You are on page 1of 47

Concrete Ingredients

1
History

Concrete is an ancient material of construction, first


used during the Roman Empire

Concrete today is a sophisticated material to which


exotic (foreign) constituents can be added and,
with computer-controlled batching, can produce a
product capable of achieving 50,000 psi
compressive strength.

2
Concrete
Concrete is a mixture of portland cement
or any other hydraulic cement, fine aggregate,
coarse aggregate, and water, with or without
admixtures.

3
Concrete popular / Universal
construction / building material
i. Concrete is the second most consumed substance in
the world after water.
ii. All over the world, approximately for 80% of the
construction concrete is required,.
iii. The cement and water form a paste that hardens and
bonds the aggregates together.
iv. Concrete is often looked upon as “man made rock”.
v. Concrete has strength, durability, and economy.

4
Vi It can be placed or molded into virtually any shape and
reproduce any surface texture.
Vii Concrete gives us reasonably good compressive strength,
Viii Concrete possesses excellent water resistant,,
ix It is durable. Its life span is more than the life span of man.
Usually the life span of concrete is 100 years or more,
X Relatively inexpensive, it is reasonably priced because in
concrete, we use local material such as sand, stone and
labor. Hence cost of construction is reduced,

5
Xi Concrete has good bond with steel, makes it best
reinforcement. Coefficient of linear expansion of steel and
concrete is almost equal.
Xii Worldwide each year, the making of concrete consumes 1.6
billion tons of portland cement, 10 billions tons of sand and
rock, and 1 billion tons of water thus making the
construction the largest user of natural resources in the
world.

6
Weakness of Concrete
i. Normal concrete has comparatively low tensile strength
and for structural applications it is normal practice to
incorporate steel bars to resist tensile forces. Tensile
strength of concrete is approximately 10% of its
compressive strength and is not reliable because of
shrinkage cracks.
ii. Volume changes
iii. Low ductility (brittle)
iv. Low strength to weight ratio

7
Concrete Ingredients
The ingredients of concrete are:
1. Cement,
2. Water,
3. Aggregates,
4. Admixtures.
The type, quality, and proportioning of these ingredients affect
the curing rate, compressive strength and durability of the
concrete. Chemical admixtures can be used to enhance
one or more properties of the concrete or to improve its
handling and placing characteristics.
8
1. Cement

9
10
Cement (Cont’d)
Weight of one bag of
cement: 50Kg

Volume of one bag of


cement: 1.25 ft3

11
Cement (Cont’d)

• Cement + water = cement paste


• Cement + water + sand = mortar
• Cement + water + sand + lime = masonry mortar
• Cement + water + sand + coarse aggregate = concrete

12
Cement (Cont’d)

 A hydraulic cement capable of setting, hardening and


remaining stable under water.
 The cement (dry powder of very fine particles) powder,
when mixed with water, forms a paste.
 This paste acts like glue and holds or bonds the
aggregates together.
 The cement has as many as 1.1 x 10 12

particles per kilogram.

13
Cement (Cont’d)

 The amount of coal required to manufacture one


tonne (2200lb) of cement is between 100 kg and
350 kg depending upon the process used.

14
Cement (Cont’d)

Setting Time:
 Cement paste setting time is affected by a
number of items including: cement fineness,
water-cement ratio, chemical content (especially
gypsum content) and admixtures.

 Setting tests are used to characterize how a


particular cement paste sets. For construction
purposes, the initial set must not be too soon
and the final set must not be too late.

15
Cement (Cont’d)

 Additionally, setting times can give some indication of


whether or not cement is undergoing normal hydration
(PCA, 1988). Normally, two setting times are defined:

 Initial set. Occurs when the paste begins to stiffen


considerably.
 Final set. Occurs when the cement has hardened to the
point at which it can sustain some load.

16
Cement (Cont’d)

ASTM C 150 SPECIFIED SET


TIMES BY TEST METHOD
Time
Test Method Set Type
Specification

Initial ≥ 45 minutes
Vicat
Final ≤ 375 minutes

17
Cement (Cont’d)

Storage
 Cement should be stored off the ground in a well-aired,
clean, dry place.
 Cement should not be place directly on floors but on
wooden plate form.
 Wrapping the cement bags in plastic sheets gives extra
protection,
 Cement bags should not be be piled to a height
exceeding 2m.
 Bulk cement will normally be stored in silos.
 Strength of cement decreased on long time storage.

18
2. Water

19
Water (Cont’d)

Water
I. Good water is essential for quality concrete.
II. It should be good enough to drink--free of silt, salt or any
organic matter.
III.The strength and other properties of concrete are highly
dependent on the amount of water and the water-cement
ratio.
IV.Water is needed for two purposes:
 chemical reaction with cement
 workability

20
Water (Cont’d)

V. only 1/3 of the water is needed for chemical


reaction
VI. Good for preventing plastic shrinkage cracking
and workability
VII. Bad for permeability, strength, durability.

21
3. Aggregates

22
Aggregates

23
24
Aggregates (Cont’d)

 Aggregates are inert granular materials such as


sand, gravel, or crushed stone that, along with
water and Portland cement, are an essential
ingredient in concrete.
 For a good concrete mix, aggregates need to be
clean, hard, strong particles free of absorbed
chemicals or coatings of clay and other fine
materials that could cause the deterioration of
concrete.

25
Aggregates (Cont’d)

 Aggregates, which account for 60 to 75


percent of the total volume of concrete,
are divided into two distinct categories,
i.e.:
 Fine aggregates
 Coarse aggregates

26
Aggregates (Cont’d)

I. “Fine aggregate” is
defined as material that
will pass a No. 4 ASTM
sieve (4.75mm) and be
retained on a No. 200
sieve (0.075mm).

 Fine aggregate content


usually 25% to 30% by
mass or volume of the
total aggregate.

27
Fine Aggregates (SAND)

28
Aggregates (Cont’d)

II. Coarse aggregate is a material that will


pass the 3-inch screen and will be
retained on the No. 4 ASTM sieve.

29
Aggregates (Cont’d)

30
Aggregates (Cont’d)

 Aggregates strongly influence concrete's freshly mixed


and hardened properties, mixture proportions, and
economy.
 characteristics that are considered when selecting
aggregate include:
 grading
 durability
 particle shape and surface texture
 abrasion and skid resistance
 unit weights and voids
 absorption and surface moisture
31
Aggregates (Cont’d)

Aggregates should be:


 Strong and hard a stronger, harder aggregate will give a
stronger final concrete.

 Never use a crumble or flakey rock like sandstone.

 Durable to stand up to wear and tear and weathering.

 Chemically inactive so the aggregates don’t react with


the cement.

32
Aggregates (Cont’d)

 Clean dirt or clay sticking to the aggregates will weaken


the bond between paste and aggregates.

 Graded aggregates should range in size so that they fit


together well. This gives a stronger and denser concrete.

 Rounded aggregates give a more workable mix. Angular


aggregates make concrete harder to place, work and
compact, but can make concrete stronger.

33
Aggregates (Cont’d)

Storage
Aggregates should be stored where they will
stay clean, separated from other materials
and dry. If the aggregates are very wet
use less water in the mix.

34
ADMIXTURES
Admixtures
• admixture is a material other than hydraulic
cement, aggregate, or water, used as an
ingredient of concrete and added to concrete
before or during its mixing to modify its
properties
• Admixtures are used to obtain following
objectives
i) to accelerate or retard setting and hardening
ii) to improve workability
iii) to decrease permeability
iv) to increase strength
v) to improve durability.
& to impart other desired properties
Types of admixtures
1) Chemical admixtures
a) Air entraining agents
b) accelerating admixtures
c) set retarding admixtures
d) plastisizers
e) superplastisizers
2 : Mineral admixtures

i) fly ash
ii) silica flume
Chemical admixtures
Air entraing admixtures
• Most commonly used admixture at the
present time
• They caused the entrainment of air in the
form of dispersed bubbles in the concrete.
• Improve workability and durability
• Reduce segregation during placing
• Decrease concrete density because of the
increased void ratio and thereby strength
decrease.however this decrease can be
partially offset by a reduction of mixing
water
Accelerating admixtures
• Used to reduce setting time and
accelerate early strength development
• Calcium chloride is the most widely used
accelerator because of its cost-
effectiveness
• should be used with caution in reinforced
concrete in a moist environment ,because
of its tendency to promote corrosion of
steel.
Set –retarding admixtures

Used to offset the accelerating effect of


high ambient temperatures and to keep
the concrete workable during the entire
placing period
This helps to eliminate cracking due to form
deflection and also keep concret workable
long enough
plasticizers
• These are organic & inorganic compounds
• used to reduce the water requirements of
a concrete mix for a given slump
• Plastisizers work by reducing the
interparticle forces that exist between the
cement grains in the fresh paste, thereby
increasing the paste fluidity.
Superplastisizers
• High range water reducing admixtures
• Used in high strength concrete with a very
low w/c while mantaining higher slump
needed for proper placement and
compaction of concrete.
B: Mineral admixtures
a) Fly Ash
• It is precipitated electrostatcally as a by
product of the exhaust fumes coal fired
power stations
• Reacts with calcium hydroxide present in
the cement in the presence of moisture to
form a cementitious material.
• Tends to increase the strength at ages
over 28 days
b) Silica Fumes
• It is a by product resulting from the
manufacture of ferro – silicon alloys and
silicon metal
• Highly cementitious when combined with
portland cement
• In contrast to flyash, silica fume mainly
contribute to strength gain at early ages,
from 3 to 28 days.
• Produce high strength concrete

You might also like