Marc JOLIN

Pierre SICCARDI
Shotcrete R&D…
Antoine GAGNON or what seems interesting for us!

26 March 2019
1907

1907

Carl E. Akeley

Naturalist, taxidermist &

inventor

Credit : 1000museums
Plan of presentation

What has been done in the

last 25 years ?

What’s being done now?

What’s next ?
The last 25 years…
…well, some of what I noticed!
 The early 90’s brought many
questions on:

• Mix design performances (durability,

mechanical properties and bonding)
• Placement techniques, f(mix design)
• Jobsite and long term results

STRENGTH DURABILITY
Air entrainment Set Accelerator

Absorption &
Service Life
RCPT
Nozzleman Rebar
Certification encapsulation

Corrosion Core Grading

Protection
 High Initial Air
Rheology
Content

Active Paste
Pumpability
Content
On-going R&D
What’s trending?
Mix design
Rapid strength development
UHP(FR)S

Placement
Spray Characterization and Description
 Rapid strength development -
Background
• Other possibilities?

Portland Cement
Calcium Aluminate Cement
Sulphates

Sulfoaluminate cements

Traditional matrix

Portland-CAC
3 hours compressive
Exploration
strength [MPa]
Shotcreting

• Preparation
• Shooting
• Testing
Shotcreting
Age Specimen type 1h 2h 3h 6h 1j 7j 28j

Cube 12,9 24,9 29,6 - - - -

Compressive Strength
[MPa]
Core - - 35,6 47,6 54,6 51,9 52,1
UHPFRS

• WHY?
• Take advantage of the excellent properties of
UHPC and transpose them to shotcrete

• HOW?
• By talking to UHPC specialists !
 Wet-mix Shotcrete

• The particular rheology of UHPCs (high viscosity) was the

biggest challenge to overcome
• pumping (pressures) and pump cylinder fill

• Spraying is particularly easy and smooth:

• high cohesion, low rebound, easy to finish

NO SET ACCELERATOR USED !

 Consistency after
pumping,
immediately before
spraying

Mixing from
pre-blended
ingredients
Immediately Following
after finishing
spraying

Close-up of
surface
Results
• Compressive strength: >120 MPa ( >17 500 PSI)
• Surprisingly robust against water addition

• Bond to concrete substrate: > 2 MPa ( > 290 PSI)

• All limited by the substrate (fC-SUBSTRATE = 25 MPa - 3625 PSI)

• Rebound kept to a
minimum (5%-10%)
Placement & Spray
Background
• A wide range of particle velocities are reported in literature

-Stewart (1933)
350-530 km/h (Gunite)

-Austin and Robins (1995)

100-200 km/h (dry-mix)
40-100 km/h(wet-mix)

- Armelin high-speed filming (1997)

20- 100 km/h

• No characterization of the entire flow of particle out of

the nozzle
Velocity Profiles
23
24
25
26
27
28
 Shotcrete cinematic
X= 1 m
X= 0,5 m
X= 0,1 m

Nozzle

Nozzle
Y (m)

Y (m)
Y (m)

U (m/s) U (m/s) U (m/s)

1 Spray Velocity Profiles
 2 Shotcrete Cinematic
Wet-Mix – 200cfm- 100 cm - 36 in

Captured weight per

unit of time
Observations and Discussions
• Effect of equipment on material exit velocities,
velocity profiles and energy profiles
• Understanding and describing the flow of material

• Effect of material flow characteristics on:

• rebound
• in-place compaction
• …in-place mechanical properties
• …durability
• …costs
Next…
What shall R&D concentrate on?
 New Challenges in the Shotcrete Industry
Economic From a recent study…
Sustainable
Dry-mix, in a mine… Rebound
21%
11%

Waste
Resources Production Transport Placement
Traitment
Environmental
Overall Saving
Impact
9%
+14%

(Gagnon, 2017)
Current Challenges - TESTING

ASTM C1550 EN 14488-5

Steel fibre
Concrete 50 MPa CV ≈10%

x4.0
30 kg/mDifferent
3 622J
tests DON’T translate 2510J
the performance of a mixture the same way

vs. x2.1 x1.1

50 kg/m3 x2.2
1322J 2860J
Current Challenges

Sensitivity to input variables

Energy absorption (J)

Energy absorption (J)

fc Fiber dosage fc Fiber dosage

ASTM C1550 EN 14488-5

Traditional Water Ring : Critique
Nozzle Tip : Review

Hamm (1924) Double-Bubble (1954) Spirolet (1972)

Solution
1 Water Ring

Uniform & Velocity

complete

Mixing

Only at the nozzle

> Short Nozzle
2 Nozzle Tip
New Dry-Mix Nozzle
(Patent Pending - US 62/807.955)

Rebound Comp. Str.

43,2 MPa
9,4% (6 260 PSI)
Adapted Rheology
&
Automation of placement
Adapted Rheology
What are we talking about here?

A material that would have its rheology engineered so as to:

• Minimize rebound
• Maximize bond and encapsulation of obstacle
• Allow for a pre-defined build-up thickness

How do we get there?

 The Impacted Paste paste

Possible scenarios are simple:

Rebound or Capture (No rebound)

However, the mechanisms behind are

complex as they involve:
• Stiffness
• Deformability
• Adhesion/cohesion
…of the paste

• Gradation
• Velocity
• Impact Angle
…of the aggregates
aggregates
 Placement
We are looking for a soft and
cohesive paste bed…
During the impact of the
particles
… that is stable and stiff enough
to stay in place
Once spraying is done

0.5 – 5 seconds > 5 seconds

We achieve this by controlling

rheology @ the very early stages
0 – 1 min after placement
Example: Corn Starch
 Controlling rheology @ the very
early stages 0 – 1 min

3D printing

Automation
Digital
Fabrication
Deposition
Methods
Concrete 3D Printing (3DPC)

o Stiffening and hydration

challenges

o Rheology and placement

challenges

Similar challenges in both fields…

Elevating the industry together!
Active control of concrete properties
Intervention:
Magnetic particles in the
Mechanical (Vibration) concrete
Chemical (Accelerator, retarder…) (Nair and Ferron, 2014)
Thermal (Steam curing, cooling)
Hygral (Wet curing, internal curing)
Pressure (Vacuum mixing, cavitational shear)
Electromagnetic field around
steel pumping pipes
Magnetic
(Choi et al., 2014)

2018 Smartcast project

European Research Council Advanced
Grant Project

Active Rheology Control (ARC)

Active Stiffening Control (ASC)

(De Schutter, 2018)

Augmented reality in shotcrete placement

Pump pressure
Pump flow
Accelerator dosage
Fresh concrete properties
….

Threshold alarms on:

- thickness
- max build-up
- encapsulation
- rebound
…
 Université Laval
Shotcrete Lab’s Vision
Understanding the placement process
Short Term Zero Rebound (Optimized placement
method )
Small Scale Testing
Controlled rheology
Automation of placement
Long Term
3D Concrete Printing
Mixture & Placement & Structure are
DESIGNED TOGETHER
Automation of placement
Smart Formwork
Industry 4.0
Discussion & Conclusion
• The last 25 years of R&D have seen a lot of
improvements and an increased robustness of all
shotcrete components
• The next 25 years will be a revolution for the
industry by:
• reducing/eliminating rebound & dust
• allowing for outstanding performances (strength and
service life)
• enabling the creation of engineered elements of all
shapes and thicknesses
Contributors
 Thank you !
marc.jolin@gci.ulaval.ca

Photo credit : King Shotcrete Solutions