Pumping of concrete - Challenges &

Way forward

Prakash Nanthagopalan
Associate Professor
Construction Technology and Management Specialisation
Department of Civil Engineering
Indian Institute of Technology Bombay
Mumbai
4th May 2020
 Outline

• Pumping – Why and How?

• Case studies

• Basics (materials perspective)

• Prediction of pressure requirements

• Concrete pumping – Dos and Don`ts

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Pumping

Courtesy:
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Google Images
 Why concrete needs to be pumped ?
• Concreting - inaccessible areas

• Speed of placement

• Minimum labour requirement

• Avoids multiple handling of concrete

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 Components involved in pumping

– Concrete pump

– Placing boom

– Pipe circuit/Delivery line

– Shut off valve

– Cleaning accessories
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 Pumping mechanisms

• Piston - single and double acting

• Screw

• Squeeze/peristaltic

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 Placing Booms
Truck mounted booms Tower mounted booms

Courtesy: http://www.pumppartners.com/documents/schwing31htreach.pdf
 Concrete pump - Switching valves

Schwing Stetter - Rock valve

https://schwing-stetter.com/en/technology/rock-valve.html

S-transfer tube 8
 Schematic of the piston side and rod side

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https://www.putzmeister.com/documents/58410/62433/Putzmeister-Concrete+Technology-BSA+702D.zip/9afd9e4f-6aae-0e53-13e5-c5c28dc3c725
 Piston pump

Animation: Working of a piston pump

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Courtesy: http://www.schwingstetter.co.uk/Pages/ConcretePumpingOverview.aspx
Case Studies

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 Burj Khalifa
Pump Putzmeister BSA 14000 HP-D with
max 310 bar pressure
Pipe diameter Horizontal - 125 mm, vertical - 150 mm
Grade of concrete C80, C60, C50
Test on fresh concrete Flow (> 550 mm for tower and 150±25
mm for podium), setting time,
Temperature.
Concrete properties Flow loss – up to 10%,
(per 100m pumping) Temp. increment - 2 to 3ºC.
Expected concrete C80A (250 m) – 151
pressure (in bars) C80 (450 m) – 170
C60 (600 m) – 290
C50 (600 m) – 199
• w/b ratio = 0.30-0.36
• Fine agg. content for tower was maintained 50%. Coarse agg. used (20, 14, 10 mm)
• Pulverised fuel ash (F class - up to 20 %) used for tower.
• Silica fume used between 5 – 10%.
• Specially modified superplasticiser used to meet site requirements.
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Courtesy: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burj_Khalifa, burjkhalifa.ae, baker et al., 2007, Ghorbanzadeh, 2017)
 Mock test
Pumping trails were conducted with a 310 bar stationary pump.

The pipe (125 mm diameter) length was 600 m horizontally.

Pressure transducers were fixed at 250, 450 and 600 m to measure the concrete pressure.

Five different mixtures were

used.
Aldred, J. (2010)
Fresh and hardened properties
before and after pumping were
investigated.

This investigation revealed that

single stage pumping would be
possible giving insights to reduce
blockages during pumping.
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 Concrete pumps used

3 Putzmeister pumps on the ground floor MX 32 Putzmeister concrete

BSA 14000 SHP-D – 2nos. (max. hydraulic placing boom with 32 m
pressure 360 bar) and BSA HP –D – 1 no. reach mounted on 20 m high
(max. hydraulic pressure 310 bar) pumped steel column.
165000 m3 concrete.

Maximum height pumped = 606 m

Courtesy: putzmeister.com
Sainj Hydroelectric Power Project (Himachal Pradesh)

Hazaree and Mahadevan, 2015

• Single stage pumping*

• Pump (Schwing Stetter) - SP 4800 pump (400 bar)
• Pipe diameter - 150 mm
• Thickness of pipe = 14 mm, 10 mm, 7 mm.

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 Mixture details and challenges
Materials Quantity (kg/m3) Maintaining the consistency concrete properties
at batching point, pumping point, pouring point
Cement 340 is a challenge.
Fly ash 135
Water 200 Temperature ranges = 15 - 35°C
RH ranges = 30 - 100 %
Coarse agg. 948
Fine agg. 766 Priming Grout : Cement + Fly ash (645 kg/m3),
w/b ratio = 0.38, SP = 7.1 kg/m3, retarder 2.5
SP 2.4 – 5.2 kg/m3.

Parameters Achieved Values

Slump flow (mm) 600 ± 50
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Final setting time (hours) 20 ± 1
 Nomogram
Pumping of Concrete till date is mostly relied on Empirical or trial and
error basis

?
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 Factors affecting pumpability

Pipe diameter

Pipe circuit (vertical, horizontal, bends)

Discharge requirements
Pump capacity
Ambient conditions/Seasonal variations

Operations (priming, cleaning, concrete supply)

Flow properties of concrete

(Kaplan et al. 2005b; Eckardstein 1983;
Mechtcherine et al. 2014). 18
 Material parameters related to pumpability
• Flow parameters
• Rheological parameters (Rheometer)
• Workability (Slump cone test)

• Interface interaction between pipe and concrete

• Interface rheometer

• Segregation resistance
• Pressurized Bleeding test
• Segregation Cylinder test

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 Rheology
• Rheology - a science of deformation and flow of matter (BS 5168)

• It investigates the relations between stress, strain and time

• Bingham Model - A convenient approximation for concrete flow

properties

• Herschel Bulkley model - To account for the non-linearity of test

results as compared with Bingham model

• Parameters – Yield stress and Plastic viscosity

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 Concrete flow in pipes - CVC Vs SCC
• Lubrication layer (LL)
• Shearing zone (SZ)
• Plug zone (PZ)

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Courtesy: Revanth Kumar
 Role of lubrication layer
• Improves the efficiency of pumping
• It acts as a ‘lubricant’
• Does priming through grout/slurry is suffice for
lubrication throughout the pumping?

Figure: Distinction between concrete with LL

Feys, (2009) 22
and without LL
 Formation of Lubrication Layer (LL)

• Bleeding

• Wall effect

• Shear Induced Particle Migration

Kwon et al. (2013) 23

 Shear induced particle migration
• Shear induced particle migration occurs by
– Gradients in particle collision frequency
– Results in the formation of different layers during pumping
• Outer most layer mostly contains - fine particles and water
(lubrication layer)

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Dhanapal and Nanthagopalan, 2020; Kwon et al. 2013
Prediction of concrete pressure

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 Pressure prediction using interface rheometer
(Tribometer)

LL + Shear Zone LL + Plug Zone

Universite de Sherbrook
+ Plug Zone

HFC/SCC CVC

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Khatib (2013)
 Testing parameters and their significance
Khatib (2013)

Itrib - Viscous constant

Relationship obtained between

pressure loss and viscous
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constant of lubrication layer
 Pipe Profile Index (Conversion factor)

Sl. Angle Equivalent Equivalent vertical

No. of bend horizontal distance distance (m)
(m)
1. 22.5o 3 0.5
2. 30o 4 0.7
3. 45o 6 1
4. 90o 12 2

• Equivalent horizontal length of pipe considering bends, radius of

curvature and vertical length of pipe.

• Total concrete pressure = equivalent pipe length × pressure loss per m

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Pressure prediction using probe based rheometer

Mock test - Mixture proportion (M30)

Materials Quantity (kg/m3)

Portland cement 290
Fly ash (class F) 120
Coarse aggregates, 20 mm 650
Coarse aggregates, 10 mm 433
Crushed stone sand 785
Free water 170
HRWRA % 1.05

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 Rheometer
Shear Profile

Rheological parameters

Yield stress and Plastic viscosity

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 Pressure Prediction
• When the shear stress at the concrete pipe wall interface is lower than the
yield stress of the concrete, the concrete flow as slip flow.

2𝐿 𝑄.µ𝑖
𝑃= + 𝜏𝑜𝑖 Equation 1
𝑅 𝜋.𝑅2 .𝑘

• When the shear stress at the concrete pipe interface exceeds the yield stress
of concrete, the concrete will experience the slip plus shear flow of concrete.

𝑄 𝑅 𝑅
2𝐿 2 − 4.µ𝜏0𝑖 +3.µ𝜏0
𝜋.𝑅 .𝑘
𝑃= 𝑅 . µ𝑖 + 𝜏0𝑖 Equation 2
𝑅 1+4.µ.µ𝑖

Kaplan et al., (2005)

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 Mock pipe circuit
Pipe circuit (equivalent pipe length 187 meters)

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T Pipe Pressure transducer Data logger Pressure gauge
 Mock test – Results

Parameters Before After

pumping pumping
Concrete temperature (°C) 34.4 35.9
Slump (mm)* 220 150
Air content (%) 0.2 1.5
Fresh density (kg/m3) 2422 2441
Yield stress (Pa) 28 44
Plastic viscosity (Pa s) 146 381

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Pressure prediction using sliding pipe rheometer

(Mechtcherine et al. 2014)

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 hydraulic pressure from concrete pressure

i = Area ratio

• i=3
• Predicted concrete pressure = 60 bar
• Hydraulic pressure required = 180 bar (i.e 60 ×3)
• Pump capacity > 180 bar
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 Decision making
Pump capacity “less than” or “greater than” hydraulic pressure required

less than greater than

Modify the concrete mixture proportion

Pump capacity > Hydraulic pressure required

Start concrete Pumping

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Points to be pondered

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Minimum horizontal clearance

Horizontal starting distance 38

 Laying of Pipe at sites

Hazaree and Mahadevan, 2015

L o n g- r a d i u s r iser b e n d S b end
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s e c ur e d in c o n crete
Concrete Pumping – Pipeline anchorages

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 Pipe line anchoring
The pipe lines must be supported on firm platform with proper mounting of
the couplings* and adequate attention shall be given for alignment.

• Minimises pulsing movement of

Concrete pump and pipe line.

• Controls wear and tear of concrete

pipe line system.

• Protects Rock valve from additional

pipe line load.

• Reduces pressure and fuel

consumption
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Courtesy : Schwing Stetter India
Concrete pumping – Pipe thickness

Periodical inspection of pipe line

thickness will reduce unwanted damages and
increase service life

Replacement of pipes

Wall thickness check with thickness gauge

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Courtsey : Schwing Stetter India
 Concreting Pumping – Shut off valve

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Shut off valve – Pumping upwards Shut off valve – Pumping downwards
 Concreting pumping - downwards

When pumping down, air pockets

may form at the highest point of the
pipeline as the concrete falls away
from it.

Lubricating a descending pipe line Cooke, T. (1990) 44

 Blockages and cleaning issues

Escape of water from the mixture – poor gradation of concrete. This

results in no transfer of pressure to the solids. This results in blockage.

Pore blocker effect – increase in closely packed fines. No escape of

water. Therefore, water exerts pressure on the ingredients to move.
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Kaplan et al. (2005), Khatib (2013), Concrete construction
 Pipe cleaning
Cleaning by pressurized air

Cleaning by water pumping

Cleaning accessories

• Sponge ball
• Cleaning pigs
Improper cleaning Reduces pipe c/s area increases pressure requirements
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Courtesy: Putzmeister
 Pipe related considerations
• Minimum bends in pipes, avoid sharp bends. Each 10o bend is
equivalent to an extra length of pipe of 1 m.

• Pipe diameter shall be 3 times larger than max. size of aggregates.

• Economy of pumping depends on the number of interruptions. Each

time, the priming of the pipes using mortar is required (0.25 m3/100
m of 6 inch pipe), and the pipe also has to be cleaned.

• Aluminium pipes should be avoided.

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 Requirements for pumped concrete
• Concrete mixture should neither be too harsh nor too sticky.

• Desired slump* (note that pumping induces partial compaction, so the

slump at delivery point may be decreased).

• Friction is minimized at the correct water contents.

• Adequate binder/paste content in concrete is generally beneficial for

pumping .

• Other factors that could affect pumping are shape of aggregate,

presence of admixtures such as pumping aids or air entrainment. Air
entrainment is helpful in moderate amounts, but too much air can
make pumping very inefficient. 48
 Summary
• Pumping of concrete is a complex process that involves
interaction between many intricate factors.

• Empirical tests will not be of much use for predicting the

pumping of concrete.

• Nomograms and models are helpful, however,

comprehensive understanding and prediction of pumping of
concrete will be difficult.

• Rational approach through rheology of concrete needs to be

used for predicting the pumping of concrete precisely.
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 Acknowledgement
Mr. Sadanand Govilkar (M.Tech., Civil Engg., IIT Bombay)
Mr. Revanth Kumar (Ph.D., Civil Engg., IIT Bombay)

Thank you

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