Professional Documents
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-M.L.Gambhir
There are two commonly used structural
materials concrete and steel
They sometimes compliment one another, and
sometimes compete with one another
Aggregates
Aggregates are generally cheaper than cement
and impart greater volume stability and
durability to concrete.
Used primarily for the purpose of providing
bulk to the concrete
To increase density of resulting mix, aggregate
is frequently used in two or more sizes.
Most important function of fine aggregate is
to assist in producing workability and
uniformity in mixture
Provide about 75% of the body of the concrete
Must be of proper shape (rounded or approximately
cubical), clean, hard, strong and well graded
Should possess chemical stability, abrasion resistant
and resistant to freezing and thawing
Classification of aggregates
Geological origin
Natural aggregate
Generally obtained from natural deposits of sand and
gravel, or from quarries by cutting rocks such as
granite,quartzite,basalt,sand stone.
The river deposits are the most common and are of
good quality.
Igneous,sedimentary or metamorphic in origin.
Artificial aggregate
Most widely used are clean broken bricks (brick
aggrerate not suitable fro waterproof construction and
road work)and air-cooled fresh blast-furnase-slag(good
fire resisting quality,corrosion of steel due to sulphar
content),sintered fly ash, bloated clay
Size
Largest maximum size conveniently used for concrete
making-80mm.
Using largest possible maximum size will result in
reduction of cement content,
reduction in water requiremnent,
reduction of drying and shrinkage
The particle size distribution is called grading
Maximum size of aggregate may be limited by
Thickness of section
Clear cover
Spacing of reinforcement
Mixing, handling and placing techniques
Fine aggregate
Passing through 4.75mm IS sieve.
Three types-natural sand,crushed stone sand, crushed
gravel sand.
Coarse aggregate
Retained one 4.75mm IS sieve.
Types- crushed gravel, uncrushed gravel and partially
crushed gravel.
2.36
12.5
10
Aggregate abrasion value
Apart from testing aggregate with respect to
its crushing value, impact resistance, tesing
the aggregate with respect to its resistance to
wear is an important test agregate to be used
for road constructions, warehouse floors and
pavement construction.
Deval atrition test
Dorry abrasion test
Los Angels test
Bulk density
Bulk density or unit weight
Gives information on shape and grading of the
aggregate
Higher the bulk density, lower the void content
to be filled by sand and cement.
Angular aggregate show lower bulk density
Bulk density
Aggregates are filled in a container
Compacted
Weight of aggregate gives bulk density calculated
in kg/lit or kg/m3
Knowing specific gravity in saturated and surface
dry condition, void ratio can be calculated
= x100
where
Gs = specific gravity of the aggregate
=bulk density in kg/litre
Specific gravity
Is made use of in design calculation of
concrete mix
Weight can be converted into solid volume by
knowing its specific gravity
Also required in calculating compacting factor
in connection with workability measurement
Average specific gravity of rock ranges
between 2.6 to 2.8
Absorption and moisture content
Aggregates are porous and absorptive
Porosity and absorption will affect the water
cement ratio and hence workability, durability
(freezing and thawing, chemically aggressive
liquids)
Water absorption
Increase in weight of an oven dry sample when
immersed in water for 24 hours
The ratio of increase in weight to the weight of
dry sample expressed as percentage is known as
absorption of aggregate
In practice, aggregates are either dry and
absorptive to various degrees or they have
surface moisture
Fine aggregates dredged from river bed usually
contains surface moisture
Absorption capacity of coarse aggregate is
about 0.5 to 1 percent by weight of aggregate.
Eg. Pune Mumbai express highway :
absorption of around 4%
Bulking of aggregate
Fine aggregate
Free moisture forms a film around each particle
This film exerts surface tension which keeps
particle away from each other
So no point of contact between the particles,
leading in bulking
Increase in bulking with the increase in moisture
content up to certain limit and then decrease,
showing no bulking
Sand bulks more compared to coarse aggregates,
so it is neglected(CA)
Extremely fine sand and particularly the
manufactured fine aggregate bulks as much as
about 40%
Alkali aggregate reaction
Expansion and cracking of concrete leading to
loss of strength and elastic modulus resulting
from chemical reaction involving alkali and
hydroxyls ions from Portland cement paste
and certain reactive siliceous minerals that are
often present in the aggregate is known as
ALKALI AGGREGATE REACTION
Recent literature, it is referred to as Alkali-
silica reaction(ASR)
Types of rocks which contain reactive
constituents include traps, andesites,
rhyolites, siliceous limestones and certain type
of sand stones