MODERN TRENDS IN CONCRETE

MANUFACTURING
AND PLACEMENT TECHNIQUES
 INTRODUCTION
• In recent times, construction industries witnessed
remarkable growth in India.

•The conventional methods of making concrete was found to

be inadequate in quality, quantity and speed to meet the
need of construction industries.

•Ready Mixed concrete was found to be the right technology

to meet the need of the construction industries.

• Ready Mixed Concrete Manufacturer’s Association

(RMCMA), India, established in 2002 involved in improving
the quality issues.
•In addition to the above, The Bureau of Indian Standard has
brought out Ready Mixed Concrete- Code of Practice !S
4926-2003.
Important Clauses in IS 4926-2003
Chemical Admixtures:

It is the responsibility of the producer to establish the

compatibility and suitability of any admixture with any other
ingredients of the mix.

The concrete shall be discharged within 2 hours of loading in

the Transit mixer. Longer period is permitted if retarding
admixtures are used or cool humid weather or chilled concrete
is produced.
Sampling and Testing of RMC:

On truck mixture reaching the site, the concrete must be

remixed.

Allow at least one-third of a cubic meter to be discharged

prior to taking any samples.

Take at least 4 incremental samples from the remain and

avoiding sampling the last one cubic metre of concrete.

Workability Test:

It shall be within the following;

Slump: + or – 25 mm or 1/3 rd of the specified value
whichever is less.
Specified strength:

Unless and otherwise agreed between the two parties, the

minimum testing frequency should be one sample for every 50
cubic metre of production or every 50 batches, whichever is
greater frequency.

Three test specimens shall be made for each sample for 28

days testing, and the average compressive strength alone be
the acceptance or rejection of the concrete.

Information to be supplied by the purchaser:

Strength of concrete, slump value, temperature of the concrete

at the pouring point, notice period prior to delivery, delivery
rate, name of the purchaser’s authorized agent, whether the
concrete meant for pumping, details of site testing etc.
Density of concrete:

The plastic density of concrete varies from 2250 to 2450

kg per cubic metre.

Plastic density measurement can be done by filling a

container of known volume with fully compacted concrete
and taking the mass of concrete in that volume as per the
procedure detailed in IS 1199.

Temperature of concrete :

RMCMA manual of India recommends 35 deg. celcius as

the upper limit of temperature of concrete at pour.

In America, the temperature at pour to be 32 deg. celcius

for the states lying in tropical region.
Advantages
• Manufactured in a factory or batching plant, according to a
set recipe.
• And then delivered to a work site, by truck mounted
in–transit mixers.
• Ready-mix concrete preferred over on-site concrete
mixing because of the precision of the mixture and reduced
work site confusion.
•Ready-mix concrete is manufactured under controlled
operations .
•It is transported and placed at site using sophisticated
equipment and methods.
Disadvantages
•Traveling time from the plant to the site is critical over longer
distances.

•Concrete's limited timespan between mixing and going-off

means that ready-mix should be placed within 210 minutes of
batching.
Batching and Mixing plants

The principal functional elements of every stationery

concrete production plant comprises the following:

• Storage of materials - Silos, containers and bins

• Batching Arrangement
• Measuring and recording equipment
• Mixing equipment
• Control systems
• Electrical, hydraulic and pneumatic drives
• Conveying systems ( belt/ screw conveyers)
 Pneumatic blower system
installed on bulk carriers

Compressed air loader

if the baggage of cement is used
Litronic MFM 85 moisture recorders
actually measures the moisture
present in sand while the entire
batch flows fast.

A recording unit calculates the

average moisture value of the sand
and passes on the information to
the batching control unit to allow
corrective action to be taken.

The system operates to an

accuracy of as low as 0.2 % relative
moisture.
Aggregates:

The storage of aggregates is done in various way

depending on the type of plant.

Vertical production plant

Horizontal production plant
• Star pattern aggregate storage
• Storage in tall silo
• Storage in pocket silo
• Inline aggregate storage silos
Horizontal mobile plants
Concrete
Batching
plant-Vertical
Concrete Batching
plant- Horizontal
The star bin storage of aggregates is most popular in India
mainly because of climate conditions.

The aggregates can be stored exposed to ambient temperature

in different compartments forming a star type pattern.

A storage capacity of upto 1500 CuM is possible in this type.

Horizontal Mobile plants
Batching plant videos

Batching plant animation Batching plant working

READY-MIX TRUCKS
•Transport trucks are made to transport and mix concrete
up to the construction site.
•Transport truck maintains the material's liquid state
through agitation, or turning of the drum, until delivery.
•Interior of the drum on a concrete mixing truck is fitted
with a spiral blade.
• In one rotational direction, the concrete is pushed deeper
into the drum.
• This is the direction the drum is rotated while the
concrete is being transported to the building site.
This is known as "charging" the mixer.
•When the drum rotates in the other direction, the archimedes'
screw-type arrangement "discharges.

•From there it may go onto chutes to guide the viscous

concrete directly to the job site.

•The drum is traditionally made of steel but on some newer

trucks as a weight reduction measure, fiberglass has been
used.
 Modern Placement Techniques
Placing can be done to the desired quality if following
recommendations are carefully observed.

Deposit the concrete at or as near as possible to its final

position. Use of shovel or poker vibrator to push the concrete
to its desired position may lead to segregation. Hence avoid
it.

Place the concrete in uniform layers so that no segregation

takes place. In walls and columns, in order to prevent air
entrapment, the layer thickness should be restricted to 450
mm while placing.

There is no need to restrict the height from which concrete is

dropped so long as the mix is cohesive and the drop is
unobstructed and through a tremie or a pipe chute.
Segregated mixes due to bad placing cannot be fully
compacted.

Place concrete as quickly as possible. However, the placed

concrete must also be compacted at the same time.

Before placing each layer the lower layer must be fully

compacted.

Avoid cold joint formation by placing the layer of concrete

over the previous layer can still be compacted.

In columns and walls the placing must be done in such

manner that concrete does not strike form work, reinforcement
or inserts.
Any obstruction along the path of placing will cause
segregation and the mortar of the concrete mix will stick
to the reinforcement and formwork while coarse particles
will drop below.

Always make sure that , the location at which the

concrete is being placed is visible to the naked eye.

For good and uniform finish in wall and columns it is

necessary to fill the forms at a rate greater than 2.0 to 3.0
m height per hour.
Concrete Pumping
Amongst the various equipments now available, concrete
pumps are most versatile as compared to other placing
equipment.

Concrete Pumps are either mounted on truck or on a trailer.

The pumps are either diesel or electrically operated.

The concrete is pumped through the pipeline of diameter

between 100 mm to 180 mm.

The most popular and suitable diameter for normal pumping

is 125 mm.

The pumps out put range from 19 to 150 CuM per hour.
Modern portable concrete pumps now manufactured in the
overseas countries are in their fifth generation having
enormous power, high capacity and absolutely reliability
hydraulic system.

They can pump concrete to a height of nearly 500 m or cover

horizontal distance up to 2000 m. The pumps have hydraulic
system which can take concrete Pressure up to 200 bars.

Pumps are generally designed with adequate protection

against adverse usage.
They are insensitive to rough treatment and operation on
construction sites, have sturdy construction and are easy to
maintain.

Control systems of all pumps are fully hydraulic, compact

and dirt sensitive. The hydraulic pump is output-regulated
and therefore, optimizes motor-power utilization at ideal
pressures and speed.

Concrete pump manufacturers usually list a maximum

theoretical output or pump capacity in cubic metre per hour,
which depends on the distance to which it can pump, the
line size and the maximum line pressure.
Pump Output:

The pump output depends on several factors such as:

 Length of horizontal pipe.

 Length of vertical pipe.
 Number of bends, especially shaped bends.
 Diameter of delivery pipeline.
 Length of the flexible hole.
 Change in line diameter.
 Workability of concrete measured as slump.
 Cohesiveness of the concrete.
 Type of aggregates used in the concrete.
Advantages of pumping concrete

One of the main advantages of pumping is that

concrete can be moved both horizontal and vertically
in one go.

The pump out put normally varies from 30 CuM to 150

Cum concrete per hour.

A pumping is the most sensitive method in which any

variation in mix consistency or workability can be
easily detected at the pumping point by observing
pumping pressures.

.
It acts as a silent quality control equipment , refusing to
handle any concrete which is unduly harsh, inadequately
mixed, non cohesive and not correct in consistency.

For a large concrete pours it would be beneficial to use

concrete pumps to do concreting at a much faster rate.

Pumped concrete normally has good cohesion and high

workability and thus, gives better finish and strength to
concrete structures
Concrete can be placed in inaccessible areas very easily.
Mass concreting can be carried out in a limited time and at
high speed, without cold joints.

Using concrete pumps can help speedier completion of

contracts and thereby, help in improved cash flow,
reduction in site overhead and better utilization of
resources.

Pipeline for delivery of the concrete occupies very little

space and can be easily extended or remove.

Delivery of concrete is in a continuous stream. If mobile-

boom pump is used both vertical and horizontal
movements for placing concrete are possible thereby
eliminating the need of drop chutes and elephant trunks.
Concrete should be placed closer to its final position in
form reducing shovelling /dragging of concrete thereby
avoiding segregation of the concrete mix.

Pumping concrete in high-rise building is not only

economical but also faster.
 BOOM PUMP
• Boom pumps are used on most of the larger
construction projects as they are capable of
pumping at very high volumes.

• The first type of concrete pump is attached to

a truck. It is known as a trailer-mounted boom
concrete pump because it uses a remote-
controlled articulating robotic arm (called
a boom) to place concrete with pinpoint
accuracy.
• The second main type of concrete pump is either
mounted on a truck and known as a truck-
mounted concrete pump or placed on a trailer.

• This pump requires steel or flexible concrete

placing hoses to be manually attached to the outlet
of the machine. Those hoses are linked together
and lead to wherever the concrete needs to be
placed.
Working vedio
 TRAILER PUMPS
• The concrete feeds directly out of the ready-mix truck into the
hopper.
• Hoppers may seem standard across a line of trailer pumps.
• However, they can vary in shape, capacity, and reinforcement
to withstand heavy concrete.
• From the bottom of the hopper, the concrete is sucked into one
of two cylinders located beneath the engine.
• The concrete is then forced out of the cylinder, by way of a
valve, into the hose where it eventually finds its way to the far
end for placement into forms, block walls, or slabs.
 LASER SCREED

• The process of leveling or finishing the surface of a

concrete slab. This can be accomplished by hand as
well as sophisticated machinery.
• A tool or machine used to level a concrete surface.
• An electronic, self-propelled machine which moves
concrete to the specified grade through the use of
laser light beams as well as self-contained floating
and finishing equipment.
Recap
Significant advances have been made in concrete
technology in the last 50 years. This presentation has
highlighted some of the significant advancements in
technologies.
THANKYOU