Mix Design

General

The concrete mix has been designed for M30grade as per IS

10262 - 1982. The specified concrete grade involves the economical
selection of relative proportions of cement, fine aggregate, coarse
aggregate and water. Although compliance with respect to
'characteristic strength' is the main criteria for acceptance, it is implicit
that concrete must also have desired workability in the fresh state and
impermeability and durability in hardened state.

Mix design on recommended guide lines is really a process of

making an initial guess at optimum combination of ingredients and
final mix proportion is obtained only on the basis of further trail
mixes. As mentioned earlier under the project a comparative study is
being carried, as such only % of fly ash in cement is varied and all
other ingredients are kept constant. To arrive at a concrete mix for this
study mix design for M30 concrete was carried as per IS code.

Mix Design for M30 grade concrete

Step: 1 Design Stipulations

Characteristic compressive strength = 30N/mm2

Required in the field at 28 days

Maximum size of aggregate = 12 mm

Degree of quality control = Good

Type of exposure = Mild

Step: 2 Test Data for Materials

Cement used - Ordinary Portland Cement (53 Grade)

Specific gravity of cement = 3.12

Specific gravity of fine aggregate = 2.63

Specific gravity of coarse aggregate = 2.70

Water absorption

1. Coarse aggregate = 0.75%

2. Fine aggregate = 1.0%

Step: 3 Target Mean Strength of Concrete

fck = fck + t x s

Where,

fck = Target average compressive strength at 28 days.

fck = Characteristic compressive strength at 28 days.

s = Standard deviation.
 t = A statistic depending upon the accepted proportion of low
results

Standard deviation for M30 of good quality control (s) = 5.0

Target Mean Strength of Concrete = fck + t x s

= 30 + (1.65 x 5.0)

= 38.25 N/mm2

Step:4 Selection of Water Cement Ratio

From Table-4.1 of I.S. 10262 - 1982, the free water cement ratio
required for the above target mean strength of 38.25 N/mm 2 is 0.42
this is lower than the maximum value of 0.525 prescribed for "Mild"
exposure in Appendix 'A' of I.S.456 - 200

Step:5 Selection of Water and Sand content

From Table 4.1 of I.S. 10262 - 1982

Water content per m3 of concrete (20mm size Ca ) = 186 kg

Water content per m3 of concrete (10mm size Ca) = 208 kg

If 12mm size Ca is Water content per m3 of concrete = 203.6 kg

Step: 6 Determination of Cement Content

Water /cement = 0.42

Water = 203.6 kg

Cement = 203.6

0.42

= 484.761 kg/m3

Step : 7 Determination of Coarse and Fine Aggregate Content

V = W + C + 1 x fa x 1_

Sc p Sfa 1000

V = W + C + 1 x fa x 1_

Sc 1-p Sfa 1000

Where,
 V = Absolute volume of fresh concrete, which is equal to Gross Volume
(m3) minus the volume of entrapped air.

W = Mass of water (kg) per m3 of concrete.

C = Mass of cement (kg) per m3 of concrete.

Sc = Specific gravity of cement.

P = ratio of fine aggregate to total aggregate by absolute volume

fa, Ca = Total masses of fine aggregate and coarse aggregate (kg) per m 3
of concrete respectively.

Sfa, Sca = Specific gravity of saturated surface dry fine aggregate and
coarse aggregate respectively.

For the specified maximum size of aggregate of 12mm, the amount

of entrapped air in the wet concrete is 2%. Taking this into account
and applying into the above equation.

fa = 980 - 203.6 - (484.761 /3.12) X 2.63 X 0.315

= 514.490 kg/m3.

Ca = ((1-0.315 )/0.315) X 514.490 X ( 2.70/2.63)

= 1148.58 kg/m3.

The Mix Proportion

 Wate Coarse
cement Fine Aggregate
r Aggregate
203.6 484.761 514.490 1148.58

Ratio : 0.420: 1 : 1.061 : 2.369