Graphical User Interface
for Proportioning
Lightweight Concrete
Software uses equations based on ACI standard practice document
by M. Abdullahi, H.M.A. Al-Mattarneh, and Bashar S. Mohammed
A CI 211.2, “Standard Practice for Selecting Proportions
for Structural Lightweight Concrete,”1 describes
two methods for proportioning concrete containing
lightweight aggregate—the weight method for sand-
lightweight concrete and the volume method for sand-
lightweight and all-lightweight concretes. For both of these
methods, the document details step-by-step instructions
for determining trial batch weights and effective displaced
volumes. It also provides guidance for adjusting the
proportions based on the results of the trial batches.
Much of the information presented in ACI 211.21 is in
the form of tables and graphs. While these have the
advantage of readily conveying the underlying relationships
between variables and response, they aren’t simple to
automate using computer programs.
To automate the mixture proportioning procedures,
we developed a graphical user interface (GUI) based on
MATLAB® software. This interface incorporates much of
the guidance information available in ACI 211.2,1 so it
maintains the advantages of graphical presentation of
relationships. We’ve summarized the steps we took in
developing the interface and verifying the results. The GUI
files for the MATLAB program are available with the online
version of this article at www.concreteinternational.com.
Model Development
To develop the GUI, we first needed to convert the
data from the tables and graphs in ACI 211.21 into
equations and select appropriate graphical objects in the
The GUI files described here are available
with the online version of this article at
www.concreteinternational.com.
MATLAB environment to implement the required actions.
The tabular data in ACI 211.21 were also converted to
graphs, thus giving GUI users symbolic views of the
relationships between mixture parameters and the
consequences of the user’s selections. Various regression
equations were tried and the trends of the graphs and
coefficients of determination were used as the basis for
choosing the best equation that adequately represented
the data. Many of the selected equations are shown on
the graphs in this article. In the equations, x and y
represent the parameters on the horizontal and vertical
axes, respectively.
The two charts (one for all-lightweight and one for
sand-lightweight concrete) in Fig. 3.1 of ACI 211.21 were
used to develop upper and lower bound estimates for
28-day compressive strength as a function of cement
content (using the volume method). The regions on each
chart are bounded by straight lines, so we used linear
equations to estimate required cement content. The
equations and the data points used in deriving them are
shown in Table 1.
We didn’t develop equations for the data in Table 3.1
in ACI 211.2.1 This table doesn’t represent a continuous
function, but instead provides recommended ranges of
slump values for given types of construction.
Weight method
The steps used to program the GUI for proportioning by
the weight method (only applicable to sand-lightweight
concrete) follow the steps in ACI 211.21:
■ Step 1: Choose the target slump using Table 3.1 from
ACI 211.2.1 By selecting a type of construction, the
program will return a suggested range of slump to
assist the user;
Concrete international / august 2009 39
■ Step 2: Choose the nominal maximum size for the
coarse aggregate (recommended sizes are shown in a
help file);
■ Step 3: Estimate the amount of mixing water and the air
content using the equations in Fig. 1 and 2, respectively;
■■ Step 4: Select the appropriate water-cement ratio (w/c)
using the equations in Fig. 3;
■■ Step 5: Calculate the cement content by dividing the
amount of mixing water by the w/c;
■■ Step 6: Estimate the lightweight coarse aggregate
content using the equations in Fig. 4;
■■ Step 7: Estimate the fine aggregate content by first
using the equations in Fig. 5 to estimate the total
weight of the fresh lightweight concrete, then
subtracting the weights of the water, cement, and
coarse aggregate; and
■■ Step 8: Run trial batches, test for fresh and hardened
properties, and make adjustments as necessary.
Volume method
Waterr requirrement,, kg/m3
■■ Step 5: Estimate the total volume of aggregate required
as the sum of the uncombined volumes on a damp,
loose basis. ACI 211.21 recommends a range of 1.04 to
1.26 m3/m3 (28 to 34 ft3/yd3). This value should be
based on the nature of the lightweight aggregate and
the properties of the concrete desired or based on
the recommendations of the lightweight aggregate
manufacturer;
■■ Step 6: Estimate the loose weight of fine aggregate.
The loose volume of the fine aggregate recommended
by ACI 211.21 is between 40 and 60% of the total loose
volume. The weight of fine aggregate is the product of
the loose volume of fine aggregate and the loose unit
weight of the fine aggregate;
■■ Step 7: Estimate the loose weight of the coarse
aggregate by subtracting the loose volume of fine
240 Air-entrained
No Yes
25 to 50 mm slump
230 75 to 100 mm slump
125 to 150 mm slump

For proportioning by the volume method (applicable

220 y=
to sand-lightweight and all-lightweight concrete), the GUI 0.29
96x 2
- 11.59
1x + 320.08
follows the same Steps 1 to 3 as in the weight method. 210 y=0
.143x 2
- 6.81
The remaining steps are as follows: 38x +
279.82
200
■■ Step 4: Estimate the cement content using the equations y=0
.1215x 2
y=0 -5
in Table 1 for all-lightweight concrete or sand-lightweight 190 .2267 2 .6721x + 250.9
x - 8.9 2
y=0 879x + 27
concrete; .1215x 2 5.92
- 5.6721 2
180 x + 244.9
2

Table 1: 170 y = 0.06

48x 2 - 3.4
251x + 20
7.
Compressive strength and cement content for structural 160
69

lightweight concrete (adapted from ACI 211.21 Fig. 3.1) 8 10 12 14 16 18 20

Minimum Maximum Nominal maximum coarse aggregate size, mm
Compressive cement cement
strength Y*, content XL†, content XU‡, Fig. 1: Approximate mixing water as a function of slump and
aggregate size (adapted from ACI 211.21 Table 3.2) (1 kg/m3 =
Data point MPa kg/m3 kg/m3 1.69 lb/yd3, 1 mm = 0.0394 in.)
All-lightweight concrete Severe exposure
8 Moderate exposure
1 41.41 413.98 516.58 Mild exposure
7
Approximate air content, %

Non air-entrained
2 27.60 295.99 393.46 y = 0.001
3x 2 - 0.19
6 64x + 9.2
4 36
Linear XL = (Y + 7.04385)/0.117044
5 y = 0.0094x2 - 0.37
equations XU = (Y + 16.5291)/0.112159 45x + 8.7051

4
Sand-lightweight concrete y = 0.0175x2 - 0.5526x + 8.1667
3
1 41.41 367.81 485.8
2 y = 0.0094x2 - 0.37
45x + 5.7051
2 20.7 188.26 308.815
1
Linear XL = (Y + 1.014677)/0.115344
equations XU = (Y + 15.408682)/0.116959 0
8 10 12 14 16 18 20
*
Y = compressive strength at 28 days in MPa
Nominal maximum coarse aggregate size, mm
†
XL = minimum cement content in kg/m3
‡
XU = maximum cement content in kg/m3
Fig. 2: Approximate air content as a function of slump and
aggregate size (adapted from ACI 211.21 Table 3.2) (1 mm =
Note: 1 MPa = 145 lb/in.2; 1 kg/m3 = 1.69 lb/yd3 0.0394 in.)

40 August 2009 / Concrete international

 0.9 Non air-entrained aggregate from the total volume of concrete and
Air-entrained multiplying by the loose unit weight of the coarse
00.8
8 aggregate; and
cement ratio

■■ Step 8: Run trial batches, test for fresh and hardened

0.7 properties, and make adjustments as necessary.
A flowchart illustrating the steps in both the weight
0.6 y= and volume methods is shown in Fig. 6.
-0.3
Water-c

7 5l
n(x
0.5 y= )+
-0.3 1.81 GUI
7 2l 48
n(x A GUI provides a pictorial interface between the user
W

)+
0.4
04 1.72
25 and the computer program. It provides a friendlier
environment with the help of the following three elements:
0.3
■■ Components: The components used in this GUI include
10 20 30 40 50
Compressive strength, MPa push-buttons, edit boxes, pop-up menus, frames, and
text fields. These can be seen in Fig. 7, 8, and 9;
Fig. 3: Relationship between compressive strength at 28 days ■■ Figures: The window on the computer screen where
and w/c (adapted from ACI 211.21 Table 3.3) (1 MPa = 145 lb/in.2)
graphical components reside, as shown in Fig. 7, 8,
and 9; and
me of concrete

0.75 ■■ Callbacks: Keyboard inputs or mouse clicks are

Volume of ooven-dryy loose ccoarse

5x + 0.0546 referred to as events. The code executed in response to

0.074
02 x2 + 745x + 0.0346
0
0.7 -0.0 2 + 0.
y = .002x 5x + 0.0146
-0 0.074
= x2 + 0.0054
y
-0.0
0 2
2 + 0.
0 5x -
74
gregate per uniit volum

y = .002x Start
0.65
-0
y=

0.6
Step 1 Choice of slump
Fineness modulus = 2.40
Fineness modulus = 2.60
0.55
Fineness modulus = 2.80 Step 2 Choice of nominal maximum size of coarse aggregate
Fineness modulus = 3.00
05
0.5
agg

8 10 12 14 16 18 20 Step 3 Estimation of mixing water and air content

Nominal maximum coarse aggregate size, mm
Fig. 4: Volume of coarse aggregate as a function of aggregate
size and fineness modulus (adapted from ACI 211.21 Table 3.5) Weight method Volume method
(1 mm = 0.0394 in.) Method of
design

Step 4 Selection of appropriate w/c Estimation of cement content

2100
4% air
fresh
m3

6% air .3
lightweight concrette, kg/m
ght of fr

2000 69
+ 11 Estimation of total volume of
8% air 4x .7 Step 5 Calculation of cement content aggregate
6.1 35
11 .6
1900 = 42 + 2
3x 10
First esstimatee of weig

y
42 + 1
y = .29x
1800 9
41 Step 6 Estimation of lightweight coarse Estimation of weight of fine
y= aggregate content aggregate

1700
Step 7 Estimation of fine aggregate Estimation of weight of coarse
1600 content aggregate

1500 Step 8 Selection of optimum trial mixtures

0.8 1 1.2 1.4 1.6 1.8 2 2.2

Specific gravity factor
End
Fig. 5: First estimate of weight of fresh lightweight concrete as a
function of specific gravity factor and air content (adapted from
ACI 211.21 Table 3.6) (1 kg/m3 = 1.69 lb/yd3) Fig. 6: Flowchart of mixture proportioning of lightweight concrete

Concrete international / august 2009 41

 an event is known as callback. The software responds
to each event and implements the functions of each
graphical object on the figure window. The code
sets in the callbacks include the equations developed
from ACI 211.2,1 recommended slump values in Table 3.1
of ACI 211.2,1 input and output commands, and other
formulas used in the calculations.
System validation
To validate the program, we ran sample mixture
proportioning problems from textbooks.2,3 Two such trial
problems (one for the weight method and one for the
volume method) are presented here. The results for the
program and the textbooks are compared in Table 2.
Trial Problem 1 was the proportioning of a concrete
mixture by the weight method using lightweight coarse
aggregate and normalweight fine aggregate (sand-light-
weight concrete) for a structural lightweight concrete
slab with a design 28-day compressive strength f c′ =
35 MPa (5000 psi). The 19 to 4.75 mm (3/4 in. to No. 4)
size coarse aggregate had a specific gravity factor of 1.5,
an absorption of 11.0%, and an oven-dry loose weight of
769 kg/m3 (48 lb/ft3). The fine aggregate had an absorption
of 1.0% and a fineness modulus of 2.80.2
Trial Problem 2 was the proportioning of an initial trial
batch of concrete with a compressive strength of 28 MPa
(4000 psi) and slump of 100 mm (4 in.) using the volume

Table 2:
Comparison of results for test problems from GUI and
Fig. 7: Home page GUI figure for structural lightweight concrete
mixture proportioning textbook sources2,3

Weight method
Mixture ingredient GUI Trial Problem 1
181.01 180.96
Water, kg/m3 (lb/yd3)
(305) (305)
453.85 452.69
Cement, kg/m3 (lb/yd3)
(764.96) (763)
SSD fine aggregate, 537.83 495.41
kg/m3 (lb/yd3) (906.51) (835)
SSD coarse aggregate, 597.51 597.45
kg/m3 (lb/yd3) (1007.10) (1007)
w/c 0.4 0.4

Fig. 8: GUI figure for components used in weight method of Volume method
mixture proportioning
Mixture ingredient GUI Trial Problem 2
180.93 180
Water, kg/m3 (lb/yd3)
(304.96) (303.39)
350 350
Cement, kg/m3 (lb/yd3)
(589.92) (589.92)
Lightweight fine 147.78 148
aggregate,
kg/m3 (lb/yd3) (249.08) (249.45)

Normalweight fine 571.9 572

aggregate,
kg/m3 (lb/yd3) (963.93) (964.10)

SSD coarse aggregate, 466.86 467

kg/m3 (lb/yd3) (786.89) (787.12)
Fig. 9: GUI figure for components used in volume method of
mixture proportioning w/c 0.52 0.52

42 August 2009 / Concrete international

method. The goal was to produce concrete with a unit
weight of no more than 1680 kg/m3 (105 lb/ft3) on an
air-dry basis. A cement content of 350 kg/m3 (583 lb/ft3)
was estimated. The lightweight coarse and fine aggregates
and the normalweight fine aggregate had damp, loose
unit weights of 753, 821, and 1634 kg/m3 (47, 51, and
102 lb/ft3), respectively. Based on experience with these
aggregates, the total volume of damp, loose aggregate
per m3 (yd3) of concrete was taken as 1.15 m3 (1.50 yd3),
consisting of 0.62 m3 (0.81 yd3) of lightweight coarse
aggregate, 0.18 m3 (0.23 yd3) of lightweight fine aggregate,
and 0.35 m3 (0.45 yd3) of normalweight fine aggregate.3
As shown in Table 2, the mixture compositions
calculated by the GUI agree reasonably well with those
from Trial Problem 2. The slight disparity is due to the
high precision of the computation by the GUI and the
approximations in the equations we developed for the
GUI to represent graphical and tabular data from ACI
211.2.1 Also, the results may differ due to approximations
made in the calculation of the values from the textbooks.
A significant difference, however, was noted in the
saturated-surface dry (SSD) weight of fine aggregate in
Trial Problem 1.
The reason for this difference was traced to the
estimated weight of the concrete. For the calculations in
Reference 2, the author chose to use the weight given in
Table 3.6 of ACI 211.21 corresponding to a specific gravity
factor of 1.4 rather than interpolate to find the weight
corresponding to the value of 1.5 given in the problem
statement. If the weight corresponding to a specific
gravity factor of 1.5 is used, the estimated weight of the
concrete increases from 1726.50 to 1768 kg/m3 (2910 to
2980 lb/yd3), and the SSD weight of fine aggregate changes
to 536.94 kg/m3 (905 lb/yd3). Our software obtained an
estimated concrete weight of 1770.2 kg/m3 (2984.5 lb/yd3)
and an SSD fine aggregate weight of 537.83 kg/m3 (906.51
lb/yd3), which is very close to the value found using
interpolation. This trial problem illustrates that mixture
proportioning is not an exact science.
Ease and flexibility
The outcome of our work is a MATLAB-based GUI that
provides a tool for mixture proportioning of structural
lightweight concrete in a simple and convenient manner.
Users can easily interact with the program in a way that
has become familiar to nearly all computer users—key-
strokes and mouse clicks on the graphical objects. The
program prompts the user for the needed information,
processes it, and gives the required concrete constituents.
Explanatory notes are also provided as help files to
guide the user on decision-making. The program is
capable of giving the material constituent of concrete for
the first trial batch from given performance criteria.
Mixture adjustments can also be made because the
program only calculates suggested amounts of the
constituent materials, but allows the user to select the
desired amount. Because the computer code can be
updated when ACI 211.21 is updated, the system can be
easily expanded and maintained. It may even be beneficial
for ACI committees to consider developing mixture
proportioning software to complement future editions.
References
1. ACI Committee 211, “Standard Practice for Selecting Proportions
for Structural Lightweight Concrete (ACI 211.2-98) (Reapproved
2004),” American Concrete Institute, Farmington Hills, MI, 1998, 20 pp.
2. Nawy, E.G., Fundamentals of High-Performance Concrete, second
edition, John Wiley and Sons, Inc., New York, NY, 2001, pp. 148-154.
3. Mindess, S.; Young, J.F.; and Darwin, D., Concrete, second
edition, Pearson Education, Inc., Upper Saddle River, NJ, 2003,
pp. 557-558.
Received and reviewed under Institute publication policies.
M. Abdullahi received bachelor’s and
master’s degrees in civil engineering at
Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, and
Federal University of Technology, Minna,
both in Nigeria. He is a registered engineer
with the Council for the Regulation of
Engineering in Nigeria (COREN). He is
currently pursuing a doctoral degree at
Universiti Tenaga Nasional, Malaysia.
H.M.A. Al-Mattarneh is an Associate
Professor and Dean of Faculty of Engineering,
Jerash Private University, Jordan. He is a
member of several international organizations,
including ACI. His research focuses mainly on
metal matrix composites and nondestructive
testing and evaluations of engineering
materials and structures. He has published
more than 100 papers.
Bashar S. Mohammed is a Senior Lecturer
at the Department of Civil Engineering,
Universiti Tenaga Nasional, Malaysia. He
is a member of several international
organizations, including ACI. His research
focuses mainly on masonry structures,
strengthening technique methods,
recycling material, and prestressed
concrete. He has published more than
50 papers in international conferences and peer-reviewed
international journals.
Concrete international / august 2009 43