Codal Provisions from IS 516 (Part 1/Sec 1) If you are involved in construction, quality control, or civil engineering, keeping up with standard codes is crucial for safety and compliance. The Bureau of Indian Standards updated its concrete testing protocols with IS 516 (Part 1/Sec 1): 2021. This comprehensive standard outlines the exact methods for … Read more
On almost every construction project, thousands of concrete cubes or cylinders are cast and tested. Yet obtaining an accurate result involves much more than simply placing a specimen in a compression testing machine. Factors such as specimen preparation, curing conditions, machine calibration, loading rate, and even the exact age of the specimen can significantly influence … Read more
Texas Slab Guys Explains a Concrete Breakthrough By Jeff Price, Founder & President, Texas Slab Guys For as long as reinforced concrete has existed, engineers have watched it fail in ways that feel almost inevitable. A coastal overpass develops rust stains along its soffits. A parking garage deck starts flaking at the rebar lines. A … Read more
From High Strength to High Performance Concrete Durability of concrete is now becoming the major concern for engineers as concrete may deteriorate with time in several ways. The most common durability failures in an outdoor climate are due to reinforcement corrosion or frost attack. In special environments concrete may suffer from chemical attack by various … Read more
The process of selecting concrete mixture proportions is a process of optimization of several desirable characteristics based on the project requirements. The characteristics to be optimized are economy, strength, durability, and placeability. 1. Economy. The primary reason for systematically determining mixture proportions is economy. The maximum economy can be achieved by minimizing the amount of … Read more
FIRE RESISTING PROPERTIES OF COMMON BUILDING MTERIALS Fire resisting properties of common building materials such as stone, brick, timber, cast-iron, glass, steel and concrete are mentioned below. 1. STONE The stone is a bad conductor of heat. But it suffers appreciably under the effects of fire. The stone is also liable to disintegrate into small … Read more
Compounds of Cement About 90-95% of a Portland cement is comprised of the four main cement minerals, which are C3S, C2S, C3A, and C4AF, with the remainder consisting of calcium sulphate, alkali sulphates, unreacted (free) CaO, MgO, and other minor constituents left over from the clinkering and grinding steps. The four cement minerals play very different … Read more
Determine Splitting Tensile Strength of Cylindrical Concrete Specimens Objective: This method covers the determination of the splitting tensile strength of cylindrical concrete specimens Reference: IS: 516 – 1959, IS: 1199-1959, SP: 23-1982, IS: 10086-1982 Theory: Age at Test – Tests shall be made at recognized ages of the test specimens, the most usual being 7 … Read more
FACTORS AFFECTING CHOICE OF CONCRETE FOR A STRUCTURE The choice of whether a structure should be built of concrete, steel, masonry, or timber depends on the availability of materials and on a number of value decisions. 1. Economy Frequently, the foremost consideration is the overall cost of the structure. This is, of course, a function … Read more
AIR ENTRAINED CONCRETE A major advance in concrete technology in recent years is the introduction of tiny disconnected air bubbles into concrete called air entrainment. Air entrained concrete results from using either an air-entraining cement or an air-entraining admixture during mixing. Adding entrained air to concrete provides important benefits in both plastic and hardened concrete, … Read more