Computational Model : Compressive Strength Of Concrete Composites

One damaging effect is freezing water. When water melts, it absorbs into the pores and capillaries. As the water freezes and expands, it weakens the strength of the concrete. This causes concrete scaling, delamination, and cracking.

Aggregate is one of the basic constituents of concrete. Its quality is of considerable importance because about three-quarter of the volume of concrete is occupied by aggregates. One of the physical properties of aggregate that influence the property of concrete is the grading of aggregate. The grading of aggregate defines the proportions of particles of different size in the aggregate. The grading of fine (size < 5 mm) and coarse (size > 5 mm) aggregates are generally required to be within the limits specified in BS 882: 1992.

Concrete is a composite material used widely in the construction industry. Concrete is basically a mixture of cement, water, aggregates and admixture (sometimes). Cement is a fine gray powder that consists of oxidizes calcium, silicon and aluminum. The aggregate used is normally gravel, crushed stone or sand. Admixture is a solid or liquid substance that gives a certain characteristics of the concrete. The cement reacts with water chemically and binds the aggregates together through a process called hydration during hardening or curing of concrete. It means that water helps in the hardening of the concrete while the cement bind the aggregate and also react with water to form a solid mass.

Concrete is a important product that is used in the construction of building and infrastructures. A concrete has to have strength, durability and quality to make a strong and stable infrastructure. This study will tell us does ACC concrete mix is a very good product in the market. Does it pose a strong contender to its competitors in the current market and does the brand image of ACC ltd. plays any role in purchasing of its products.

Concrete is the second most utilized substance in the world after water and is the most widely used construction material with an annual global production of about 10 billion tonnes. It is preferred in most structures because of its unique properties such as durability and high compressive strength. It is however relatively weak in tension, its tensile strength being about 10-15 % of its compressive strength requiring that it be reinforced with materials such as steel rods, glass or plastic fibers in order to improve its ductility. It is also prone to slight shrinkage during the drying process and may lead to cracking especially in normal strength concretes. (R. I. Gilbert, 2001). As defined by the Portland Cement Association, the durability of concrete is its ability to counteract abrasion, weathering action and chemical attack, and still maintain its desired engineering properties. The proportioning and interactions between concrete ingredients, placement and curing practices as well as the service environment determine this ultimate durability and life. The ideal situation therefore in any construction project is to choose the correct concrete type which will be more durable based on the project requirements.

The testing is done in a laboratory off-site. The only work done on-site is to make a concrete cylinder for the compression test. The strength is measured in Megapascals (MPa) and is commonly specified as a characteristic strength of concrete measured at 28 days after mixing. The compressive strength is a measure of the concrete’s ability to resist loads which tend to crush it.

Portland cement concrete has been used in the field of construction since the early Roman empire, but until the early twentieth century transporting concrete to great heights or distances was a big challenge. With the invention of the concrete pump handling concrete using wheelbarrows or buckets became obsolete because they require less man-power and can reach those hard-to-get places with ease. There are three types of concrete pumps being used in construction today: truck mounted, trailer mounted or specialized. Each style of concrete pump has it’s advantages and can be tailor made for different construction applications. There is one drawback in using concrete pumps, standard concrete designs can not be used since it is too viscous and would require much larger pumps to reach the required heights. Therefore, admixtures must be added to the concrete design to change the chemical composition of the concrete to make it more flowable. Admixtures are also used to help slow down or speed up setting time, or reduce the amount of water required in the mix depending on the construction site requirements. With such a vast range of applications that concrete pumps can be used for, concrete construction has seen a great increase in production, efficiency, cost-reduction and even safety.

Concrete is a vital construction material and establishing the compressive strength is key as the ability to maximise the compressive strength will enhance a structures lifespan. Mortar is formed through the mixing of cement and water before being cast to harden. When the cement and water is mixed the process of hydration occurs forming a paste which then hardens. Once concrete is cast and dries the presence of curing time is important. Not all chemical reactions occur quickly, therefore by curing concrete in water for several days it allows all reactions to complete. Therefore allowing concrete to cure for up to 28 days should ensure that the compressive strength is maximised and it should meet industry standards.

Reinforced concrete is a common building material for the construction of facilities and structures.  While concrete has a high compressive strength, it has a very limited tensile

Strength is defined as the maximum load that a material can carry. The strength of concrete usually increases when other properties of the material improves. Combined with the simple tests for strength, it makes strength a common and reliable way of measuring the quality of concrete.

amount of mix needed to achieve the desired result is an iterative process. This is

This experiment was therefore aimed at determining the ultimate compressive strength of different concrete samples after 14 days. Additionally, other properties of the concrete such as modulus of elasticity and Poisson ratio were also determined.

The strength of concrete used in the design is 40 MPa for Piles, and 60 MPa for Pile Caps, Columns, Towers, and Girders. In addition, Micro silica is added to increase concrete strength as well as providing sulfate resistance by decreasing average size of pores in the cement paste.

The macroscopic material behavior of concrete is influenced by the geometry, spatial distribution and material properties of individual material constituents and their mutual interactions. Therefore, it is essential to study the influence of each material constituent in order to estimate the residual strength of the structural components. Thus, failure of concrete is a complex phenomenon due to its multiscale and multiphase nature. When the normal stress in a material reaches its tensile strength, the inhomogeneities in concrete promote the formation of an inelastic zone ahead of an existing crack termed as the fracture process zone (FPZ). The FPZ is dominated by various complicated mechanisms such as crack shielding, crack deflection, aggregate bridging and microcracking around the crack tip and exhibits a post-peak softening behavior under tensile loading. It therefore becomes necessary to include these effects for predicting reasonably well the residual strength of existing cracked and damaged structures.

In the most general sense of the word, a concrete is a substance that solidifies to act as glue. Romans were the first to use “modern cement “for purposes of masonry made of crushed stone with vivid lime as binder. They named this substance “caementicium opus “which was later referred to as cement, cimentim , cäment and cement.