What is meant by “Characteristic strength” (fck) of concrete??

Characteristic strength of concrete is one of the important properties of concrete which

indeed unanimously by design engineer or any other person involved in the construction sector.
The compressive strength of concrete is given in terms of the characteristic compressive
strength of 150 mm size cubes tested at 28 days (fck)- as per Indian Standards (ACI standards use
cylinder of diameter 150 mm and height 300 mm). The characteristic strength is defined as
the strength of the concrete below which not more than 5% of the test results are expected
to fall.
This concept assumes a normal distribution of the strengths of the samples of concrete.

Normal Distribution curve on test specimens for determining compressive strength

The above sketch shows an idealized distribution of the values of compressive strength for a
certain number of test specimens. The horizontal axis represents the values of compressive
strength in MPa. The vertical axis represents the number of test samples for a
particular compressive strength. This is also termed as frequency.
The average of the values of compressive strength (mean strength) from the graph is 40
MPa. The characteristic strength (fck) is the value in the x-axis below which 5% of the total
area under the curve falls. From the graph we can clearly say that 30 MPa is the
characteristic strength of the given concrete mix. The value of fck is lower than fcm (40 MPa-
mean strength) by 1.64σ, where σ is the standard deviation of the normal distribution.
So we can say the given concrete mix has a characteristic strength of 30 MPa or it is a M30
grade mix.

M- Mix
* Note: For a 95% confidence level k=1.64 , hence k value varies on the confidence level of
the experiment
Definition:
Characteristic strength of concrete is the strength of concrete specimens casted and tested as per given code
of practice and cured for a period of 28 days; 95% of tested cubes should not have a value less than this value.
How do we calculate the characteristic compressive
strength of concrete?
Hello and thanks for the A2A

The characteristics compressive strength of concrete is defined as the mean strength

below which 5% results are not allowed to fall.

That simply means if you test 100 cubes of concrete of 15 cm edges and cure them at
27°C for 28 days you should expect the mean strength exhibited by 95 cubes .That mean
strength is given by fck ie the characteristics compressive strength of concrete.

The ways to calculate the Characteristics Compressive Strength of Concrete are :

1. Cube Test : Concrete is poured in the mould of sizes 15 x15 x 15 cm and

tempered properly so as not to have any voids. After 24 hours these moulds are
removed and test specimens are put in water for curing. The top surface of
these specimen should be made even and smooth. This is done by putting
cement paste and spreading smoothly on whole area of specimen. the edges are
filled with concrete .These specimens are tested by compression testing
machine after 7 days curing or 28 days curing. Load should be applied
gradually at the rate of 140 kg/cm2 per minute till the Specimens fails. Load at
the failure divided by area of specimen gives the compressive strength of
concrete.
2. Cylinder strength of concrete : In cylinder strength of concrete the iron moulds
are replaced with 150 cm diameter and 300 cm height cubes which are then
tested in the same way after curing for 28 days.
Generally for concrete in normal strength zone cylinder test exhibits about 80% of
strength as obtained from cube test.
Why characteristic strength of concrete is needed?
The term ‘characteristic strength of concrete’ is based on statistical concepts and it is
equal to that value of the strength of the concrete below which no more than 5% of
all cubes tested from the chosen concrete mix will fall. In other words, 95% of all cube
samples will have strengths in excess of the design characteristic strength.

In order to recognise and accommodate the likely variability in the performance of given
concrete mix due to the batching, mixing and placing processes, concrete’s characteristic
strength is specified which is then used to calculate a higher target
mean compressive strength for design mix. We can determine the confidence level
of a set of samples using the standard deviation (denoted by s) represented by a normal
distribution curve assumed in design for ensuring quality control based on statistical
procedures.

Thus we specify the value “characteristic strength” with which we can have a higher level
of confidence that the strength of atmost 5% of samples will be less than the
characteristic value (majority of samples donot deviate much from the targeted value of
strength) and the entire batch of concrete will give satisfactory results.

Why do we need the characteristic strength?

Because if we are just using the mean we could have some results are way below the
mean. And that could get ugly.

The strength of the concrete (or steel, or bricks or whatever) is often very important on a
project. So, we want to make sure that nearly all of the concrete used in a project is at
least equal to the necessary strength. The characteristic value usually adopted for
concrete is as follows. It is a value such that 95% of the concrete strength results are
higher than the characteristic. Ie, it is a safe value to use.

A number of ways have been devised to come up with that value.