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Bamforth
Table l . Concrete mix proportions for the 17 candidate mixes
-10 mm
20 mm
PFA
Nominal
Mix
OPC:
aggregate:
or
aggregate:
no.
strength
kg/m
kg/mi
GGBS*:
kg/m
grade
kg/m3
S1
S2
S3
S4
S5
S6
35
10
50
50
85
85
355
215
420
370
455
475
AEI
AE2
AE3
35
35
35
405
440
500
AI
A2
A3
A4
35
35
35
35
365
400
410
480
Cl
c2
c3
c4
35
35
35
35
280
355
I IO
1 30
I20*
so*
2557
3007
Sand:
kg/m
Water:
AEA
or SP
Air
content:
Yo
Slump:
mm
wlc
I .o
1.3
I .2
SPI
SP I
SPI
0.9
0.9
60
60
75
90
I00
90
0.5 1
0.85
0.43
0.45
0.36
0.32
1.7
3.5
1.2
70
70
85
0.46
0.39
0.32
760
795
770
770
800
805
300
315
305
305
355
355
740
815
685
750
620
625
185
180
770
790
755
305
310
300
670
600
530
185
170
160
2 AEA
820:
8451
375:
3851
6955
6955
655
560
560
505
200
185
220
205
I AEA
I AEA
1 AEA
0.5
2.4
6.0
9.4
80
75
75
85
0.55
0.46
0.54
0.43
290
290
300
295
700
605
735
580
185
185
0.9
1 AEA
I .o
180
I75
I AEA
0.9
4.8
85
85
95
85
0.46
0.37
0.49
0.4 1
730
730
760
765
I80
165
165
I 55
+ AEA
1 AEA
1.5
*PFA
tGGBS
$Crushed Dolerite
fiLytag,sintered PFA, 12mm
234
temperaturesandthat
this would invalidate comparisonsbetween tensile splittingstrengthoverthe
range of test temperatures. Stainless steel rods were
therefore chosen, as their hardness and
stiffness would
be similar at ambient and cryogenic temperature. It
was recognized, however, that this may influence the
absolute values of
tensile splitting strength. Thetensile
strength was calculated using the equation
2P
Measurement of compressive and tensile splitting
. L = na2
strength
wheref; is the tensile stress (N/mm), P is the maxiTwo cubeswere tested in compression for each mix
mum load applied (N), and a is the side of cube (mm).
at an age of 28 days. As far as possible, cubes were
tested according to BS 188I , although changes to the
Measurement of water permeability
standard testing procedure were required to enable
The water permeability of concrete
discs at ambient
direct comparisonwithlow-temperaturespecimens
which were placedin special stainless steel rigs prior to temperature, was determined at an ageof 28 days
using the rig shown in Fig. 2. The l00mm dia. test
testing, as shown in Fig. 1.
specimens were prepared by placing them in tapered
Tensile strengths were measured by splitting 2 no.
cylindrical brass moulds,1 10 mm maximum diameter,
concrete cubes. Restraining rigswere used, as also
shown in Fig. 1. The test differed from a conventional and filling the 5 mm annular space with epoxyresin to
splitting test in that the spacers at the top and bottom form a tapered resin sleeve. After the resin had cured
for 24 hours, the specimens were removed from the
of the cube, through which line
the loads were applied,
mouldsand placed in thepermeability test rig. A
were stainless steel rods. At ambient temperature
soft
rubber 0-ring was used to form a watertight seal. A
timber spacers are normally used, hence the load is
water
pressure equivalent to lOOm head was applied
spread over a small area. There
was concern, however,
over
the
bottom surface of the specimen.
that a soft spacer would change its properties at low
When full penetration of water was observed on the
top surface, a reading was taken to calculate the rate
of flow through the specimen. This was achieved by
connecting a 4mm diameter glass tube to the top of
the rig and measuring the movement of the meniscus
over a period of I O minutes. A second reading was
taken 24 hours after the application of pressure. For
high-permeability concretes the measurement period
was l minute. For the very low permeability concrete
complete penetration was not always achieved within
24 hours, and in such cases the specimens were maind
V
tained under pressure for a period of 7 days. If complete penetration had still not occurred the specimens
were then removed from their rigs and split to expose
the penetration front. A permeability coefficient was
Restraining rig with
then calculated from the average penetration depth.
spring washers
The equations used to calculate the coefficient of permeability were as follows
1
---Test specimen
(100 mm cube)
By $ow:
Kd
Spacer block
---
Insulated box
By penetration:
K, =
.-I
-platens
Loading machine
Qx
Ah
= -
d2 V
2ht
__
Bamforth
Fig. 2. Test cell for the measurement of the water permeability coejicient.
236
Water permeability
The average results aresummarized in Table 3
together with strengthdata.
In general the permeability coefficients fell within the range 1.5 x lo-''1.5 x lo-'' m/s, these values being at the high end of
the range of values normally expected for structural
concrete." Notable exceptions to this were mixes S2,
S5, S6, A3 and A4. Mix S2 was a low-grade high wlc
ratio mixwith
a significantly higherpermeability
coefficient. Mixes S5 and S6 were high-grade low wlc
ratio concretes with significantly lower permeability
coefficients. Mixes A3 and A4 were lightweight concretes with strengths in the range 40-50 MPa, exhibiting very low permeabilities. The reasons for this are
Mugazine of Concrere Reseurch, 1991. 43, No. 157
SI
S2
S3
S4
S5
S6
AE 1
AE2
AE3
AI
A2
A3
A4
c1
c2
c3
c4
Strength
Mix
Flow measurements
Compressive:
N/mm2
Tensile splitting:
N/mmz
Rise in 4 mm
dia. pipe: mm
Time: S
Flow rate at 24 h:
10-'Om'/s
52.0
51.0
16.5
16.5
59.5
63.0
57.2
63.9
97.0
97.0
102.0
98.5
1.48
1.1 1
1.os
1.08
2.93
1.91
2.78
2.62
3.98
2.70
3.94
3.82
83
66
600
600
60
90
600
600
600
600
17.38
13.82
314.10
188.50
1.68
2.53
6.28
1.68
7 days
7 days
7 days
7 days
46.5
43.6
54.0
46.0
41.5
48.0
2.13
1.39
1.91
1.72
1.91
1.91
18
19
23
35
20
17
483
48.5
55.7
56.2
46.5
51.3
41.8
40.0
2.42
2.1 1
2.10
2.78
2.3 1
2.16
2.13
2.07
75
106
40
42
42.9
42.6
53.0
57.0
35.8
33.9
36.3
37.8
1.85
1.39
I .59
1.91
l.70
1.30
1.17
1.11
I50
135
8
11
30
8
~
600
600
900
600
2.31
2.53
3.07
4.67
1 .54
2.27
600
600
600
600
15.71
22.23
8.37
8.80
10.00
14.17
5.33
5.60
0.048
0.034
0.0 10
0.014
8 days, 5 h
8 days, 5 h
__
7 days
90 days
24
24
28
17
60
145
60
75
600
600
600
600
600
600
600
600
5.03
5.03
5.87
336
1237
30.37
12.57
15.71
11.06
8.80
180.73
108.62
1.01
1.61
3.54
1.03
0.048
0.040
0.027
0.02 1
3.77
3.98
4.82
7.34
2.78
336
600
600
Permeability
coefficient: lo-'' m/s
3.08
3.20
3.73
2.23
8.00
20. I O
8.00
10.00
237
Bamforth
Table 3. Average values of compressive strength, tensile
splitting strength and water permeability
Mix
Tensile
Permeability
Compressive
strength: N/mm2 strength: N/mm2 coefficient: lo-m/s
51.5
16.5
61.3
60.6
97.0
100.3
1.30
1.06
2.42
2.70
3.34
3.88
9.87
140.1 l
1.28
1.91
0.044
0.024
AEI
AE2
AE3
45.1
50.0
44.8
1.76
1.82
1.91
2.41
3.79
1.87
A1
A2
A3
A4
48.5
2.27
2.44
2.24
2.10
11.90
5.46
0.040
0.012
S1
S2
S3
S4
S5
S6
56-0
48.9
40.9
clear that the reduction was due not to the air itself,
but primarily due tothe reduced w/c ratioachieved in
the air-entrained mixes at a constant level of workability. The results indicate that at a given w/c ratio,
air entrainmentmay cause an increase in permeability.
Similar findings have been reported by Murata,Is the
effect of air entrainment being to increase the water
permeability in concretes with w/c ratiosless than 0.6.
At higher w/c ratios Murata found that air entrainment reduced permeability. The use of both PFA and
GGBS also resulted in a small increase in permeability
at a given w/c ratio.
The lightweight concretes deviated significantly
from thegeneral relationship, having much lower permeability coefficients than could be attributed simply
to the w/c ratio. Possible reasons for this have been
discussed above.
The rangeof results reviewed byLawrence is shown
in Fig. 4. While the data from different sources
resulted in different relationships between w/cand
permeability, the trend in behaviour was consistent.
TheAuthors results represent anupperbound
on
permeability coefficient, the majority of published
data yielding much low permeability values at a
specific value of w/c ratio.
Permeability versus strength
In practice concretes are specified by strength. The
relationship between water permeability and compressive strength is illustrated in Fig. 5. Again a
relationship clezrly exists, with the permeability
reducing logarithmically as the strength increases.
Increasing the air content
(while adjusting the mix
proportions to maintain strength) tends to
result in
reduced permeability. Theuse of PFA andGGBS had
no significant influence on permeability at 28 days
when designed to achieve equal strength with OPC
concrete.
Again, the most significant deviation from the
general relationship occurred with lightweight mixes
A3 and A4, which achieved considerably lower permeability in relation to their strength.
10
10
j4
0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
Waterkernem ratlo
238
10
40
80
Compressive strength:Nlrnrn
1 20
E 10-1'
SW\
A3
l
\;S"
6A4
10-'8'
10.1~
10
30
40
Compressive strength: N/mm2
20
50
239
Bamforth
10-15~
curing
water
water
water
in the strength-permeabilityrelationship
resulting
from prolonged curing is much less than suggested by
the results of G l a n ~ i l l e ,Bamforth
~
et a1.,I6 Thomas et
al. and Kasai et al., a similar trend is indicated. As
suggested by Dhir et a1.,I8the difference in absolute
values is most likely to be attributable to the different
test methods employed, and it is beyond the scope of
this Paper to investigate such factors in detail. Nevertheless, the various sourcesall support the hypotheses
of changing
a
relationship
between compressive
strength and permeability as the period of curing is
increased.
To the authors knowledge thereasonfor
the
change in the strength-permeability relationship has
not been investigated experimentally, but itis believed
that the different curves reflect different changes in
pore structure. Strengthis generally determined by the
total porosity, while permeability is also related to the
pore continuity. The relatively small change in permeability with respect to strength when the period of
water curing is less than one day, is believed to reflect
a change in total porosity, but little change in pore
continuity. With longer periods of curing the continuity of the pore system is believedto become increas240
20
40
60
Compressive strength: N/mm2
80
Conclusions
A series of tests has been carried out tomeasure the
coefficient of water permeability for sealed cured concretes with values of compressive strength in the range
of 16-100N/mm2. The results have been compared
with published data and the following conclusions
have been drawn.
For concretes which have been water-cured for one
day or less there is a semi-logarithmic relationship
Magazine of Concrete Research, 1991, 43, NO.157
between water permeability and compressive (or tensile strength). With the exception
of lightweight aggregate, the mix constituents did not have a significant
influence on the permeability-strength relationship.
For a given strength, substantially lower values of
water permeability can be achieved using lightweight
concrete. This is believed to be due to the combined
effects of the initially lower w/c ratio, being further
reduced by the aggregate absorption, improved
aggregate-cement paste bond, and a lower level of
microcracking due to the shape and stiffness of the
lightweight aggregate particles.
Comparing the Authors
results with publisheddata
indicates that as the period
of water curingis increased
the rate ofchangeofpermeabilitywith
respect to
strength also increases.
These findings suggest that the coefficient of water
permeability, and hencethedurability
of concrete,
cannot be inferred from a measurement of strength
without a detailed knowledge of the curing history.
The use of in situ strength measurement is unlikely,
therefore, toprovidea
reliable meansforderiving
durability without an independent recording
of the
period of water curing.
5. BLUNDELL
R. et al. Thermal stresses in oil storage vesselsthe properties of concrete for
use in design. Construction
Industry Research and Information Association, Technical
note no 9, London, 1976.
6. BROWNE R.D. and BURROWS
R. E. 0. An example of the
utilisation of complex multiphase behaviour in engineering
design. Proceedings of the Civil Engineering Materials Confer-
l.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
Acknowledgements
The Author wishes to thank the Directors of Taywood Engineering Ltd for permission to publish this
Paper. The financial support from theCommission of
theEuropeanCommunityandtheDepartment
of
Energy is also gratefully acknowledged. The work
formed part of an external PhD thesis undertaken in
association withAston University, andthanksare
also extended to Dr Roger Kettle for his sustained
support and guidance.
References
BAMFORTH P.
B. The structural permeability of concrete at
cryogenic temperature. PhD thesis, Aston University, 1988.
of concrete subjectedto
GOTOY. and MIURA T. Deterioration
repetitions of very low temperatures. Reprint for Trans. Jap.
Concr. Inst., 1979, 111-5,183-190.
GOTOS. and ROYD. M. The effect of w/c ratio and curing
temperature on the permeability of hardened cement paste.
Cem. Concr. Res., 1981, 2, 575-579.
IWATA A.et al. Properties of concrete at low temperatures.
Technical Symposium of the Japanese Refrigeration Institute.
Tokyo, 1975.
14.
15.
16.
17.
18.
19.
24 1