sea, it had so much force that it produced a
seismic reading of 3 and reduced the cells to rubble [1], this ruling out any identification of
the problem through examining physical evidence. All of the work to uncover the problem
had to be done through scenarios and various other means. It was found through these
scenarios and tests that it was in fact the tricell that was the area to blame for the failure.
The tricell was a section of the structure that connected the cells together. The investigation
pointed to this tricell being an area of weakness [1]. Also after further calculations, it was
found that at the time of the failure the tricell walls were close to the maximum capacity [1].
Looking to how this happened, investigators found fault in the program the company was
using to design the structure, determining that this program ‘NASTRAN’ underestimated the
shear forces that the tricell walls would be subject to by up to 45% [1].

Massive learning curves were had after this accident and design philosophy was changed
because of it. Barry states that greater team communication and consultation could have
prevented this accident. He further goes on to say that treating the new situations like old
ones isn’t always the best way stating that extrapolation was a key contributor to the failure
of the GBS [1]. Design philosophy requires greater amounts of criteria must be ticked off
and more extensive risk analysis’s must be performed before construction begins [2].

The main lessons learnt from this accident can be to always re-check calculations, not just
self-check but have a team of engineers to recheck them. Also not to rely on past
experiences to determine new ones and to treat new projects with the same care and
accuracy as if it was the first ever project.

References:

[1]

Barry, J, The Loss of the Sleipner Platform, PDF file visited 21st August 2017,

https://www.google.com.au/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=4&ved=0ahUKEw
iMi6mzjbvOAhVEGJQKHeGFA8sQFggzMAM&url=http%3A%2F%2Fjournals.library.mun.ca%2
Fojs%2Findex.php%2Fprototype%2Farticle%2Fdownload%2F422%2F567&usg=AFQjCNFU8w
B7FJow5pBslYeHy8Syd6UL1w&sig2=PxjhMZb9xOEEYCAMLk9m6A
[2]

Tretiakova, K, Sleipner A – North Sea Oil Platform Collapse, Visited 12th August 2016

https://failures.wikispaces.com/Sleipner+A+-+North+Sea+Oil+Platform+Collapse