51

admixtures. Viscosity-modifying agents are added in concretes used in places

with extreme congestions due to reinforcement configurations or unusual
geometry forms, where fluid but cohesive concrete is required in order to
resist bleeding and segregation.
The materials commonly used are polyethylene oxides, cellulose
ethers, natural gums, and polyacrylamides or polyvinyl alcohol. Other
materials used are finely divided solids such as clays and lime, but they tend
to reduce the strength of the concrete and for these reasons they are primarily
used in grouts when strength is not of major importance.
3.6.3

VMA used in this Study

Three Viscosity Modifying Agent used in this study were,
VMA1 - Biopolymer
VMA2 - Carboxyl Methyl Cellulose
VMA3 - Organic aqueous solution

3.7

CONCRETE MIX DESIGN

3.7.1

General
The selection of suitable ingredients of concrete and the

determination of their relative proportions were done with an aim to produce

concrete of required strength and durability as economical as possible. Based
on the properties of cement, fine aggregate, coarse aggregate and water, the
mix proportion was calculated by adopting IS 10262 1982.
After determining material properties, mix for M25 and normal
concrete was designed and the mix for Self Compacting Concrete was fixed
by reducing coarser fractions and increasing finer fractions by the addition of

52

fly ash. Different admixtures in the form of HRWR and VMA were added to
the fly ash concrete to obtain Self Compacting Concrete and their properties
were studied in the fresh and hardened state.
3.7.2

Mix Design for Normal Concrete

Mix design for normal concrete was done by using Indian standard

method. Trial mixes were cast to obtain economical mix and details of final
mix arrived at are given below:
Design stipulation
i.

Characteristic compressive strength -

25 N/mm.

ii.

Maximum size of aggregate

20 mm.

iii. Degree of workability

0.9 C.F.

iv. Degree of quality control

Good

v.

Moderate

Type of exposure

Design procedure
Target mean strength of concrete

= 25+1.654
= 31.6 N/mm

w/c for strength

= 0.525

w/c for Durability

= 0.5

w/c adopted

= 0.5

Water content including surface water

per m of concrete

= 186kg

53

Sand as percent of total aggregate by

absolute volume

= 35%

Required sand content as percentage of

total aggregate by absolute volume
after corrections

= 35-3.5
= 31.5%

Required water content after applying

suitable corrections

= 186 + 5.58
= 191.58 kg

Cement content

= 191.58/0.5
= 383.16 kg/m

Minimum cement content for

moderate exposure

= 300 kg/m

Hence adequate
Fine aggregate content

= (1000-0.02-191.02424.49/315)0.3152.66

Fine aggregate

= 576 kg

Coarse aggregate

= 1290.24 kg

Mix proportion (by mass) 1:1.50:3.36

Trial mixes were cast to obtain economical mix satisfying
workability and strength requirements and details of final mix arrived at are
given below.
Mix proportion 1:1.74:3.64

w/c ratio = 0.5

54

The material required for M25 grade normal concrete are presented
in Table 3.7
Table 3.7 Mix detail of M25 grade normal concrete
S.No.

3.8

Materials

Quantity (kg/m)

Cement

350

Fly ash

Fine aggregate

610

Coarse aggregate

1275

Water

Slump in mm

Compacting Factor

28 days compressive
strength in N/mm

175 lit.
50
0.90
34.940

MIX PROPORTION FOR SELF - COMPACTING

CONCRETE

3.8.1

General
Self - compacting concrete requires more powder content for more

flowability. Therefore the coarse aggregate content is reduced while

increasing the fine aggregate and fly ash is also added while keeping the
cement content same as that of normal concrete. Water content was adjusted
to suit the particular dosage of VMA and HRWR.
A detail of mix for 40% of fly ash by total binder was fixed and
materials required for 1 m 3 of SCC are presented in Table 3.8.

55

Table 3.8

Materials required for one cubic metre of self - compacting

concrete
Materials

3.8.2

Quantity(kg/m)

Cement

350

Fly ash

234

Fine aggregate

875

Coarse aggregate

700

Mix Design for Self - Compacting Concrete

Concrete mix M25 having characteristic strength of 25 MPa was

examined. The mix proportioning was carried out by using the guidelines
given by EFNARC, in the absence of any codal recommendation, for
designing self compacting concrete.
Self - compacting concrete requires more powder content for more
flowability. The fines or the powder (all material less than 0.1mm) play a
decisive role for the proportioning of self compacting concrete. The powder
type of self - compacting concrete should have a reduced water-powder ratio.
This means that, the powder content should be more (cement+fillers+fines
from the aggregates) and is usually in the range of 500 to 600 kg/m. Out of
this, the cement content can vary from 300 to 450 kg/m (as per BIS) and the
remaining is to be replaced by fly ash. Also the quantity of coarse aggregate is
reduced while fine aggregate is increased in self - compacting concrete. Trial
mixes were carried out with 25%, 30%, 35%, 40%, 45%, and 50%
replacement of cement by fly ash in the total powder to fix water to
cementitious material ratio (w/cm) by slump flow test. Cement content, for
each varying fly ash percentage, was obtained to suit replacement level and
the details of self - compacting concrete mix adopted is reported in Table 3.9.

56

Table 3.9

Materials required for one cubic metre of self - compacting

concrete

Sl.No

Material

FA25

FA30

FA35

FA40

FA45

FA50

Cement

438.00

408.80

379.60

350.40 321.20 292.00

Fly ash

146.00

175.20

204.40

233.60 262.80 292.00

Fine

875.00

875.00

875.00

875.00 875.00 875.00

700.00

700.00

700.00

700.00 700.00 700.00

Aggregate
4

3.9

Coarse
aggregate

FIXING WATER/CEMENTITIOUS MATERIAL RATIO

FOR SCC
A total of five different admixture combinations were tried with

different dosages. Slump flow test was carried out for each mix and the mix
which gave satisfactory flow value was chosen for the study on the properties
in fresh state and hardened state.
3.9.1

PCESP
Mixes PCESP1, PCESP2, PCESP3, PCESP4 and PCESP5 were

prepared by varying the dosage of PCE (HRWR) from 0.8 to 1.3% by weight
of cement.
3.9.2

Biopolymer
Mixes were prepared by varying the dosage of biopolymer for 0.35

and 0.40% by weight of total binder.

57

3.9.3

PCESP + Biopolymer
Varying the dosage of PCESP (HRWR) and Biopolymer (VMA)

different trial mixes as Table 3.10 were prepared and their performance was
studied.
3.9.4

MSSP + Carboxyl Methyl Cellulose

Varying the dosage of Carboxyl Methyl Cellulose (VMA) and

MSSP (HRWR) only two trials were carried out as given below.
3.9.5

NSSP + Organic Aqueous Solution

Varying the dosage of NSSP (HRWR) and Organic aqueous

solution (VMA) different trials were made as table presented in Table 3.10.
3.10

PROPERTIES OF SELF COMPACTING CONCRETE

3.10.1

Fresh State
To determine the self - compactability of concrete, Slump flow test,

L-box test, U-box test and V-funnel test were conducted after fixing w/cm
ratio for each mix and the results are reported.
3.10.2

Hardened state
The mix which satisfied the properties in fresh state were chosen

for the determination of compressive strength in hardened state.

Three cubes of size 150150150 mm each were cast for the
determination of compressive strength at the age of 7 and 28 days for the
chosen mix and the results are reported in chapter 5.