German University in Cairo

CIS 401: Material Properties and Testing II

CIS 401:
Material Properties and
Testing II

Agenda
➢ Mix design of Concrete: General Principles
➢ What are the objectives of mix design?
➢ Specifying Fresh concrete
➢ Specifying hardened concrete
➢ The Science & Arts of Mix design
➢ Nature of strength variations
➢ The mix design process
➢ DOE Method
➢ ACI Standard 211.1

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 Mix design of Concrete: General Principles

➢ Specifying concrete for a given application

➢ The Mix design Procedure

➢ Mix design Method

What are the objectives of mix design?

✓ To find a combination of constituents that would

give concrete of properties complying with certain
specifications, economically .
✓ Characteristics of the concrete those satisfy the
needs are the properties at fresh and hardened
states
✓ These properties are selected depending on the
application and expected performance.

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 Specifying Fresh concrete

Fresh Concrete Properties

✓ Slump, Ve-be or Compaction factor Test

✓ The method of placing, section dimension and amount reinforcement etc,

decides the above property requirement.

e.g. slump:
➢ Shallow section: very low; Mass concrete, lightly reinforced beam: low, 25-
75 mm;

➢ Heavily reinforced beam:50-100mm;

➢ Pumped concrete: 100-150 mm.

Specifying hardened concrete

Hardened Concrete Properties

✓ Grade & compressive strength at required age
✓ Tensile strength appropriate age

Durability requirements in terms of minimum

cement content, maximum w/c and minimum grade
of concrete

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 Specifying hardened concrete
Other specification/information
✓ m.s.a, rounded/crushed aggregate grading, grading zone/FM (locally

available).

✓ Specific gravity of aggregate

✓ Type of cement and cement strength.

✓ Type of admixtures

✓ Absorption of aggregate and moisture content.

✓ Degree of QC (Standard Deviation)

Specifying hardened concrete

Fixing concrete Specifications

✓ Recommendations of relevant standards

✓ Realistic, non-conflicting specifications
✓ Consultation amongst all involved
✓ Previous experiences

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 The Science & Arts of Mix design

The Mix Design Procedure

➢ Minimum cost satisfying the specifications

➢ Optimization Problem
➢ Well defined mathematical relationship not available
➢ Empirical equations and experience

Nature of strength variations

The variation is normally

Distributed population:
✓ Average represents mean

✓ SD measures dispersion

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 Nature of strength variations
Mean Strength
Mean= Σx/n s2=Σ(xi-x¯)2/(n-1)
Measure of σ = s
fck
5%
f m =f ck + 1.65σ

1.65σ

The mix design process

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 The mix design process

TMS Water content

Durability W/(C+kF) Workability

m. s. a
Shape

✓ w/c and W known, C can be calculated

✓ Total aggregate content is calculated, assuming
conservation of volume & fine content is
calculated from fine/coarse ratio

The mix design process

C+kF
✓ fc= F{w/(c+kf)}

✓ Workability= F(W, P, Aggregate Packing, F)

FA ✓ Durability= F{w/(c+F)}, curing etc.)

✓ Total volume is conserved

CA

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 The mix design process

Making trial Batches and re-optimization:

✓ Specified property must be measured on a trial batch to
verify final Adjustments;
✓ And yield correct content per unit volume for economic
evaluation
Since design of concrete mix is an empirical, hence no unique
methods can determine the concrete exactly, however, the following
are the methods that can be used to determine the concrete mix;
British (DOE) method, ACI methods, and Empirical method (ECP).

DOE Method Fck Characteristic strength

Fm Target mean strength
Specify fm = f ck + 1.64σ σ or s Standard deviation

✓ Step 1: selection of w/c from curve

✓ Step 2: Estimate water content based on slump/Ve-be time, m.s.a and
shape of aggregate
✓ Step 3: Calculate cement content
✓ Step 4 : Determination of FA based on m.s.a (Max. aggregate size) and
w/c and grading zone of sand from curves
✓ Step 5: Calculate wet density of concrete
✓ Step 6: Calculate total aggregate content
✓ Step 7: Determination of coarse aggregate
o Apparently most logical way of choosing w/c
o Take the shape of aggregate in to account

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 DOE Method
Graphs
Determination of wet density

Specify fm = f ck + 1.64σ

selection of w/c from curve

Determination of FA based on m.s.a

Determine the exposure condition

through description the surrounding
Tables DOE Method environment

Calculate T.M.S

Specify fm = f ck + Kσ

Calculate cement content through w/c ratio

Determine the max. w/c ratio, min. cement, and min. grade expected

Calculate water content

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 DOE Method
Note: How determine the margin of TMS (Targeted Mean Strength)
Fm = f ck + Kσ

Fm mean strength
f ck characteristics strength
K values of constant to set the margin
σ standard deviation

DOE Method
Step 1: w/c determination
➢ 28 days compressive strength
➢ Specify your exposure condition
(Table 4)
➢ Then, determine the max. w/c ratio
and min. cement content through
determine the exposure condition
and type of structure which, off
course will determine the min.
required compressive strength
(Table 5)

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 DOE Method
Step 1: w/c determination
w/c: water/cement ratio
0.5 ➢ 28 days compressive strength

TMS
42
MPa
➢ Determine the w/c* (chosen limited by min. and
max. (0.25, 0.6)
➢ Remember the strength you have is for w/c ratio =
Max. w/c ratio 0.5, thus you specify the curve and then start to
draw the line from fm to determine w/c*

For your knowledge

0.56
0.5

DOE Method
Cement strength class
There are three types of cement
strength class available in the
Egyptian market:-
- 32.5 used for finishing (Plastering)
- 42.5 used for Plain concrete and
ordinary reinforced concrete
structures
- 52.5 used for special reinforced
concrete structures
P.S.:- you will find letter after the
class strength of cement such as
- (N) for normal ordinary
Portland cement
- (R) for rapid Portland cement

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 DOE Method
Water content determination

Step 2: form the table given,

get the water content

w/c*= Min (w/ccurve, cdurability) .

Note:-
In case of CA & FA are different
W = 2/3 * Wf + 1/3 * Wc

Step 3: Calculate cement

content

C = Max (W/w/c*, Cdurability).

DOE Method
Step 4: Determination of FA proportion based on m.s.a and w/c and
grading zone of sand from curves
% passing through 600 µm sieve
1) 15
Grade zone 1
2) 40
Grade zone 2
3) 60
Grade zone 3
4) 80 15 %

Grade zone 4 40 %
5) 100 60 %
80 %
100 %

Obtain p: FA ratio from the total aggregate

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 FA: fine aggregate;
CA: Coarse aggregate;

DOE Method Wagg: total aggregate;

p: FA ratio provided from step 4 through charts
Step 5: Wet density (Dwet) of concrete

Relative combined aggregate = specific gravity of CA * (1-p) + specific gravity of FA * p

DOE Method
FA: fine aggregate;
CA: Coarse aggregate;
Step 6: Calculate total Aggregate content
Wagg: total aggregate;
Total aggregate content (Wagg)= DWet density-C-W.
Step 7: Calculate coarse aggregate content p: FA ratio provided from step 4
(Wagg)= (1- p) CA + (p) FA. through charts
Adding Fly Ash (mineral admixtures)
When fly ash (PFA) is used in the mix control mix proportions are
calculated as usual
Total percentage of PFA (Pf) is fixed as specified/desired.
Water content is reduced depending on Pf
W'= W-ΔW Pf: fine minerals such as fly ash in this case
Water content reduction
Fine
SLUMP SLUMP SLUMP
minerals in
0-10 10-30 60-180
CEMENT
MM MM MM
(%)
Where W’: is the newly water content
10 5 5 10
W: water content already have it through our ordinary mix design 20 10 10 15
ΔW: is the % reduction in water content due to the fine minerals added 40 20 20 20

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 DOE Method

Durability conditions:
✓ For durability max W/(C+F) with max P (total weight of fines)
= 25% of the weight of whole concrete
✓ Wet density is assumed same as control mix (i.e. the mix
without fine minerals)
✓ Total aggregate content= Dwet - C‘ - W‘ - F
✓ Fine aggregate content is calculated as before

The ACI Standard 211.1

“Recommended Practice for Selecting Proportions for Concrete”
The procedure is as follows:
Step 1. Choice of slump
Step 2. Choice of maximum size of aggregate
Step 3. Estimation of mixing water and air content

Step 4. Selection of water/cement ratio

Step 5. Calculation of cement content
Step 6. Estimation of coarse aggregate content
Step 7. calculation of Fine Aggregate Content
Step 8. Adjustments for Aggregate Moisture
Step 9. Trial Batch Adjustments

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 ?
Cement and Mineral / fine minerals contents:
✓ Pf (% total fine minerals) = F (% fine minerals) / (C‘(newly cement content

reduced for adding fine minerals) +F (% fine minerals)) ×100;

✓ Reforming the above equation, F = PC'/(100-p)
✓ W/C* = W‘ / (C' +kF), newly chosen water to cement ratio by
the same way from the same charts and tables
✓ C'=[100 - P] * W' / [(100 - 0.7 * P)(W/C*)], if k = 0.3

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