Concrete Mix Design

Book excerpt: This book is devoted to learning how to produce an economical concrete mix that meets the requirements for place ability, consistency, strength, durability and appearance. Development of mix design method plays a key role in concrete technology. It involves the process of determining the most suitable concrete mixes in order to achieve maximum strength with least economic expenditures. The standard adopted for carrying out the concrete mix design with and/or without admixture is ACI 211.1. Concrete is an extremely versatile building material because, it can be designed for strength ranging from M10 (10 MPa) to M100 (100 MPa) and workability usually ranging from 0 mm slump to 150 mm slump. In all these cases the basic ingredients of concrete are the same, but it is their relative proportioning that makes the difference. The anti-permeability of concrete is one of important indexes of the durability of the concrete. The tests for determining the concrete anti-permeability performance and requirements for mix design of anti-permeable concrete have also been discussed in detail. Comprehensive literature on concrete mix design with examples and laboratory tests is the theme of this book.