Concrete Materials

Concrete (PCA, 2003)

• Concrete is basically a mixture of two components: aggregates
and paste. The paste, comprised of Portland cement and water,
binds the aggregates (usually sand and gravel or crushed
stone) into a rocklike mass as the paste hardens because of the
chemical reaction of the cement and water.
• Supplementary cementitious materials and chemical
admixtures may also be included in the paste.
 Concrete Materials: Cement
• The characteristics of cement depend on the
proportions of the compounds of the raw materials
used and the fineness of the grinding of the clinker,
produced by burning the raw materials.
• A variety of Portland cements are produced, each with
characteristics suited to a particular use.
 Concrete Materials: Cement
• The more commonly used Portland cements are:
– Ordinary Portland cement
– Portland Pozzolana Cement
– Sulphate-resisting Portland cement
– Rapid hardening Portland cement
– White Portland cement
– Low-heat Portland cement
– Portland blast furnace cement
– Water-repellent cement
– High-alumina (aluminous) cement
 Ordinary Portland cement
• Ordinary Portland cement is the cheapest and most commonly used cement,
accounting for about 90% of all cement production. It is made by heating limestone
and clay to a temperature of about 1300°C to form a clinker, rich in calcium silicates.
• The clinker is ground to a fine powder with a small proportion of gypsum, which
regulates the rate of setting when the cement is mixed with water.
• This type of cement is affected by sulphates such as those present in groundwater in
some clay soils. The sulphates have a disintegrating effect on ordinary Portland
cement.
– For this reason sulphate-resisting cements are produced for use in concrete in sulphate bearing
soils, marine works, sewage installations and manufacturing processes where soluble salts are
present
 Rapid hardening Portland cement
• Rapid hardening Portland cement is similar to ordinary Portland except that the
cement powder is more finely ground. The effect of the finer grinding is that the
constituents of the cement powder react more quickly with water, and the cement
develops strength more rapidly. Rapid hardening cement develops in three days, a
strength which is similar to that developed by ordinary Portland in seven days.
• With the advantage of the cement’s early strength development, it is possible to
speed up construction.
• With rapid hardening cement, the initial set is much shorter and formwork systems
can be removed earlier.
– Although rapid hardening is more expensive than ordinary Portland cement, it is often used
because of its early strength advantage. Rapid hardening Portland cement is not a quick setting
cement. Several months after mixing there is little difference in the characteristics of ordinary
and rapid hardening cements.
 Sulphate-resisting Portland cement
• Sulphate-resisting Portland cement:
– The effect of sulphates on ordinary cement is to combine with the constituents
of the cement.
– As the sulphates react there is an increase in volume on crystallisation, which
causes the concrete to disintegrate. Disintegration is severe where the concrete
is alternately wet and dry, as in marine works.
– To counteract this, the aluminates within the cement, which are affected by
sulphates, are reduced to provide increased resistance to the effect of sulphates.
– Because it is necessary to carefully control the composition of the raw materials
of this cement, it is more expensive than ordinary cement. High-alumina cement
described later is also a sulphate-resisting cement
 White Portland cement
• White Portland cement is manufactured from china clay and
pure chalk or limestone and is used to produce white concrete
finishes.
• Both the raw materials and the manufacturing process are
comparatively expensive; therefore, the cement is mainly used
for the surface of exposed concrete and for cement renderings.
Pigments may be added to the cement to produce pastel colors
 Low-heat Portland cement
• Low-heat Portland cement is used mainly for mass concrete works in dams
and other constructions where the heat developed by hydration of other
cements would cause serious shrinkage cracking.
• The heat developed by the hydration of cement in concrete in construction
works is dissipated to the surrounding air, whereas in large mass concrete
works it dissipates slowly.
• Control of the constituents of low-heat Portland causes it to harden more
slowly and therefore develop less rapidly than other cements. The slow
rate of hardening does not affect the ultimate strength of the cement yet
allows the low heat of hydration to dissipate through the mass of concrete
to the surrounding air.
 Portland blastfurnace cement
• Portland blast furnace cement is manufactured by grinding
Portland cement clinker with blast furnace slag, the proportion
of slag being up to 65% by weight and the percentage of
cement clinker no less than 35%.
• This cement develops heat more slowly than ordinary cement
and is used in mass concrete works as a low-heat cement. It
has good resistance to the destructive effects of sulphates and
is commonly used in marine works
 Water-repellent cement
• Water-repellent cement is made by mixing a metallic soap with
ordinary or white Portland cement.
• Concrete made with this cement is more water repellent and
therefore absorbs less rainwater than concrete made with
other cements and is thus less liable to dirt staining.
• This cement is used for cast concrete and cast stone for its
water-repellent property
 High-alumina (aluminous) cement
• High-alumina (aluminous) cement is not one of the Portland
cements. It is manufactured from bauxite and limestone or
chalk in equal proportions.
• Bauxite is a mineral containing a higher proportion of alumina
(aluminium oxide) than the clays used in the manufacture of
Portland cements, hence the name given to this cement.
– The disadvantages of this cement are that there is a serious falling off
in strength in hot moist atmospheres, and it is attacked by alkalis.
 Self-compacting concrete (SCC)
• Self-compacting concrete (SCC) is a concrete that does not require
vibration for placing and compaction. SCC was first developed in Japan
in the late 1980s and has since become popular because it offers a rapid
rate of concrete placement and hence faster construction times.
• Vibration equipment is not required, helping to reduce the noise and
vibration suffered by construction workers.
• SCC also has the benefit of being easier to place around closely spaced
reinforcement compared with normal concrete due to its ease of flow.
The engineering properties of SCC are very similar to concrete for the
same specification, although the surface finish is usually of a higher
quality
Concrete Admixtures
 Concrete Admixtures
• Admixtures are those ingredients in concrete
other than Portland cement, water, and
aggregates that are added to the mixture
immediately before or during mixing.
 Concrete Admixtures

• Admixtures can be classified by • 9. Alkali-silica reactivity inhibitors

function as follows: • 10. Coloring admixtures
• 1. Air-entraining admixtures • 11. Miscellaneous admixtures such as
• 2. Water-reducing admixtures – workability,
• 3. Plasticizers – bonding,
• 4. Accelerating admixtures – damp proofing,
– permeability reducing,
• 5. Retarding admixtures
– grouting,
• 6. Hydration-control admixtures – gas-forming,
• 7. Corrosion inhibitors – Anti-washout,
• 8. Shrinkage reducers – foaming, and
– pumping admixtures
Admixture Types (PCA, 2003)
 Concrete Admixtures
• The major reasons for using admixtures are:
– To reduce the cost of concrete construction
– To achieve certain properties in concrete more effectively
than by other means
– To maintain the quality of concrete during the stages of
mixing, transporting, placing, and curing in adverse weather
conditions
– To overcome certain emergencies during concreting
operations
 Air-Entraining Admixtures
• Air-entraining admixtures are used to purposely introduce and
stabilize microscopic air bubbles in concrete.
• Air-entrainment will dramatically improve the durability of
concrete exposed to cycles of freezing and thawing.
• Entrained air greatly improves concrete’s resistance to surface
scaling caused by chemical deicers. Furthermore, the
workability of fresh concrete is improved significantly, and
segregation and bleeding are reduced or eliminated.
 Air-Entraining Admixtures
• Air-entrained concrete contains minute air bubbles that are
distributed uniformly throughout the cement paste. Entrained
air can be produced in concrete by use of an air-entraining
cement, by introduction of an air entraining admixture, or by a
combination of both methods.
– An air-entraining cement is a Portland cement with an air-entraining
addition interground with the clinker during manufacture. An air-
entraining admixture, on the other hand, is added directly to the
concrete materials either before or during mixing
 Water-Reducing Admixtures
• Water-reducing admixtures are used to reduce the quantity of
mixing water required to produce concrete of a certain slump,
reduce water-cement ratio, reduce cement content, or
increase slump.
– Typical water reducers reduce the water content by approximately
5% to 10%. Adding a water-reducing admixture to concrete without
reducing the water content can produce a mixture with a higher
slump.
– The rate of slump loss, however, is not reduced and in most cases is
increased . Rapid slump loss results in reduced workability and less
time to place concrete
 Plasticizers for Flowing Concrete
• Plasticizers, often called superplasticizers, are essentially high-
range water reducers meeting ASTM C 1017; these admixtures
are added to concrete with a low-to-normal slump and water-
cement ratio to make high-slump flowing concrete .
– Flowing concrete is a highly fluid but workable concrete that can be
placed with little or no vibration or compaction while still remaining
essentially free of excessive bleeding or segregation.
 Plasticizers for Flowing Concrete
• Following are a few of the applications where flowing concrete
is used:
– thin-section placements (Fig. 6-10),
– areas of closely spaced and congested reinforcing steel,
– tremie pipe (underwater) placements,
– pumped concrete to reduce pump pressure, thereby increasing lift
and distance capacity,
– areas where conventional consolidation methods are impractical or
can not be used, and (6) for reducing handling costs
 Retarding Admixtures
• Retarding admixtures are used to delay the rate of setting of
concrete. High temperatures of fresh concrete (30°C [86°F]) are
often the cause of an increased rate of hardening that makes
placing and finishing difficult.
• One of the most practical methods of counteracting this effect
is to reduce the temperature of the concrete by cooling the
mixing water and/or the aggregates. Retarders do not decrease
the initial temperature of concrete. The bleeding rate and
bleeding capacity of concrete is increased with retarders.
 Retarding Admixtures
• Retarders are sometimes used to:
– Offset the accelerating effect of hot weather on the setting of
concrete;
– Delay the initial set of concrete or grout when difficult or unusual
conditions of placement occur, such as placing concrete in large piers
and foundations, cementing oil wells, or pumping grout or concrete
over considerable distances; or
– Delay the set for special finishing techniques, such as an exposed
aggregate surface
 Accelerating Admixtures
• An accelerating admixture is used to accelerate the rate of
hydration (setting) and strength development of concrete at an
early age. The strength development of concrete can also be
accelerated by other methods:
– Using Type III or Type HE high-early-strength cement,
– Lowering the water-cement ratio by adding 60 to 120 kg/m3 (100 to 200
lb/yd3) of additional cement to the concrete,
– Using a water reducer, or
– Curing at higher temperatures. Accelerators are designated as Type C
admixtures under ASTM C 494 (AASHTO M 194)
 Gas-forming Admixtures
• Gas Forming Admixtures
– Aluminum powder and other gas-forming materials are sometimes added
to concrete and grout in very small quantities to cause a slight expansion
of the mixture prior to hardening. This may be of benefit where the
complete grouting of a confined space is essential, such as under machine
bases or in post-tensioning ducts of pre-stressed concrete.
• The amount of expansion that occurs is dependent upon the
amount of gas-forming material used, the temperature of the fresh
mixture, the alkali content of the cement, and other variables.
– Where the amount of expansion is critical, careful control of mixtures and
temperatures must be exercised. Gas-forming agents will not overcome
shrinkage after hardening caused by drying or carbonation
 Anti-washout Admixtures
• Anti-washout admixtures increase the cohesiveness of
concrete to a level that allows limited exposure to water with
little loss of cement. This allows placement of concrete in
water and under water without the use of tremies.
• The admixtures increase the viscosity of water in the mixture
resulting in a mix with increased thixotropy and resistance to
segregation.
• They usually consist of water soluble cellulose ether or acrylic
polymers
 Fibers in Concrete
• Fibers made from steel, plastic, glass, and natural materials
(such as wood cellulose) are available in a variety of shapes,
sizes, and thicknesses; they may be round, flat, crimped, and
deformed with typical lengths of 6 mm to 150 mm (0.25 in. to
6 in.) and thicknesses ranging from 0.005 mm to 0.75 mm
(0.0002 in. to 0.03 in. They are added to concrete during
mixing.
– Fibers are typically added to concrete in low volume dosages (often
less than 1%), and have been shown to be effective in reducing
plastic shrinkage cracking
 Steel Fibers
• Steel fibers are short, discrete lengths of steel with an aspect
ratio (ratio of length to diameter) from about 20 to 100, and
with any of several cross sections.
• Some steel fibers have hooked ends to improve resistance to
pullout from a cement-based matrix (Fig. 7-2). ASTM A 820
classifies four different types based on their manufacture
 Steel Fibers
• Steel fibers are most commonly used in airport pavements and
runway/taxi overlays. They are also used in bridge decks,
industrial floors, and highway pavements.
– Structures exposed to high-velocity water flow have been shown to last
about three times longer than conventional concrete alternatives.
– Steel fiber concrete is also used for many precast concrete applications
that make use of the improved impact resistance or toughness imparted
by the fibers. In utility boxes and septic tanks, steel fibers replace
conventional reinforcement. Steel fibers are also widely used with
shotcrete in thin-layer applications, especially rock-slope stabilization
and tunnel linings
 Synthetic Fibers
• Synthetic Fibers; are man-made fibers resulting from research
and development in the petrochemical and textile industries.
– Fiber types that are used in Portland cement concrete are: acrylic,
aramid, carbon, nylon, polyester, polyethylene, and polypropylene
– Synthetic fibers can reduce plastic shrinkage and subsidence cracking
and may help concrete after it is fractured. Ultra-thin white-topping
often uses synthetic fibers for potential containment properties to
delay pothole development
 Synthetic Fibers
• Polypropylene fibers (Fig. 7-6), the most popular of the
synthetics, are chemically inert, hydrophobic, and lightweight.
• They are produced as continuous cylindrical monofilaments
that can be chopped to specified lengths or cut as films and
tapes and formed into fine fibrils of rectangular cross section
Synthetic Fibers
Reinforcing Steel
Concrete Reinforcement
 Concrete Reinforcement-coupling
• Some mechanical devices for splicing reinforcing bars. From
left to right:
– A lapped, wedged connection, used primarily to connect new bars to
old ones when adding to an existing structure.
– A welded connector, very strong and tough.
– A grouted sleeve connector for joining precast concrete components:
One bar is threaded and screwed into a collar at one end of
the sleeve, and the other bar is inserted into the remainder
of the sleeve and held there with injected grout.
 Concrete Reinforcement-coupling
– A threaded sleeve, with both bars threaded and screwed into the
ends of the sleeve.
– A simple clamping sleeve that serves to align compression bars in
a column.
– A flanged coupler for splicing bars at the face of a concrete wall or
beam: The coupler is screwed onto the threaded end of one bar,
and its flange is nailed to the inside face of the formwork.
• After the formwork has been stripped, the other bar is threaded and
screwed through a hole in the flange and into the coupler. (Photo
courtesy of Erico, Inc.)
Spacers for reinforcement
 Spacers for reinforcement
• To ensure that there is the correct cover of concrete around
reinforcement to protect the steel from corrosion and to
provide adequate fire protection, it is necessary to fix spacers
to reinforcing bars between the bars and the formwork.
–
 Spacers for reinforcement
–The spacers hold the reinforcement a set distance
away from the face of the formwork, which will also
be the face of the concrete.
–These spacers must be securely fixed so that they are
not displaced during placing and compacting of
concrete, and are strong enough to maintain the
required cover of concrete.
 Spacers for reinforcement
• Spacer blocks can be made from plastic, concrete or steel.
Concrete spacer blocks are cast to the thickness of the required
cover; they can be cast on site from sand and cement with a
loop of binding wire protruding for binding to reinforcement,
or ready prepared concrete spacers illustrated in Figure 6.11
may be used. The holes in the spacers are for binding wire.
Plastic spacers are preferred to made-up cement and sand
spacers for ease of use and security of fixing reinforcement in
position
Spacers for reinforcement
 Plastic wheel spacers
• Plastic wheel spacers, as illustrated in Figure 6.12, are used with reinforcing bars to
columns and to reinforcement in beams, with the spacers bearing on the inside face
of formwork to provide the necessary cover for concrete around steel.
• The reinforcing bars clip into and are held firmly in place through the wheel spacers.
The plastic pylon spacers illustrated in Figure 6.12 are designed to provide support
and fixing to the bottom main reinforcement of beams.
• The reinforcement slips into and is held firmly in the spacer, which bears on the
inside face of the formwork to provide the necessary cover of concrete. These
plastic spacers, which are not affected by concrete, are sufficiently rigid to provide
accurate spacing and will not cause surface staining of concrete. They are commonly
used in reinforced concrete