NEW TECHNOLOGIES FOR RAPID DAM CONSTRUCTION IN ASIA PACIFIC*

Nilotpol Kar
Regional Marketing, BASF Construction Chemicals Asia Pacific

Jan Kluegge
Development Center, BASF Construction Chemicals Asia Pacific

Sven Asmus
Regional Marketing, BASF Construction Chemicals Asia Pacific

ABSTRACT
The accelerated economic growth in China and a few South Asian
countries is one of the key drivers of mega hydel projects to harness rivers and
generate power current and future demands of electricity. Mass concrete with
large aggregates makes up the concrete of dams. Typically this is a low slump
concrete – about 2 – 4 cm and requires a significant amount of intensive labour
and time to complete mega dams in tune of concrete above 0.5 or 1.0 million
cubic metres. Roller Compacted Concrete (RCC) – originating in Japan (for Asia
Pacific) reduced the time by about 15 – 20%.

To meet the deadlines for power generating companies or clients, the need
of the hour is to enable construction at a rapid pace and at the same time meet
durability criteria for concrete under various climatic / geographical conditions.
Today this is possible with advanced concrete technologies aided with special
admixture solutions to help accelerate and sustain speed of construction. These
revolutionary admixtures enable other distinct advantages – lower cementitious
content in concrete to help in reducing heat of hydration in mass concrete as well
improve quality of paste (improving impermeability) all of which help to increase
service life of the dam.
 This paper provides an overview into two “paradigm-shifts” – one in
enhancing conventional Roller Compacted Concrete (RCC) more vibration
sensitive and generate better paste quality to respond to the vibatory rollers
faster and in the long run enable faster completeion of a RCC dam; the other is a
revolutionary step in enabling a ultra-low fines self consolidating concrete with
120 mm aggregates for rapid dam placement (referred to here as Speed Dam
Technology)

These new revolutionary admixture tecnologies allow previously

unachieved control of the rheological properties of concrete. Using these
technologies it is possible to control the workability of mass concrete – in one
case for the conventionally super-dry RCC mix, it makes the concrete mix more
vibration sensitive; in the other case for the Speed Dam Technology (SDT), it
becomes pumpable allowing placement with minimum vibration without violating
the basic premise of mass concrete, namely to utilize a lean mix design and a
comparably large coarse aggregate.

Keywords: mega hydel projects; mass concrete; lower cementitious content;

heat of hydration; roller compacted concrete; vibration sensitive, better paste
quality; low fines self consolidating concrete; 120 mm aggregates

1. INTRODUCTION

Mass concrete poses many challenges, among them the generation of high
heat and problems that can stem from it. Careful design of mass concrete can
minimize or eliminate such issues enabling us to create bigger projects than ever
before. This will enable reduction of labour and time significantly for mega dams
in terms of concrete volumes above 0.5 million cubic metres.

As a means to increasing speed of dam construction, the world’s first roller-

compacted concrete dam was constructed in Japan in 1980.. Thereafter chemical
admixtures – air entraining, retarding , water reducing cum retarding – have been
used in enhancing properties of RCC mixtures:
1. to improve plasticity of the dry mixture over elapsed time (generally
achieved with a water reducing admixture),
2. to delay time of setting (with a set retarding admixture) and
3. to improve durability of RCC mixtures (primarily with an air entraining
admixture).

As a recent trend in recent RCC applications in China, the use of water-

reducing and retarding admixtures (complying with ASTM C 494 standard, types
B and D) is well established. Use of a water-reducing and retarding admixture
has proven to be beneficial for the following :
1. increasing the workability of the RCC mixture and leading to a decrease in
water content,
2. extending workability of RCC mixtures and for increasing the initial and
final times of setting,
3. ensuring the better bond (cement-aggregate interphase) and in terms of
hardened concrete performance, watertigtness is improved alongwith
strength increase in flexural and tensile parameters.

In hot climatic conditions of China and India, the extended workability is a

necessity during RCC startup activities, for transporting RCC from distant
batching plants, and for placement of thick layers. As mentioned, water reducing
cum retarding admixtures based on β-naphthalene sulfonate (BNS) in
combination with sugar-type retarders have been widely used in the dam
construction in China, and sugar-type retarders / rosin based air entrainers in
India.
 In this context, two revolutionary ideas are presented:
a) The first part is an enhancement of Roller Compacted Concrete aided
by a a new innovative admixture ViS-RCC (ViS RCC – Vibration
Sensitive, based on PCE) is presented in the first part, based on a
newly developed type of PCE polymer. Due to the tailored
performance of the new polymer, ViS-RCC is suitable to improve key
properties of RCC. In addition to the laboratory results, data from the
actual large scale application of ViS-RCC in the Jinghong Dam Project
in Southwest China are presented as an example.
b) The second part is a total shift from a dry mass concrete or even RCC
mixure to a super flowable concept referred to as Speed Dam
Technology (SDT) which is based on a ultra low fines self
consolidating concrete with 120 mm maximum size aggregate aided
with a PCE (Polycarboxylate ether) superplasticizer combined with a
unique viscosity modifying agent which prevents bleeding or
segregation.

2. VIBRATION SENSITIVE ROLLER COMPACTED CONCRETE

2.1 MATERIALS, DESIGN & SPECIFICATIONS

In the Jin Hong Dam project, approximately 400,000 m3 of Roller

Compacted Concrete (RCC) was used. Actual mixture proportions for the RCC in
Jinhong, including the tailormade PCE based Vibration sensitive admixture, PCE-
ViS, are given in Table 1.

Special attention is paid to a particularly short specified Vebe time (time of

vibration to achieve full compaction) value of 3-6 seconds.
 Table 1: RCC mix design and selected properties of concrete of Jinghong Dam Project
RCC Mixture 1 RCC Mixture 2
Strength class C15 @ 90 days C20 @ 90 days
Maximum size of aggregate [mm] 80 40
Sand ratio [%] 33 37
JMH powder ratio [%] 60 50
Type PCE-ViS
Superplasticizer
Dosage [%] 0.5
Air entraining admixture Dosage [%] 0.01
Water 75 84
Cement 60 93
JMH powder 90 93
Material [kg/m3]
Stone powder 36 40
Sand 687 751
Stone 1506 1382
Vebe time [sec] 4.0 3.6
Air content [%] 2.1 2.0

Other constituents were as follows:

a) aggregate consists of round shaped river gravel and river sand.,
b) binder comprises cement (Table 2), as well as stone powder and a
specific “JMH powder” (Table 3),
(In principle the binder is a supplementary cementing additive as a
50:50 mixture of limestone powder and a ferromanganese slag - for
discussion of supplementary cementing additives in RCC construction
refer to reference [6].

Table 2: Analysis of cement applied in Jinghong Dam Project (Pu’er cement OPC 42.5)
Fineness [% retained on 45 μm sieve] 2.6
Density [g/cm3] 3.15
Physical analysis
Initial 2:50
Setting time [hr:min]
Final 4:30
SiO2 20.60
Fe2O3 3.08
Al2O3 5.31
CaO 65.91
Chemical analysis [mass %]
MgO 0.50
Ignition loss 0.90
SO3 2.09
K2O 0.33
 Na2O 0.05
Alkali cont. 0.27
Compressive 3 days 24.5
Cement mortar strength [MPa] 28 days 57.3
GB/T17671-1999 3 days 4.8
Tensile [MPa] 28 days 8.2
1 day 179.65
2 days 228.57
3 days 254.01
Heat of hydration of cement [kJ/kg] 4 days 267.63
5 days 278.37
6 days 286.86
7 days 294.12

Table 3: Analysis of JMH cementitious material (in mass-%) - sp gr 3.07

Specific
surface
Fe2 Al2 Ignition Alkali area
SiO2 O3 O3 CaO MgO loss SO3 K2O Na2O cont. MnO TiO2 [m2/kg]

Fe-Mn slag 25.6 0.59 17.5 39.1 1.72 -0.88 0.10 0.82 0.15 0.69 11.0 0.35 364

Lime-stone powder 0.17 0.15 0.38 54.9 0.30 43.46 0.01 0.04 0.02 0.05 - - 340

For the RCC operation, the layers are placed in 30 cm thickness, and 12
cycles (2 cycles without vibration, 8 cycles with vibration, 2 cycles without
vibration – see Figure 3) are applied for compaction, in order to achieve a
specified in-situ density of > 2400 kg/m3. The air content is specified to the range
of 2-4%.
 Setting time should be more than 10 hrs for initial and less than 14 hrs for
final at ambient temperatures of 30-40ºC. Two classes of RCC were designed,
where compressive strengths of 15 MPa at 90 days (mixture 1) and 20 MPa at 90
days (mixture 2) should be achieved, respectively.
For mixture class C9015, the maximum aggregate size is 80mm, and the
aggregates proportion:
small[5-20mm]:medium[20-40mm]:big[40- 80mm] is 30:40:30.
Table 4: Mix proportion and selected properties of concrete for test of admixtures
Mixture type
3 4 5 6 7 8
Ambient temperature [ºC] 38
W/B ratio 0.5
S/A ratio 0.31
Water [kg/m3] 75
3
Cement [kg/m ] 75
3
Fly Ash [kg/m ] -- 75
JMH supplementary
cementitious material [kg/m3] 75 --
Sand [kg/m3] 691
Aggregate (5-20mm) [kg/m3] 477
3
Aggregate (20-40mm) [kg/m ] 593
 Aggregate (40-80mm) [kg/m3] 477
NS (92% solid) [Cx%] 0.6 -- -- 0.6 -- --
PCE-N [Cx%] -- 0.5 -- -- 0.5 --
PCE-RCC [Cx%] -- -- 0.5 -- -- 0.5
Air entraining admixture [Cx%] 0.015

VeBe time [sec] 10.2 5.8 3.5 12.8 6.3 3.2

Initial setting time [hr:min] 6:20 8:00 8:20 8:00 9:40 10:10

Final setting time [hr:min] 9:10 10:45 11:10 12:00 13:50 14:10

2.1.1 Comparison Of Types Of Superplasticizer

Based on optimization work done on the mix design and the admixture
technology developed, the mixture proportions given in Table 1, have been used
in the actual construction of the Jinhong Dam Project. Mix proportions 3, 4 and 5
include the JMH supplementary cementitious material but no fly ash, while
mixtures 6, 7 and 8 are incorporating fly ash only as a powder substitute for
cement.

PCE based admixtures are known to change the rheological properties,

i.e. reduce the plastic viscosity of cementitious systems, compared with their BNS
based counterparts (7). This effect is most impressively observed in high cement
content mixtures of high strength structural concrete, with cement factors higher
than 300 kg/m3. In such kind of concrete, it was reported previously that the lower
viscosity of concrete results in faster placing, better pumpability and less amount
of entrapped air (8).

In the current study, though, it is shown that very much similar

observation is made in lean mixtures like RCC when conducting the well
established Ve-Be test (Table 4). Short Ve-Be times indicate shorter compaction
cycle time to achieve full compaction of the mixture. The Ve-Be time in mixture 3,
using standard powder BNS as a water reducer, is in the range of ten seconds.
On the contrary, even at cement paste volumes of only 225kg/m3, mixture 4
achieves full compaction much earlier in less than six seconds. Noteworthy,
mixture 4 contains PCE-O, which is a standard PCE based admixture for
conventional structural concrete.

The encouraging test results of application of PCE-O in RCC prompted us

to develop an optimized PCE polymer with higher molecular weight and shorter
side-chains for dry mixtures like RCC or mass concrete. The new polymer was
formulated as PCE-ViS and yielded remarkable, formerly unrivalled short Vebe
times of three to four seconds. Also, in case of PCE-ViS, the advantage of a
vibration sensitive concrete is sustained over elapsed time. Figure 1 shows the
plasticity loss of the RCC in mixture 4 and – most pronounced – in mixture 3.
Even at 2 hrs after casting, the Vebe time is still within the specification of 3-6
seconds in case PCE-RCC is added to the mixture.
With shorter Vebe times, consequently the specific gravity of the RCC – one of
the most important parameters for dam structures – is increased in case of PCE-
RCC. Under identical mix-design and compaction conditions in the laboratory,
specific gravity of RCC was increased from 2417 kg/m3 to 2463 kg/m3 when
changing the admixture from PCE-N to PCE-RCC, i.e. an increase of 1.9%.
Due to the high specific gravity, the strength development was excellent, which is
also reflected in satisfactory strength data from the Jinhong Dam Project in the
mixtures 1 and 2 (Figure 2). The compressive strengths designed for 90 days of
15 and 20 MPa are exceeded at 28 days. Due to the seismic activity (9) in the
Jinhong area, special attention is paid to the tensile and elastic properties of the
concrete. For example, the key-ratio of the splitting tensile strength versus
compressive strength is higher than 8% in all cases. The lower viscosity of the
plastic phase of the concrete has also the major advantage that upon vibration,
the concrete produces a thin layer of cement paste on top of each layer of RCC.
As a result, bonding between layers is expected to be improved compared to the
situation of a rough surface of a layer in case of NS based admixture used for
RCC (10). For example, Figure 4 shows a core from the actual construction of
Jinhong dam. The core was drilled from a class C9020 RCC section and
demonstrates proper compaction, as well as flawless bonding between layers.

Effect of JMH supplementary cementing material

While the specially designed PCE in PCE-RCC ensures sustained short VEBE
times, thus, reliable compaction, the contractor in the Jinhong Dam Project
encountered particular problems to achieve long enough setting times. This is
partly due to the high temperatures in that region, but the situation got worse with
application of JMH supplementary cementitious material in combination with
stone powder. These powder types were considered rather than fly ash, simply
due to their availability. The JMH powder as a mixture of limestone powder with a
ferro-manganese slag was found to accelerate the hydration process. As a
consequence, conventional retarder systems either can not achieve the desired
open time, or they cause set inhibition. The newly developed PCE, however,
proved to be compatible with alternative set retarding systems, enabling a
formulation PCE-RCC that provides any desired retardation in combination with a
comparatively short elapsed time between initial and final times of setting.

SPEED DAM TECHNOLOGY (SDT)

To reduce the temperature increase of the mass concrete pours during setting
(hardening), the hydration heat has to be minimized . From the definition of mass
concrete as embodied in ACI 116 R.1 - “any volume of concrete with dimensions
large enough to require that measures be taken to cope with generation of heat
from hydration of the cement and attendant volume change, to minimizing
cracking.”, ther are various methods, viz., by using big size aggregates, typically
40 to 150 mm and a lean mix design with low combination of powder content
(cement, fly ash and others). The total powder content is typically less than
280 kg*m-3 for mass concrete.

Conventional mass concrete in dam related application is transported by

hoppers , crane and bucket system and/or conveyor belts. The mass concrete is
stiff and dry and using big aggregates and low proportion of powder results in its
poor workability which is again not pumpable. Consolidation of this requires a lot
of manual manipulation and extensive vibration. Here we highlight a technical
feasibility to achieve a pumpable and highly workable mass concrete which
brings to the forefront distinct advantages in usage of such a low fines pumpable
in large large hydropower projects.
 LAB EXPERIMENT
Typical procedure:
Workable mass concrete:
Two separate concrete mixes (Table 1) according to local standards:
In the mix adopted in China, a rheology controlling superplacticiser was used at
dosage of 0.78%; whereas for the mix in India this was done at a dosage of
1.75%.
Ingredients China India
(kg/m3) (kg/m3)
Cement 174 -
Gradation curve
Blended Cement (Portland - 260
Pozzolana cement) 100
90
Fly ash 74 - 80
70
Sand (0-5mm) 683 835
Passing % tage
60

5 – 10mm 272 50
40
aggregates

10 – 20mm 335 30
Coarse

20
20 – 40 mm 431 462 10
0
40 – 80 mm 579 0.1 1 10 100
IS Sieves Combined Grading
80 – 120 mm 337 141 Typ Lower Limit
Typ Upper Limit

Water 124 155

w/c 0.50 0.59

The concrete is tested for its flowability through a slump flow test. The test is
carried out as per standard slump measurement test with the variation that the
slump cone used has the dimension of rsmall = 10 cm, rbig = 20 cm and h = 60 cm,
where rsmall is the smaller radius of the cone, rbig is the bigger radius of the cone
and h is height of the cone. Slump test gives a spread of the concrete of 110 x
115 cm for the mix done in China whereas for the case in India is 100 x 110 cm.
The concrete flows without segregation or bleeding as shown in Fig 1
Additionally, in the China experiment, a second slump test the concrete is sieved
to separate aggregate bigger than 50 mm. For the remaining concrete a slump
test according to Chinese standard GB/T 50080-2002 is done. A slump of 18 cm
and a spread of 35 x 37 cm is measured.
Comparision:
a)
Both concrete mixes were then compared with a commercially available BNS
water reducer is used at 1.5% dosage by weight of cement and tested for slump
in a similar slump cone as desribed earlier. The concrete lacks cohesion. Upon
lifting the cone the concrete collapses exhibiting segregation and heavy bleeding.

To over come the bleeding and segregation as described above, the dosage is
reduced to 1% by weight of cement, keeping other parameters constant. The
resulting concrete lacks cohesiveness. It is dry and has low workability.

For a standard slump test the China mix is sieved to separate aggregate above
50 mm is sieved. Slump of 12 cm is measured, however the slump test is not
regular due to collapsing slump cone (Scheme 2)

FIELD DEMONSTRATION
Both the above mixes were tried out in field using a special pump from a reputed
manufacturer. In the case of the mix design from China perspective, it was
possible to use pumps for transferring the concrete. Concrete of the mix design
given in table 1 has been pumped continuously without any blockage of delivery
line or pump inspite of using 120 mm maximum size aggregates with very low
cementitious fines (< 250 kg/m3 ). The pumping distance was about 200 m. After
pumping, consistency of concrete is unchanged. It was still highly workable and
flowed, without segregation. Figure 3 shows pump set up and fresh concrete after
flowing out of the pumping pipeline.

For the case with Indian aggregates, a similar set up – Fig 4 – was used for about
100 m of delivery line which showed pumpability and flowability without
segregation still using 120 mm maximum size of aggregates as well as a low
pozzolannic cement content (260 kg/m3).
 DISCUSSIONS
Mass concrete is typically used in large size concrete structures, like bridge
anchorages, dams and nuclear power plant foundations. The consumption of the
mass concrete in these structures is comparably large and with poor workability
of conventional mass concrete, the placement and compaction contributes
significantly to the overall construction time.

A highly workable concrete would speed up the construction process by reducing

or eliminating time consuming labor related to placement and compaction of
mass concrete. However such highly workable concrete needs to maintain the
advantages of conventional mass concrete namely the original mix design of the
mass concrete has to be maintained to achieve control of heat development.
These requirements lead to two major technical obstacles for a flowable mass
concrete:

Mass concrete is very low in powder and containing large size aggregates. The
typical mix is dry and not workable. The first technical obstacle to overcome is to
employ the same or similar mix design of the mass concrete with good flowability
and without segregation of the concrete mix. This is to achieve a fast and efficient
placement of the concrete and to reduce manual labor required in that process.

Secondly, the output of conventional mass concrete is limited as they are

transported by conveyer belts, crane and bucket system and/or hoppers. The
crane and bucket system and hoppers are limited in their output, and conveyer
belts are not suitable for a fluidized concrete. Transportation and distribution by a
pump system would resolve both problems. However, as a rule of thumb, the
diameter of the pumping pipeline for conventional concrete should be 2.5 times
the size of the biggest aggregatesi. Theoretically, a pipeline of > 300 mm is
suggested to pump concrete with < 120 mm aggregates. With such a pipeline
diameter, the loading weight of the pipeline becomes unreasonable high and the
pipeline is very expensive. Same applies to the dimensions of the pump itself.
The technical challenge is to pump a mass concrete with large size aggregates,
for example, with size from 40 to 120 mm or larger with a pipe diameter below
200 mm. This is to achieve a high throughput of concrete and smooth delivery at
the site of placement.

The usage of state-of-art rheology controlling superplacticisers allows for a more

challenging mix design to achieve pumpable, high workable concrete. As shown
in the experimental section mixes of fines as low as 250 - 260 kg/m3 and with a
maximum aggregate size of up to 150 mm can achieve high workability which
can be pumped without obstacles..

i
V. I. Teleshev, V. M. Danilov, M. V. Komarinskii, Power Technology and
Engineering 1986, 20, 345-351.