Bingham Model for Pumpable Concrete

Report submitted by
Yogendra Singh patel
Under the guidance of
Dr. Gurmail S. Benipal
Department of Civil Engineering

Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi

Haus Khas, New Delhi-110016
 ABSTRACT
The design of concrete with specified properties for an application is not a new science but it has
taken on a new meaning with the wide use of high-performances concretes. The following
properties are related to fresh concrete: ease of placement and compaction without segregation.
Ease of placement covers various other properties of fresh concrete such as workability, flow
ability, compactibility, stability, pumpability. Several attempts were made to relate the fresh
concrete properties with measurable entities. Some researchers treated fresh concrete as a fluid and
used the fluid rheology methods to describe concrete flow. Bingham model is used for the flow
ability of the concrete.
 INTRODUCTION
BINGHAM MODEL OF CONCRETE
Concrete in its fresh state can be thought of as a fluid, provided that a certain degree of flow can
be achieved and that concrete is homogeneous. Rheology measurements on concrete indicate that
it is reasonable to approximate the concrete flow behaviour using a Bingham model. Shear yield
stress (y-axis intercept), τo, indirectly measures inter-particle friction, while the viscosity µ (slope
of the line) depends on the rheology of the paste and the volume fraction of aggregates. The
concrete resists the flow like a rigid body upto yield stress after that behaves same as Newtonian
fluid. This model is known as bingham model. This model has been widely applied in the history
of concrete rheometry to describe the rheological behaviour of both traditional and self-
compacting concrete. Equation of the model is
𝜏 = 𝜏𝜊 + 𝜇𝛾̇
Where τ is shear stress, τ₀ is yield shear stress,µ plastic viscosity and 𝛾̇ is the shear strain rate.
To determine the Bingham parameters, there are two possibilities
 The stress applied to the material is increased slowly and the shear rate is measured. The
point at which the materials flow is the yield stress and the slope of the curve above this
stress is the plastic viscosity.
 The fresh concrete is sheared at high rate before the rheological test. Then, the shear rate
is decreased gradually and the stress is measured. The relationship between the stress and
shear rate is plotted and the intercept at zero shear rate is the yield stress, while the slope
is the plastic viscosity.
The second method is widely used one since it is easier to develop a rheometer that is shear
rate controlled than stress controlled.
Figure 1 Bingham model

Stress-Strain Behaviour of Concrete

A typical relationship between stress and strain for normal strength concrete is presented in Figure
2. After an initial linear portion lasting up to about 30 – 40% of the ultimate load, the curve
becomes non-linear, with large strains being registered for small increments of stress. The non-
linearity is primarily a function of the coalescence of microcracks at the paste-aggregate interface.
The ultimate stress is reached when a large crack network is formed within the concrete, consisting
of the coalesced microcracks and the cracks in the cement paste matrix. The strain corresponding
to ultimate stress is usually around 0.003 for normal strength concrete. The stress-strain behaviour
in tension is similar to that in compression.
The descending portion of the stress-strain curve, or in other words, the post-peak response of the
concrete, can be obtained by a displacement or a strain controlled testing machine. In typical load
controlled machines, a constant rate of load is applied to the specimen. Thus any extra load beyond
the ultimate capacity leads to a catastrophic failure of the specimen. In a displacement controlled
machine, small increments of displacement are given to the specimen. Thus, the decreasing load
beyond the peak load can also be registered. The strain at failure is typically around 0.005 for
normal strength concrete, as shown in Figure 2. The post peak behaviour is actually a function of
the stiffness of the testing machine in relation to the stiffness of the test specimen, and the rate of
strain. With increasing strength of concrete, its brittleness also increases, and this is shown by a
reduction in the strain at failure.
Figure 2 Stress strain relationship for ordinary concrete

Figure 3 Complete stress-strain curve including post peak response

Many uniaxial and biaxial stress-strain relations are available in the literature. Figures 4, 5 shows
a typical uniaxial compressive and biaxial stress-strain curves respectively. Some of the uniaxial
stress-strain relations proposed by various researchers are given below:

The European Concrete Committee (CEB) for short-term loading gives a parabola and a straight
line up to ultimate strain u ε as

The value of 𝜀𝑢 is given between 0.003 and 0.0035

Figure 4 Uniaxial stress strain curve

Figure 5 Biaxial stress strain curve

Figure 6 Tri-axial stress strain curve

Strain-Rate-Dependent Constitutive Equations for Concrete (Tedesco & Ross

(1998))
In this paper summarizes the results of a comprehensive experimental study to quantify the effects
of strain rate on concrete compressive and tensile strengths. Direct compression and splitting
tensile tests were conducted at quasi-static rates (between 10~7/s and 10~5/s) in a standard MTS
machine to establish the "static" properties. These same tests were conducted at high strain rates
(between 10~'/s and 103/s) on a split-Hopkinson pressure bar (SHPB) to determine the dynamic
material properties. A statistical analysis was performed on the data and strain-rate-dependent
constitutive equations, both for compression and tension, were developed.
The results of the experimental study were statistically analysed to develop strain-rate-dependent
constitutive equations to modify the quasi-static concrete material model in the ADINA (1990,
1991) finite element computer programs. The ADINA concrete model is a hypoelastic model based
on a uniaxial stress-strain relation that is generalized to take biaxial and triaxial stress conditions
into account. The model employs three basic features to describe the material behavior: (1) a
nonlinear stress-strain relation including strain softening to allow for weakening of the material
under increasing compressive stresses; (ii) a failure envelope that defines cracking in tension and
crushing in compression; and (Hi) a strategy to model postcracking and crushing behavior of the
material. An illustration of the uniaxial stress-strain relation employed in the ADINA concrete
model is presented in Fig The compressive portion of the stress-strain curve depicted in Fig. is
defined by the following expressions
Figure 7 uniaxial stress strain relation used in ADINA concrete model

HERSCHEL-BULKLEY MODEL
In the rheological tests, performed with a plane-to-plane rheometer, it appears that the relationship
between torque and rotation speed is not exactly linear. The flesh concrete behavior is better
described by the Herschel-Bulkley model:
𝑏
𝜏 = 𝜏𝜊 + 𝑎𝛾̇
𝜏 and 𝛾̇ are the shear stress and the strain gradient applied to the specimen, respectively 𝜏𝜊 , a and
b are three material parameters describing the concrete behavior. Among other advantages, this
new description avoids the problem of negative yield stress encountered with the Bingham model.
FACTORS AFFECTING THE RHEOLOGY OF CONCRETE
Flow or pumping properties of the concrete is related with the rheology of concrete, which required at least
two parameters, such as in the Bingham parameters for adequate description. There are certain parameters
which effect rheological parameters. The first factors are the composition of the concrete, including the
chemical and mineral admixture dosage and type, the gradation, shape and type of the aggregates, the water
content, and the cement characteristics. The same mixture design can result in different flow properties if
secondary factors are not taken into account which are mixer type, mixing sequence, mixing duration,
temperature.

References
1. https://ciks.cbt.nist.gov/garbocz/materialscience2000/node2.htm
2. http://www.theconcreteportal.com/rheology.html
3. Ferraris C et al. “Fresh concrete rheology: recent developments” Materials Science of Concrete
VI, Sidney Mindess and Jan Skalny, eds., The American Ceramic Society, 735 Ceramic Place,
Westerville, OH 43081, pp. 215-241, 2001.
4. Tedesco J W and Ross C A “Strain-Rate-Dependent Constitutive Equations for Concrete”
ASME vol 120 ,1998
5. Feys D et al. “Evaluation of time independent rheological models applicable to fresh
SelfCompacting Concrete” c Appl. Rheol. 17 (2007) 56244-1 – 56244-10
6. Benipal G S et al. “Constitutive modelling of concrete : An overview” ASIAN JOURNAL OF
CIVIL ENGINEERING (BUILDING AND HOUSING) VOL. 6, NO. 4 (2005) PAGES 211-246