Cement and Concrete Research 45 (2013) 69–78

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Cement and Concrete Research

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Lubrication layer properties during concrete pumping

Myoungsung Choi a, c,⁎, Nicolas Roussel b, Youngjin Kim a, Jinkeun Kim c
a
Civil Engineering Research Team, Daewoo Institute of Construction Technology, Suwon, Republic of Korea
b
Université Paris Est, IFSTTAR, Paris, France
c
Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, Daejeon, Republic of Korea

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: In order to progress in the understanding of the physical phenomena involved in the pumping process of con-
Received 5 January 2012 crete, we study in this work the properties of the lubrication layer, which forms between the pipe and the
Accepted 22 November 2012 bulk material. Using ultrasonic velocity profiler, we measure the thickness of this lubrication layer in the
case of real size pumping circuits. Our experimental, analytical and numerical results suggest that, from a
Keywords:
rheological point of view, this layer behaves similarly as the constitutive mortar of the pumped concrete.
Fresh concrete (A)
Rheology (A)
Moreover, this layer thickness does not seem to depend on flow rate. We finally propose a simple analytical
Modeling (E) relation allowing for a rough estimation of the pumping pressure.
Pumping © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
Concrete pumping is extensively used worldwide for the construc-
tion of high rise buildings and long span bridges. This technique offers
notable advantages such as allowing concrete casting in difficult to ac-
cess locations, and reducing casting process durations or allowing for
a continuous concrete casting. However, in order to apply concrete
pumping to large-scale construction projects, a priori prediction of con-
crete flow rates, which induce the construction process duration, is
necessary from a practical logistic point of view.
This prediction shall be based on the analysis of the concrete flow ty-
pology within a pumping pipe. This typology is complex but it is now
accepted that flow of concrete in a pipe strongly differs from the one
of typical viscous fluids such as water or oil.
The primary reason for this difference comes from the fact that con-
crete is a yield stress fluid (i.e. it flows only if the applied stress is higher
than its yield stress). As a consequence, there exists at the center of the
pipe (i.e. around the symmetry axis where the shear stress is equal to
zero) a zone where concrete is not sheared [1]. Most approaches of con-
crete pumping in literature have taken into account this yield stress and
the existence of this unsheared zone [2–4] by assuming that concrete
behaves as a Bingham fluid or Herschel Buckley fluid. These approaches
have however almost systematically failed to predict correctly pumping
flow rates on large range of concrete fluidity without including the fact
that there exists a lubrication layer at the interface between concrete
and the pipe.
⁎ Corresponding author at: Civil Engineering Research Team, Daewoo Institute of Con-
struction Technology, Suwon, Republic of Korea. Tel.: +82 10 5604 1095; fax: +82 32 250
1148.
E-mail address: myoungsung.choi@daewooenc.com (M. Choi).
Indeed, the second reason for the difference between pumping of
concrete and pumping of simpler materials comes from the fact that,
under the action of shear, a redistribution of particles occurs within
the pipe. This is a common feature of particle suspensions and initially
well mixed particles in concentrated suspension flows are shown to un-
dergo migration from high shear rate regions to low shear rate regions
[5–7]. For example, in a Couette viscometer with a rotating inner cylin-
der and a stationary outer cylinder, the particles migrate towards the
outer cylinder [8] whereas in Poiseuille flows in cylindrical pipes, the
particles migrate towards the central axis [9]. This particle migration,
in the case of coarse particles (i.e. particles with a characteristic size
close to the characteristic size of the flow), can be increased by wall ef-
fect at the interface between the pumped material and the pipe [10]. In-
deed, because of simple geometrical considerations, it is not possible to
find the center of a particle of diameter a at a distance from a wall lower
than a/2. During pumping, shear concentrates therefore in a fluid layer
of material depleted from the coarsest particles of the concrete. In the
inner region, the material is almost not sheared (Cf. Fig. 1). Pumping
of concrete can therefore be considered in most cases as the shearing
of an annular layer of unknown thickness and made of a material with
unknown rheological properties.
This layer is often called in literature lubrication layer or sometimes
slippage layer. Its existence was first suggested by Aleekseev [11] and
Weber [12]. Morinaga [13] noted that, from a theoretical point of
view, considering the rheological parameters of the material, pumping
of concrete would not be possible without the formation of this lubrica-
tion layer. Sakuta et al. [14] went further and showed that the flow
properties of the bulk material were irrelevant. The only property that
matters is the ability of the material to form this layer. Jacobsen et al.
[1] conducted experimental research with colored fresh concrete
flowing after ordinary concrete to observe the flow conditions in

0008-8846/$ – see front matter © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cemconres.2012.11.001
70 M.S. Choi et al. / Cement and Concrete Research 45 (2013) 69–78

Fig. 1. Schematic pattern of concrete flow in the pipe.

various pipes and Rossig [15] pumped some colored concretes in a pipe Fig. 2. Overview of the experimental setup.
for a direct observation of flow profiles. Their results demonstrated the
existence of a high velocity and paste rich zone at the vicinity of the pipe
wall. From a quantitative point of view, the thickness of this lubrication in Table 1 marked as % HRWRA, meaning percentage of admixture rel-
layer was estimated to be between 1 and 5 mm in [2,3,16]. Feys et al. [4] ative to binder content (in weight).
noted that the thickness and rheological properties of this layer seem to Each concrete was produced in a batch of 2 m3 by a ready mix com-
depend on the mix proportions of the pumped concrete. The macro- pany. The mixing procedure was as follow: sand and coarse aggregates
scopic consequences of this layer on the pumping pressure were were mixed during 15 s; all other dry components (cement, filler)
taken into account by introducing in the pumping process prediction were added during 15 s; water and HRWRA were added during the ad-
some interface properties measured macroscopically using a tribometer ditional 2 min of mixing. The total mixing time was 2 and half minutes.
by [3]. Considering the critical role played by this lubrication layer on
concrete pumping and considering that a detailed analysis of this
2.2. Pumping circuit
layer thickness and properties has not been carried out yet, we study
in this work the properties of this layer. Using ultrasonic velocity profil-
A horizontal pumping circuit of 170 m length was set up (Cf. Fig. 2).
er, we measure the thickness of this lubrication layer in the case of a real
This circuit included eight 180° and three 90° bends. The pipe diameter
size pumping circuits equipped with pressure gauges. Our experimen-
was 125 mm and its thickness was 7.7 mm. The concrete pump was
tal, analytical and numerical results suggest that, from a rheological
a high pressure piston pump (model BSA2110HP-D, Putzmeister Co.,
point of view, this layer behaves similarly as the constitutive mortar of
Germany). Its specifications are given in Table 2. For high pressure
the pumped concrete. Moreover, its thickness does not seem to depend
pumping capacity, a piston side cylinder type was used.
on flow rate. We finally propose a simple analytical relation allowing for
Three different flow rates were studied. The filling rate of the pump
a rough estimation of the pumping pressure.
cylinder, which directly affects flow rate, was calibrated from specific
experiments prior to the actual concrete pumping. The concrete was
pumped into several 1 m3 reservoirs, which were connected to a Linear
2. Materials and protocols
Variable Differential Transformer (LVDT). As the pump cylinder volume
is known, the filling rate was computed from the LVDT length variation
2.1. Materials and mix proportions
with designated stroke times. Through these experiments, the averaged
filling rate was found to be around 85%. Based on this value, the stroke
Three different highly-workable concretes (i.e. fluid concretes) were
times needed to target the three flow rates were chosen as shown in
studied in this work. Their mix proportions are given in Table 1. The ce-
Table 3.
ment was a CEM I 52.5 N with density of 3150 kg/m3. The sand was a
The circuit was equipped with 11 pressure gauges (model JUMO
natural river sand with a density of 2590 kg/m 3 and fineness modulus
dTRANs p20, JUMO GmbH & Co. KG, Germany). The detailed locations
of 2.81. Sand particle size ranges from 0.08 to 5 mm with water absorp-
of the gauges are shown in Fig. 3. The first one was located 5 m after
tion capacity of 2.43%. The maximum coarse aggregate size was 25 mm.
the beginning of the circuit whereas the last one was located 11 m
It was a limestone aggregate with water absorption capacity of 0.8%,
before the end.
density of 2610 kg/m 3, and fineness modulus of 6.72. The amount of
mixing water was corrected to take into account the water absorbed
2.3. Ultrasonic velocity profiler (UVP)
by sand and coarse aggregates. A polycarboxylate-based high range
water reducing admixtures (HRWRA) was used. Its dosage is shown
An Ultrasonic Velocity Profiler (UVP) [17] was used to get a
non-destructive measurement of the concrete velocity profile in the
Table 1 pipe using ultrasonic waves with high resolution. The detailed specifica-
Mix proportions. tions of the device used in this work are given in Table 4. UVP allows for
Materials Design strength
Table 2
Name of the series C40 C50 C60 Pump specifications.
Cement CEM I 52.5 N, kg/m3 201 225 257
Item Content
Fly ash Class F, kg/m3 45 50 57
Blast furnace slag, kg/m3 201 225 257 Model BSA2110HP-D
W/B ratio 0.38 0.33 0.28 Flow rate (m3/h) 102⁎/76⁎⁎
Sand, kg/m3 768 736 713 Max. pressure (bar) 150⁎/220⁎⁎
Coarse aggregate, kg/m3 873 871 844 Engine horsepower (kW) 330
% Polycarboxylate-based HRWRA 0.8 0.9 1.0 Stroke/min 28⁎/19⁎⁎
Slump flow, mm 600 ± 20 620 ± 20 620 ± 20
* Rod side, ** piston side.
 M.S. Choi et al. / Cement and Concrete Research 45 (2013) 69–78
Table 3
Pump setup.
No Stroke time (s) Average velocity (m/s) Flow rate (m3/h)
1 4 1.13 50
2 5 0.92 40
3 7 0.68 30
the measurement of the flow velocity profile through the following
steps: pulsed emission of ultrasound signals, echo reception and detec-
tion of the Doppler shift frequency.
Experimental investigations of pipe flows using ultrasonic waves
have already been carried out in the literature [18–21] for the measure-
ment of velocity profiles of simple fluids such as water or dilute suspen-
sions. However, applications to concentrated suspensions of coarse
particles such as concrete are far more limited.
In order to apply this device to measure the concrete flow in the
pipe, a stable positioning of the ultrasonic probe (transducer) is essen-
tial for the successful measurement as precision of measurement can-
not be higher than precision of transducer positioning. This especially
concerns the angle of transducer. Any deviation of the ultrasound
beam axis from the mechanical axis is at the origin of high measure-
ment uncertainties.
The position of the effective ultrasound beam axis was therefore
checked by installing a wire across the ultrasound beam, while simulta-
neously observing the echo from the wire on an oscilloscope. As the
maximum amplitude of ultrasound is located on the beam effective
axis, this procedure allows for the identification of the location of the ef-
fective beam axis.
An overall schematic illustration of this device is shown in Fig. 4.
In addition, for application of the UVP using ultrasonic waves, 1 m
transparent engineered plastic pipe with the same diameter as the
standard pipe was installed in the last section, as shown in Fig. 5.
When ultrasonic waves propagate in a medium containing coarse
particles such as concrete, the ultrasound pulse hits the particle and
part of the ultrasound energy is scattered and lost for the echo measure-
ment. Thus, as the measuring depth increases, the amplitude of echoed
ultrasound energy decreases. This is especially true for the high fre-
quency ultrasonic waves used in this work. Thus, above a given depth,
the amplitude of echoed ultrasound energy is not sufficiently strong
to detect the Doppler shift frequency and give access to the velocity pro-
file. In this work, with the chosen test condition, only the velocity profile
within 15 mm from the wall can be measured. Although this limited
measurement range does not give access to the full velocity profile in
Fig. 3. Schematic ground plan of the pumping circuit and the location of pressure gauges.
71
Table 4
Experimental UVP parameters.
Item Content
Frequency (MHz) 8
Cycles per pulse 2 ~ 32
No. of profiles 1024
Sound velocity (m/s) 2680 ± 200
Doppler angle (°) 85 ± 0.5
Spatial resolution (mm) Min. 0.20
the cross section, it exceeds the expected thickness of the lubrication
layer.
2.4. Rheological measurements
In order to measure the rheological properties of the constitutive
mortar, a Brookfield DV-II viscometer was used [22]. The container
is filled up with 0.5 L of mortar. The radii of the inner spindle and con-
tainer are 8 mm and 36 mm, respectively. The height of the spindle is
60 mm. The range of rotational speed is 0.4 to 4.2 rev/s, which corre-
sponds to approximately 60 s −1 maximum shear rate.
The rheological properties of concretes were measured with a coaxial
cylinder type ConTec Viscometer 5 [23]. The radii of the inner cylinder
and outer cylinder are 100 mm and 145 mm, respectively. The height
of the inner cylinder is 98 mm. Both the inner and outer cylinders are
equipped with ribs to prevent slippage between the tested concrete
and the steel surface. The range of rotational speed is 0.1 to 0.6 rev/s,
which corresponds to approximately 10 s−1 maximum shear rate.
The constitutive mortar and concrete were tested at the age of
15 min after water addition time. In each viscometer, the measuring
procedure was initiated with a 30 s high speed phase to eliminate
any thixotropy and structural breakdown artifacts [24,25]. The rota-
tional velocity was then decreased stepwise. Between two rotational
velocity steps, we had a 2-second transient time and 3-second
sampling time to reach what was defined as steady state. A Bingham
model was then fitted to the data allowing for the computation of
plastic viscosity and yield stress. More information and details on
the measuring and data transformation procedures for the Brookfield
DV-II and ConTec Viscometer 5 can be found in [26–28].
Because of the existing discrepancy between concrete rheometers
[29,30], it can be expected that the absolute values of the rheological
parameters obtained on concrete could be debatable. Moreover, shear
induced particle migration could also occur in the rheometer.
72 M.S. Choi et al. / Cement and Concrete Research 45 (2013) 69–78
Ultrasonic probe
Ultrasound echo
generated by particles
Ultrasound burst emission time
Velocity
Fig. 4. Schematic illustration of the UVP velocity profile measurement on a flow.
However, as reminded in the introduction and as discussed further in
this paper, the contribution of the bulk to the pumping pressure can
be neglected compared to the contribution of the lubrication layer
as long as a lubrication layer is formed. Orders of magnitudes of the
bulk rheology are therefore sufficient within the frame of this paper.
3. Experimental results and analysis
3.1. Pressure measurements
The measured pressure distribution along the pipe is illustrated in
Fig. 6, in which the pressure waveforms measured at each location for
Fig. 5. Application point of the UVP and transparent engineered plastic.
Particles moving in
measuring volume
Flow direction
Reflection
from bottom
time
C50 are shown for the three tested flow rates. The averaged 0 m position
values of pressure waveforms (i.e. without the strokes) which are calcu-
lated by using linear extrapolation process of 11 designated position
pressure gauges are shown in Fig. 7 for the three tested concretes as a
function of flow rate. The measured pressures show an almost linear re-
lationship with flow rate regardless of mix proportions with an extrapo-
lated ordinate at the origin in the studied regime almost equal to zero.
This indicates that, in this regime and in the pumping conditions
tested in this work, the pumping pressure does not seem to be affect-
ed by a yield stress (i.e. a nonlinear material behavior), by shear thick-
ening or shear thinning [31–35] or by any pressure dependency of the
rheological parameters of the pumped materials [36,37].
In addition, if we consider now the pressure gauges #3, #4, #9 and
#10 in Fig. 3, which are located before and after a bend, our measure-
ments suggest that the presence of the bend does not affect the local
pressure drop. This result is similar to the one reported in Kaplan et al.
[3] but differs from, for example, Schwing [38] which proposed that a
bend of 90° causes a pressure loss which is equivalent to 3 m of straight
pipe.
3.2. UVP measurements
The axial velocities measured by using UVP are shown in Fig. 8. A
brutal change in slope can be spotted for all concretes tested and at all
flow rates. It can be seen in these figures that shear rate (i.e. approx-
imately the slope of the velocity profiles) concentrate in a layer, the
thickness of which does not seem to depend on flow rate and mix
 M.S. Choi et al. / Cement and Concrete Research 45 (2013) 69–78 73

a) Flow rate: 50 m3/h (stroke time 4 s)

b) Flow rate: 40 m3/h (stroke time 5 s) c) Flow rate: 30 m3/h (stroke time 7 s)

Fig. 6. Pressure waveforms for the 11 pressure gauges along the pipe for C50.

proportion in the ranges studied in this paper. The value of this thick- few hundreds s −1, a low shear rate of the bulk can be measured
ness is approximately 2 mm. (around 10 s −1). No plug flow (i.e. zero shear rate) can be spotted.
It is moreover interesting to note that, after a parabolic increase of It has however to keep in mind that only the first 15 mm of flowing
the velocity in the lubrication layer with shear rates of the order of a material are considered here.

a) C40 b) C50 c) C60

Fig. 7. Averaged pressure values as a function of flow rate for the three tested concretes.
74 M.S. Choi et al. / Cement and Concrete Research 45 (2013) 69–78
a) C40
Fig. 8. UVP measurement results for the lubrication layer thickness and its variations depending on the mix proportion and flow rate.
3.3. Material properties
As discussed in Section 1, particle collisions in highly sheared and/or
highly concentrated zones force particles to migrate from these zones.
This effect is counterbalanced by the local increase in concrete viscosity
resulting from this migration (i.e. in the bulk). Shear induced particle
migration finds therefore its origin in the competition between gradi-
ents in particle collision frequency and gradients in viscosity of the con-
crete within the pipe. It was shown in [39] that the characteristic time
for shear induced particle migration is of the order of R2 =10a2 ϕ2 γ_
where R is the pipe radius, a is the particle diameter, ϕ is the particle
volume fraction and γ_ is the shear rate. As a consequence, sand parti-
cles, the average diameter of which is one order of magnitude lower
than the average diameter of the gravel shall migrate 100 times slower.
This means that, when sand particles migrate, they encounter the high
viscosity of the bulk concrete, in which gravel particles have already mi-
grated and should be prevented to migrate inside the bulk.
It can therefore be expected that the migration of sand particles can
be neglected compared to the migration of gravel particles and that the
lubrication layer could be considered, as a first approximation, as being
similar to the constitutive mortar of the pumped concrete. We chose
here to test this assumption and wet-screened the constitutive mortar
from the fresh concrete and measure its rheology in the Brookfield vis-
cometer. We simultaneously measure the rheology of the concrete
with ConTec Viscometer 5 (Cf. Section 2.4). The results are gathered in
Table 5. These rheology parameters are the averaged values before
pumping.
4. Analytical approach and numerical simulations
4.1. Analytical approach
As stated in Section 1, most analytical approaches in the literature
have almost systematically failed to predict correctly pumping flow
rates on large range of concrete fluidity without including the fact
that there exists a lubrication layer at the interface between concrete
Table 5
Rheology parameters.
Type C40 C50 C60
Item Lubrication Bulk Lubrication Bulk Lubrication Bulk
layer layer layer
Plastic viscosity (Pa∙s) 2.0 30.0 2.5 40.0 3.0
Yield stress (Pa) 5.0 70.0 10.0 100.0 15.0
b) C50 c) C60
and the pipe. We choose therefore in the following to develop a very
basic and simple approach focusing specifically on this lubrication
layer and not on the flow of the concrete bulk. As described below,
this approach is however limited to the case of fluid concretes (i.e.
low yield stresses).
Because of the momentum conservation, the shear stress in the
pipe as a function of the radial coordinate writes τ = ΔP ⋅ r/2L, where
ΔP/L is the pressure gradient, which is constant along the circuit as
shown in Fig. 6.
As the lubrication layer thickness δ is small compared to the radius
of the pipe, the average shear stress τl in the lubrication layer can be
approximated as τl = ΔP ⋅ R/2L.
The results from the previous sections have shown that the shear
rate in the lubrication layer is of the order of several hundreds s −1. In
this shear rate range, the contribution of the yield stress of the mortar
can be neglected and the average shear rate γ_ l in the lubrication layer
can be approximated as γ_ l ¼ ΔP⋅R=2Lμ pl , where μpl is the plastic vis-
cosity of the mortar in the lubrication layer.
Similarly, in the bulk, the average shear stress τb and the average
shear rate γ_ b can be respectively approximated as τb = ΔP ⋅ R/4L and
γ_ b ¼ ΔP⋅R=4Lμ pb , where μpb is the plastic viscosity of concrete in the
bulk. This last relation can only apply if the shear rate in the bulk is
sufficient to neglect the contribution of the yield stress. This assump-
tion is valid as long as τ0b =μ pb γ_ b bb1, where τ0b is the yield stress of
60.0
Fig. 9. Predicted shear rates in the lubrication layer and in the bulk as a function of the
180.0
measured shear rates for the three tested concretes.
 M.S. Choi et al. / Cement and Concrete Research 45 (2013) 69–78 75

Fig. 12. Pressure variation as a function of flow rate for various lubrication layer
Fig. 10. Pumping pressures as a function of flow rate for the three tested concretes. The
thicknesses.
dashed lines are the computed values from the analytical approach.

the bulk concrete. This is almost the case for the concretes and flow
rates tested in this work as the above ratio is always between 0.2
and 0.4.
As a consequence, the ratio between γ_ l and γ_ b writes
γ_ b =γ_ l ¼ μ pl =2μ pb . This means that the shear rate in the lubrication
layer is between 30 and 40 times higher than the shear rate in the
bulk. This value is in agreement with our UVP measurements (Cf. Fig. 8).
The average shear rate in the pipe can be approximated as V0/R,
where V0 is the average concrete velocity given in Table 3. It results
from the contribution of both γ_ l and γ_ b . The average shear rate in
the lubrication layer can therefore be estimated as:

V0
γ_ l ¼   ð1Þ
δ þ Rμ pl =2μ pb

We compare in Fig. 9 the computed and measured values of the

shear rates in the lubrication layer and in the bulk for the three con-
cretes and three flow rates tested. We conclude that the above simple
approach seems to be able to capture the concentration of shear in
the fluid lubrication layer. This correct agreement moreover suggests
that the rheology of the material in the lubrication layer is the one of
the constitutive mortar.
With the approximated average shear rate, the pressure gradient
can be computed as:
ΔP 2μ pl V 0
¼   ð2Þ
L R δ þ Rμ pl =2μ pb
The pumping pressures computed from the pressure gradient are
plotted in Fig. 10 as a function of the measured flow rate for the
three tested concretes. Although several strong simplifications were
Fig. 13. Pressure variation with respect to the length considering the lubrication layer
effect.
made, there is a good agreement between the computed and mea-
sured pressures.
However, as mentioned above, there exist several limits to a practi-
cal application of Eq. (2). First, as already stated above, it shall only
apply to low yield stress concretes. The average shear in the bulk
could be reduced in the case of high yield stress concretes leading to a
higher average shear rate in the lubrication layer, which cannot be pre-
dicted by Eq. (2). Second, the thickness of the lubrication layer is a very
important input parameter, which is not easy to access. Although it is

a) Overall mesh for 170 m conduits b) Cross section including the 2 mm

lubrication layer (dark region)

Fig. 11. Modeling for numerical simulations.

76 M.S. Choi et al. / Cement and Concrete Research 45 (2013) 69–78

constant for all concretes tested in this paper and equal to 2 mm, it can
be expected that it could vary with the mix design of the pumped con-
cretes and potentially with the pipe diameter. Shear induced particles
migration reaches equilibrium because of the increase in viscosity of
the zones where particles are migrating to. It can then be expected
that, as suggested in [39], shear induced particle migration shall stop
when local particle volume fraction is high enough to reach the
so-called random loose packing ϕRLP (i.e. the lowest volume fraction
value allowing for a percolated network of contacts between particles).
It was shown recently that this random loose packing can be estimated
from and is proportional to the value of the maximum packing fraction
ϕm of the particles [40,41]. At the entrance of the pumping circuit, the

a) C40

(a-1) Flow rate: 30 m3/h (a-2) Flow rate: 40 m3/h (a-3) Flow rate: 50 m3/h

b) C50

(b-1) Flow rate: 30 m3/h (b-2) Flow rate: 40 m3/h (b-3) Flow rate: 50 m3/h

c) C60

(c-1) Flow rate: 30 m3/h (c-2) Flow rate: 40 m3/h (c-3) Flow rate: 50 m3/h
Fig. 14. Comparison of pressure distribution along the pumping circuit between numerical simulation results and experimental data.
 M.S. Choi et al. / Cement and Concrete Research 45 (2013) 69–78
bulk is composed of both sand particles and gravel particles at volume
fractions equal to the mix design volume fractions. Shear induces a mi-
gration of the coarse particles from the outer lubrication layer until the
volume fraction of sand and gravel in the bulk reaches ϕRLP. Steady state
is then reached and the thickness of the lubrication layer does not
change any more. The fact that pumpable concretes are often mix
designed with lower amount of coarse particles than traditional con-
cretes allows therefore for the lubrication layer formation. It can be nat-
urally expected that the extent of coarse particle migration and
therefore the lubrication layer thickness shall increase with a reduction
in the initial volume fraction of gravel. This question cannot however be
settled in the case of the three concretes tested here as they all have al-
most the same initial volume fractions of sand and gravel with similar
proportions of each. This leads to similar values of ϕm and ϕRLP and sim-
ilar potential of coarse particle migration. Finally, it can be kept in mind
that the above frame suggests that the lubrication layer thickness at
steady state does not depend on flow rate as steady state equilibrium
between particle collisions in the highly sheared lubrication layer and
the local increase in concrete viscosity in the bulk shall only depend
on the sand and gravel particle initial volume fractions and therefore
on concrete mix design.
4.2. Computational fluid dynamics approach
In the above analytical approach, we neglected the yield stress
contribution in both lubrication layer and bulk concrete. This assump-
tion is valid in the lubrication layer but could be debatable in the bulk.
In order to predict accurately flow rates as a function of the all mea-
sured rheological parameters and compare them to the experimental
values, computational fluid dynamics (CFD) were therefore used to
solve this complex flow.
The computational modeling techniques found in the literature
and able to simulate concrete flow may be divided into three catego-
ries [42,43]: single phase fluid, particles suspended in a fluid and dis-
crete particle flow. In this work, the single phase fluid method was
chosen and performed with the commercial CFD code Fluent [44]
and the following boundary conditions were used:
The inlet velocity was fixed at the average velocity computed from
flow rate (Cf. Table 3). No slip conditions were chosen for the pipe in-
terface. At the end of the pumping circuit, the pressure was fixed at
the atmospheric pressure. The computational zone was divided into
a lubrication layer and a bulk zone (Cf. Fig. 11). In each zone, the cor-
responding rheological properties were given to each fluid material.
As a first step, we considered the case of a 170 m pumping circuit
with a 50 m 3/h flow rate and varied the thickness of the lubrication
layer from 1 to 5 mm (Cf. Fig. 12). The best agreement was obtained
for a layer thickness of 2 mm as measured by the UVP.
As a second step, we compared the pressure profile along the
pumping circuit with and without a 2 mm lubrication layer for the
concrete C50. As shown in Fig. 13, the numerical simulation results
considering the lubrication layer coincide fairly well with the experi-
mental data. If the lubrication layer is not considered, the predicted
pumping pressures are approximately three times higher than those
of the experimental data. It can moreover be noted that the pumping
pressure required to pump the concrete almost exceeds the capacity
of the high pressure pump. This would be the case of a concrete un-
able to form the lubrication layer (i.e. high coarse particles mix design
volume fraction).
Finally, with the 2 mm lubrication layer thickness (CF Fig. 11(b))
and rheological properties from Table 5, numerical simulations of
the 170 m pumping circuit studied in this work were performed
and compared with experimental data. The pressure distribution
along the pumping circuit for the three tested concretes and the
three flow rates are shown in Fig. 14. The discrepancies between cal-
culated results and experimental data are lower than 7%.
77
5. Concluding remarks
In order to progress in the understanding of the physical phenome-
na involved in the pumping process of concrete, we studied in this work
the properties of the lubrication layer, which forms between the pipe
interface and the bulk material. Using ultrasonic velocity profiler, the
measured thickness of the lubrication layer was found to be around
2 mm for the concretes, pumping systems and flow rates tested here.
This layer thickness does not therefore seem to depend on flow rate
but shall depend on the sand and gravel particle initial volume fractions
and therefore on concrete mix design and potentially on pipe diameter.
Our experimental, analytical and numerical results all indicate
that, from a rheological point of view, the lubrication layer behaves
similarly as the constitutive mortar of the pumped concrete.
In order to predict accurately flow rates for all measured rheological
parameters and compare them with the experimental values, computa-
tional fluid dynamics (CFD) were performed considering the lubrication
layer properties. These simulations were able to predict accurately the
obtained measurements.
We moreover proposed a simple analytical relation allowing for a
rough estimation of the pumping pressure and obtained a good agree-
ment with the measured pressures. It can be finally noted that, based
on the above results, it seems possible to estimate pumping pressure
from the rheology of both wet screened mortar and concrete, thickness
of the lubrication layer and geometry of the pumping circuit.
Finally, it can be kept in mind that the thickness of the lubrication
layer shall depend on the concrete mix design and potentially on pipe
diameter. Further research on this correlation is needed.
Acknowledgment
The authors would like to thank the colleagues at DICT for their as-
sistance, in particular Yongjic Kim, and Junhee Jo. They also, appreci-
ate the valuable comments and review from Prof. Seung-Hee Kwon at
Myongji University and Prof. Se-Jin Jeon at Ajou University. This re-
search was supported by a grant from the Construction Technology
Innovation Program (08CTIPE01-Super Long Span Bridge R&D Center)
funded by Ministry of Land, Transportation and Maritime Affairs
(MLTM) of Korean government.
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