5.

Production and Testing of Concrete, including Acceptance Criteria

5.1 A New Approach to Recommended acceptance criteria are contained in Table B1

Specifying Fresh Concrete
It is critical that the rheological properties of the tremie concrete
are specified for reasons described in Section 3 and that
conformity testing is implemented to ensure that these properties
are maintained throughout a project.
in Appendix B. These should be considered as preliminary and will
be amended and finalised at a later date based on the results of
the current Research and Development program.
Table B2 in Appendix B presents a typical test schedule and
makes recommendations on suitable testing regimes.

Current standard practice is to specify compressive strength,

minimum cement content, maximum water cement ratio, and
slump or flow. These parameters are often insufficient to fully
describe the required fresh properties for tremie concrete,
particularly in terms of cohesion, flow and flow retention.
Additional tests are recommended as part of the mix
development process to adequately assess the rheological
properties in relation to appropriate criteria, and a selection and
description of the standardised tests is contained in Appendix A.
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and Acceptance Testing
Whilst the suitability testing should involve a wide range of tests, it
is up to the specifier to confirm the rheological properties and the
tests to be used by the supplier to demonstrate conformity, and
for acceptance on site (see Figure 2). These requirements and
tests will depend upon many factors including the complexity of
the foundation works.
5.3 The Influence of Time
It is important that the Contractor makes a realistic assessment
of the period over which the required properties must be
maintained, especially for large pours (> 200 m3 [260 cy]), where
supply capacity is limited, or where supply is complex due to a
congested site. This assessment should include consideration of:-
● Period required to pour the pile/panel
● Transport distance/time from plant to site
● Concrete plant capacity
● Availability of approved back-up facilities
● Truck capacity and number of trucks
● Quality of site access
● Climatic conditions, in particular temperature
A detailed consideration of the above factors will often result
in the requirement to extend the workability life (or flow/slump
retention, sometimes also referred to as open life) using retarding
or workability retaining admixtures, as illustrated in Figure 11.

Figure 11: Extension of workability time

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EFFC/DFI Best Practice Guide to Tremie Concrete for Deep Foundations 22