IJSTE - International Journal of Science Technology & Engineering | Volume 2 | Issue 01 | July 2015

ISSN (online): 2349-784X

Addition of Cement and Water to Retain the

Strength of Delayed Concrete
Prof. Rajiv Kansal
Department of Civil Engineering
MITS, Gwalior

Mr. Jitendra Singh

Department of Civil Engineering
MITS, Gwalior
Prof. Gautam Bhadauriya
Department of Civil Engineering
MITS, Gwalior

Abstract
With time lapse between the mixing and placing of concrete, the workability of concrete mix is reduced which inturn affects the
strength of concrete .This loss of slump (due to decreased workability) can be compensated by adding calculated quantity of
cement and water which takes the strength near to its design value. The strength of concrete at various time intervals is presented
in this paper with mixing additional cement and water. It is to be noted that no use of admixture was adopted for the work.
Keywords: Addition of Cement and Water, Strength of Delayed Concrete
________________________________________________________________________________________________________

I. INTRODUCTION
The projects which involve mass concreting can not afford to toss away the stiffed concrete resulting due to time lapse between
mixing and placing of concrete .The retarders are added to slow the setting time of concrete, but this paper shows the gain in
workability without use of any admixture. The cement can be added upto the limit where its quantity remains within the
allowable cement content per cubic meter of a design mix. The better option could be to regain the plasticity of mix using water
and little amount of cement. Therefore calculated amount of cement in addition to water is used to regain the workability as well
as strength of design mix to some extent.

II. LITERATURE REVIEW

It is well known fact that addition of inaccurate quantity of water to gain the workability is not ethical and purposeful practice. It
leads to reduction in strength of concrete leaving air voids on evaporation thereby decreasing the strength of concrete
It is now generally recognized that there is gain in strength with delay in placing of concrete provided that the concrete can be
compacted with same adequacy and similar workability is achieved. The environment conditions affects this procedure a lot.
Also the effect of delay on strength is influenced by the richness of concrete. A low slump concrete can not be delayed for hours
but a high slump concrete can regain its workability to some extent using appropriate amount of cement and water.

III. EXPERIMENTAL PROCEDURE

The objective of the study is to find effect of addition of proper quantity of cement and water to increase the strength of concrete
during delay without adding any admixture. For this purpose a design mix for M25 concrete was prepared for initial slump
65mm.Tests for finding specific gravity and water absorption of cement ,coarse and fine aggregate were conducted .Design mix
was made with coarse aggregates of specific gravity and fine aggregates of specific gravity. The specific gravity of ordinary
Portland cement used was.
Based upon the sieve analysis of coarse aggregates, the ratio of 10mm aggregates(25%) to 20mm aggregates(75%) was
adopted which conform the the table 2 of IS 383-1970.
The sand conform grading zone II of table 4 IS 383-1970 based upon the following sieve analysis.

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Addition of Cement and Water to Retain the Strength of Delayed Concrete

(IJSTE/ Volume 2 / Issue 01 / 019)

Fig. 1: Limits of Grading Zone II

The dashed line in the above graph (fig:1) is within the limits of grading zone II.
Cubes of size 150mm x 150mm x 150mm were made at 15 minutes interval with 0%, 5%, 7% addition of cement and water.
The quantity of cement as per design mix came out to be 418kg/m 3 , therefore max percentage of extra cement added was 7% as
8%(451.44kg/m3 ) would surpass the allowable maximum cement content per cubic meter as per IS 456 (450kg/m3).

IV. RESULTS
The cubes casted at various intervals with different percentage of extra cement and water were tested for 28 days strength and
following results were achieved. Different slump values obtained after slump test are shown in table for slump values.
Table 1: Slump Values

Cubes tested after 28 days shown the following strength values

Table 2: Strength Values

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Addition of Cement and Water to Retain the Strength of Delayed Concrete

(IJSTE/ Volume 2 / Issue 01 / 019)

Fig. 2: Strength Values

V. CONCLUSIONS
Although the use of retarders is adopted in cases related to delay in concrete placing but where addition of small amount of
cement is not a compromise i.e if it doesnt affect the total allowable cement content per cubic meter of design mix, the use of
cement and water can be an option. From the above discussion and study of graphs it is concluded that gain in strength at delay
of 30 minutes with additional 7% cement and water to increase the lost slump and workability was maximum. The strength
values at later intervals (75minutes, 90minutes) fell down as workability failed to reach near the initial workability values.

REFERENCES
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[2]
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[7]

M.L Gambhir Concrete Technology

H.A Mohamadien Impact Of Time When Casting The Second Layer Of Concrete, Journal Of Engineering Sciences,Vol 41, No 3 ,May 2013
Khaled Marar, Ozgur Eren, Effect Of cement Content And Water /Cement Ratio On Fresh Concrete Properties Without Admixtures International Journal
Of The physical Sciences Vol6(24), 16 Oct 2011.
IS 456:2000, Plain and Reinforced Concrete Code Of Practice
IS 383:1970, Specifications For Coarse And Fine Aggregate From Natural Sources For Concrete.
IS 10262:2009 Concrete Mix Proportionong-Guidelines.
IS 2386:1963(Part I,III)

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