Unit 6 Concrete Construction Part ⅠIllustrated Words and Concepts Figure 6-1 A Slump Test for Concrete Consistency Figure 6-2 The Growth of Compressive Strength in Concrete over Time Figure 6-3 Pretensioning of the Steel Stands in the Concrete Figure 6-4 Posttensioning of the Steel Stands in the Concrete Part Ⅱ Passages Passage A Making and Placing Concrete Passage B Handling and Placing Concrete

Unit 6 Concrete Construction Part Ⅰ Illustrated Words and Concepts Figure 6-1 A Slump Test for Concrete Consistency The hollow metal cone is filled with concrete and tamped with rod according to a standard procedure. The cone is carefully lifted off, allowing the wet concrete to slump under its own weight. The slump in inches is measured in the manner shown.

Unit 6 Concrete Construction Part Ⅰ Illustrated Words and Concepts Figure 6-2 The Growth of Compressive Strength in Concrete over Time Moist-cured concrete is still gaining strength after 6 months, whereas Air-dried concrete virtually stops curing altogether.

Unit 6 Concrete Construction Part Ⅰ Illustrated Words and Concepts Figure 6-3 Pretensioning of the Steel Strands in the Concrete Pretensioning, the pretensioned steel strands for a beam

Unit 6 Concrete Construction Part Ⅰ Illustrated Words and Concepts Figure 6-4 Posttensioning of the Steel Strands in the Concrete Posttensioning, using draped strands to more nearly approximate the flow path of tensile forces in the beam.

Unit 6 Concrete Construction Part Ⅱ Passages Passage A Making and Placing Concrete Proportioning Concrete Mixes The quality of cured concrete is measured by any of several criteria, depending on its end use. For structural columns, beams, and slabs, compressive strength and stiffness are important. For pavings and floor slabs, surface smoothness and abrasion resistance are also important; for pavings and exterior concrete walls, a high degree of weather resistance is required.

Unit 6 Concrete Construction Part Ⅱ Passages Passage A Watertightness is important in concrete tanks, dams, and walls. Regardless of the criterion to which one is working, however, the rules for making high quality concrete are much the same: Use clean, sound ingredients; mix them in the correct proportions; handle the wet concrete properly to avoid segregating its ingredients; and cure the concrete carefully under controlled conditions.

Unit 6 Concrete Construction Part Ⅱ Passages Passage A The design of concrete mixtures is a science that can be described here only in its broad outlines. The starting point of any mix design is to establish the desired workability characteristics of the wet concrete, the desired physical properties of the cured concrete, and the acceptable cost of the concrete, keeping in mind that there is no need to spend money to make concrete better than it needs to be for a given application.

Unit 6 Concrete Construction Part Ⅱ Passages Passage A Concretes with ultimate compressive strengths as low as 2 000 pounds per square inch (13.8 MPa) are satisfactory for some foundation elements. Concretes with ultimate compressive strengths of 22 000 psi (150 MPa), produced with the aid of silica fume, fly ash, and super plasticizer admixtures, are currently being employed in the columns of some high rise buildings, and higher strengths than this are certain to be developed in the near future. Acceptable workability is achievable at any of these strength levels.

Unit 6 Concrete Construction Part Ⅱ Passages Passage A Given a proper gradation of satisfactory aggregates, the strength of cured concrete is primarily dependent on the amount of cement in the mix and on the water-cement ratio. Although water is required as a reactant in the curing of concrete, much more water must be added to a concrete mix than is needed for the hydration of the cement, in order to give the wet concrete the necessary fluidity and plasticity for placing and finishing.

Unit 6 Concrete Construction Part Ⅱ Passages Passage A The extra water eventually evaporates from the concrete, leaving microscopic voids that impair the strength and surface qualities of the concrete. Absolute water-cement ratios by weight should be kept below 0.60 for most applications, meaning that the weight of the water in the mix should not be more than 60 percent of the weight of the Portland cement. Higher water-cement ratios than this are often favored by concrete workers because they produce a fluid mixture that is easy to place in the forms,

Unit 6 Concrete Construction Part Ⅱ Passages Passage A but the resulting concrete is likely to be deficient in strength and surface qualities. Low water-cement ratios make concrete that is dense and strong, but unless air-entraining or water-reducing admixtures are included in the mix to improve its workability, the concrete will not flow easily into the forms and will have large voids. It is important that concrete be formulated with the right quantity of water for each situation, enough to assure workability but not enough to adversely affect the final properties of the material.

Unit 6 Concrete Construction Part Ⅱ Passages Passage A Most concrete in North America is proportioned at central batch plants, using up-to-date laboratory equipment and engineering knowledge to produce concrete of the proper quality for each project. The concrete is transit mixed en route in a rotating drum on the back of a truck so that it is ready to pour by the time it reaches the job site.

Unit 6 Concrete Construction Part Ⅱ Passages Passage A Each load of transit-mixed concrete is delivered with a certificate from the batch plant that lists its ingredients and their proportions. As a further check on quality, a slump test (see Figure 6-1) may be performed at the time of pouring to determine if the desired degree of workability has been achieved without making the concrete too wet.

Unit 6 Concrete Construction Part Ⅱ Passages Passage A For structural concrete, standard test cylinders are also poured from each truckload. Within 48 hours of pouring, the cylinders are taken to a testing laboratory, cured for a specified period under standard conditions, and tested for compressive strength. If the laboratory results are not up to the required standard, test cores are drilled from the actual members made from the questionable batch of concrete.

Unit 6 Concrete Construction Part Ⅱ Passages Passage A If the strength of these core samples is also deficient, the contractor will be required to cut out the defective concrete and replace it. Frequently, test cylinders are also cast and cured on the construction site under the same conditions as the concrete in the forms; these may then be tested as a way of determining when the concrete is strong enough to allow removal of forms and temporary supports.

Unit 6 Concrete Construction Part Ⅱ Passages Passage B Handling and Placing Concrete Freshly mixed concrete is not a liquid, but a slurry, an unstable mixture of solids and liquids. If it is vibrated excessively, dropped from very much of a height, or moved horizontally for any substantial distance in formwork, it is likely to segregate, which means that the coarse aggregate works its way to the bottom of the form and the water and cement paste rise to the top.

Unit 6 Concrete Construction Part Ⅱ Passages Passage B The result is concrete of nonuniform and generally unsatisfactory properties. Segregation is prevented by depositing the concrete, fresh from the mixer, as close to its final position as possible. If concrete must be dropped a distance of more than 3 or 4 feet (a meter or so),　it should be deposited through dropchutes that break the fall of the concrete. If concrete must be moved a large horizontal distance to reach inaccessible areas of the formwork, it should be pumped through hoses or conveyed in buckets or buggies, rather than pushed across or through the formwork.

Unit 6 Concrete Construction Part Ⅱ Passages Passage B Concrete must be consolidated in the forms to eliminate trapped air and to fill completely around the reinforcing bars and into all the corners of the formwork. This may be done by repeatedly thrusting a rod, spade, or immersion-type vibrator into the concrete at closely spaced intervals throughout the formwork. Excessive agitation of the concrete must be avoided, however, or segregation will occur.

Unit 6 Concrete Construction Part Ⅱ Passages Passage B Self-consolidating concrete, which fills forms completely without requiring vibration, has recently been developed. It is formulated with more fine aggregates than coarse ones, which is a reversal of the usual propotions. It includes superplasticizing admixtures that are based on polycarboxylate ethers. The result is a concrete that flows very freely, yet does not allow its coarse aggregate to sink to the bottom of the forms.

Unit 6 Concrete Construction Part Ⅱ Passages Passage B Curing Concrete Because concrete cures by hydration and not by drying, it is essential that it be kept moist until its required strength is achieved. The curing reaction takes place over a very long period of time, but concrete is commonly designed on the basis of the strength that it reaches after 28 days (4 weeks) of curing. If it is allowed to dry at any point during this time period,

Unit 6 Concrete Construction Part Ⅱ Passages Passage B the strength of the cured concrete will be reduced, and its surface hardness and durability are likely to be adversely affected (see Figure 6-2). Concrete elements cast in formwork are protected from dehydration on most of their surfaces by the formwork, but the top surfaces must be kept moist by repeatedly spraying or flooding with water, by covering with moisture-resistant sheets of paper or film or by spraying on a curing compound that seals the surface of the concrete against loss of moisture.

Unit 6 Concrete Construction Part Ⅱ Passages Passage B These measures are particularly important for concrete slabs, whose large surface areas make them especially susceptible to drying. Premature drying is a particular danger when slabs are poured in hot or windy weather, which can cause a slab to crack even before it begins to cure. Temporary windbreaks may have to be erected, shade may have to be provided, and frequent fogging of the surface of the slab with a fine spray of water may be required until the slab is hard enough to be covered or sprayed with curing compound.

Unit 6 Concrete Construction Part Ⅱ Passages Passage B Formwork Because concrete is put in place as a shapeless slurry with no physical strength, it must be shaped and supported by formwork until it has cured sufficiently to support itself. Formwork is usually made of wood, metal, or plastic. It is constructed as a negative of the shape intended for the concrete.

Unit 6 Concrete Construction Part Ⅱ Passages Passage B Formwork for a beam or slab serves as a temporary working surface during the construction process and as the temporary means of support for reinforcing bars. Formwork must be strong enough to support the considerable weight and fluid pressure of wet concrete without excessive deflection, which often requires temporary supports that are major structures in themselves.

Unit 6 Concrete Construction Part Ⅱ Passages Passage B During curing, the formwork helps to retain the necessary water of hydration in the concrete. When curing is complete, the formwork must be pulled away cleanly from the concrete surfaces without damage either to the concrete or to the formwork, which is usually used repeatedly as a construction project progresses. All formwork surfaces that are in contact with concrete must be coated with a form release compound, which is an oil, wax, or plastic that prevents adhesion of the concrete to the form.

Unit 6 Concrete Construction Part Ⅱ Passages Passage B The Concept of Reinforcing Concrete has no useful tensile strength and was limited in its structural uses until the concept of steel reinforcing was developed. The compatibility of steel and concrete is a fortuitous accident.

Unit 6 Concrete Construction Part Ⅱ Passages Passage B If the two materials had grossly different coefficients of thermal expansion, a reinforced concrete structure would tear itself apart during seasonal cycles of temperature variation. If the two materials were chemically incompatible, the steel would corrode or the concrete would be degraded. If concrete did not adhere to steel, a very different and more expensive configuration of reinforcing would be necessary. Concrete and steel, however, change dimension at nearly the same rate in response to temperature changes.