The 3rd ACF International Conference ACF/VCA 2008

A.64

HIGH PERFORMANCE CONCRETE

USED FOR MARINE GRAVITY CONCRETE WORKS

Pham Huu Hanh1- Dr., Assoc..Prof., Nguyen Van Tuan2- PhD Student
1
Hanoi University of Civil Engineering, Vietnam
2
Delf Univesity of Techlnology, Nethersland

ABSTRACT: Materials used for marine environment have been changed, in which concrete
is the most suitable material. However, it is necessary to improve the conventional concrete
in order to adapt to the severe environmental requirements. This study has succeeded in
producing the high performance concrete used for the marine environment incorporating
sulfate resistance cement and other suitable materials.
The objective of this study is to:
1. Investigate the history background of HPC used for marine gravity concrete works
2. Determine the properties of available materials using for HPC used for marine gravity
concrete works
3. Study some mix design methods to produce HPC used for marine gravity concrete works
and determine properties of the concrete.

KEYWORDS: high performance concrete, marine gravity concrete, mix design, silica
fume, strength

1 - INTRODUCTION

Concrete is the most commonly used material in construction industry. There

are a number of reasons for this such as high strength, ease of production, low
cost, good combination with other materials, especially with steel, durability under
aggressive conditions, etc. But, when used in the marine environment, concrete has
some special requirements compared to the conventional concrete. Moreover, it has
high resistance to the action of sea water, such as dissolution of paste components,
mineral attack, especially sulfate attack. Actually, corrosion of concrete is a very
slow process, so corrosion of steel in the reinforced concrete is major. As steel is
broken, concrete is destroyed because of the expansion of its corroded products.
Deterioration of reinforced-concrete structures in a marine environment occurs
due to many factors. These include chemical corrosion of concrete due to Cl" and
sulfate ions, in which Cl" is the main factor, and physical erosion due to freezing-
thawing, repeated drying and wetting, abrasion due to waves and littoral drift.
Normally, concrete creates the base environment to make corrosion reaction passive.
Thus, it is necessary to make concrete highly dense to protect the natural alkali
environment in concrete. Besides, the marine environment resistance materials
should be used for producing concrete. So, high strength - high performance
concrete using sulfate resistance cement is one reasonable solution.
Vietnam has over 3000 km long coastline that extends along the eastern boundary
of the country and wraps around the southern tip. In this setting, many economic
centers are directly influenced by the marine climate. Of all works built in the
Vietnam's marine environment, concrete and reinforcement concrete works account
for 70 percents, especially works of oil and gas industry. The main objective of this
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research is to investigate and to design high performance concrete using some

available materials and sulfate resistance cement in Vietnam. In addition, the
research discusses some key properties of the high performance concrete.

1. HIGH STRENGTH CONCRETE USED IN THE MARINE ENVIRONMENT

General speaking, there is no distinguish between HSC and conventional
concrete. The only one difference between them is that the strength of HSC is normally
higher 40-45N/mm2 [1]. Nowadays, high performance concrete is considered to be
a major research and development strategy in many countries in the world. If the main
requirement of high strength concrete is the value of compressive strength, high
performance concrete (HPC) is required not only the value of compressive strength
but also some other special properties. Being chosen for gravity structures in the
marine environment, HPC has some advantages as below:Large volume to
accommodate LNG tanks and topside facilities, Durable life in marine
environment,Low maintenance cost, Variety of structural configuration, Excellent
resistance to cryogenic temperature, Better resistance to fatigue and buckling,
Stronger resistance against accidents of boat/vessel impact, missile attack, fire
and explosion, Good sea station keeping capability. Thus, concrete has become one
of the most common materials for building marine structures.
The OSPAR region covers the whole of the North East Atlantic area including the
North Sea. All together there are 27 concrete platforms in this maritime area. There
are 12 concrete gravity base platforms in Norwegian waters in water depths from 70
to 330 meters. The earliest, the Ekofisk Tank, was installed in 1973. The largest
concrete platform ever built is the "Troll Gas" platform installed in 1995. The UK
sector has 12 concrete platforms, the majority of which were installed in the 1970s.
Two concrete platforms are located offshore the Netherlands and one offshore
Denmark. The "Arne South" platform in the Danish Sector was installed in 1999 and
is the last concrete platform to be installed in the OSPAR Maritime Area. Of the 27
concrete platforms in the North Sea, 16 have facilities for oil storage within the base
of the structure.
The Concrete Gravity Sub-structure (CGS) is the first structure to be constructed
in the Philippines. It is located in approximately 43 meters water depth, 50
kilometers west of Palawan Island. It consists of a rectangular base caisson
measuring 112 meters by 70 meters on plan and 16 meters high. It has four shafts
extending 15 meters above water level to provide support to a deck having an
operational weight of 13,000 tones. In addition to providing deck support, the CGS
will be used for temporary storage of up to 385,000 barrels of condensate produced
from the sub sea wells located 30 kilometers away in approximately 850 meters of
water. In total the CGS will contain some 66,000 tones of concrete, 7,100 tones of
reinforcing steel and 600 tones of pre-stressing steel strands [8].
Hibernia offshore oil rig project, which employed the massive gravity based
structure foundation, was started from Oct. 1990 [4]. The Lunskoye CGBS and its
sister CGBS for the new Piltun Astokhskoye offshore platform (PA-B), which were
installed on the Lunskoye Field, offshore north east Sakhalin in Nov. 2004, are
amongst the largest concrete structures ever built in Russia.
In the case of Cai Lan port (berth depth is -13m) in Vietnam, caisson has
dimensions of 11m (width) x 20m (length) x 16m (height), 1,770 ton weights with
3.000m3 space volume. Its outer walls thickness is 40cm; partition wall thickness is
20cm. Some oil rigs employed the gravity concrete structures are given in Table 1.1.
Concrete used in the marine environment has to apply both of solutions, concrete
strength enhancement and high durability in the marine environment. It means that

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concrete has a high strength (high density), uses environmental resistance cement.
Table 1.1 Some concrete gravity based structures

Field Type Operator Region Water Installation date

depth (m)
Ekofish Tank Doris Phillip Norway Norway 70 1973
Frigg TCP2 Condeep TotalFinaEIf 103 1977
Statfjort A Condeep Statoil 145 1977
Guifast A Condeep Statoil 134 1986
Guifast B Condeep Statoil 142 1987
Draugen Condeep Shell Norway 250 1993
Osebert A Condeep Norsk Hydro 109 1988
Statjort B Condeep Statoil 145 1981
Troll Gas Condeep Statoil 330 1995
Frigg CDP1 Doris TotalFinaEIf UK 98 1975
Frigg TP1 Sea Tank TotalFinaEIf 103 1976
Dunlin A Andoc Shell 151 1977
Ninian Sentral Doris Kert-McGree 135 1978
Brent B Condeep Shell 139 1975
Brent C SeeTank Shell 141 1978
2. STUDY ON PRODUCING HIGH STRENGTH CONCRETE USED FOR MARINE
ENVIRONMENT
2.1 Materials
Fine aggregate. Fine aggregate used in this study was sand supplied from Viet Tri, Vinh phuc
Province. Grading and physical properties of sand are given in Table 2.1
____________________Table 2.1 Some physical properties of sand __________________
No Properties Standard Unit Test results
1 Specific gravity TCVN 7572-5:2006 g/cm 2.65
2 Unit weight TCVN 7572-6:2006 g/cm3 1.445
3 Fineness Modulus TCVN 7572-2:2006 3.1
4 Saturated surface dry ASTM C70, C127, C128 1.2
5 Mica impurity TCVN 7572-20:2006 Allowed
6 Clay, dust impurity TCVN 7572-8:2006 0.22
Color
7 Organic impurity TCVN 7572-9:2006 Allowed
Comparison

Coarse aggregate. Coarse aggregate used was crushed granite supplied from Binh Dinh
Province. Grading and physical properties of crushed granite are given in Table 2.2

Table 2.2 Some physical properties of crused granite

No Properties Standard Unit Test
results
1 Specific gravity TCVN 7572-5 : 2006 g/cm3 2.71
S

kg/m3
I

Unit weight TCVN 7572-6 : 2006 1460

3 Crushing value TCVN 7572-11 : 2006 % 7.2
4 Compressive strength TCVN 7572-10 : 2006 kG/cm2 >1400
5 Saturated surface dry ASTM %0 0.8
6 The Elongation and TCVN 7572-13 : 2006 /o 5.6
flakiness index
7 Clay, dust impurity TCVN 7572-8 : 2006 /o 0.5

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Cement. Cement used was sulfate resistance cement PC-40 supplied by Institute for
Building Materials. Chemical composition and physical properties of cement are listed
in Table 2.3, Table 2.4.
Table 2.3 Chemical composition of cement (%)
SiO2 Fe2O3 Al2O3 CaO MgO Na2O K 2O SO3 LOI
21.97 4.55 3.64 64.70 1.95 0.16 0.30 1.76 0.97
Table 2.4 Properties of cement

No Properties Standard Unit Test results

1 Normal consistency TCVN 4031-85 % 25.5

S
I

Fineness TCVN 4030-85 % 20

3 Volumetric stability TCVN 4031-85 mm 1.0
4 Specific gravity TCVN 4030-86 g/cm3 3.15
Setting time
5 + Initial TCVN 4031-85 Minute 110
+ Final Hour 3 hrs 10 min.
6 Compressive strength TCVN 3736-82 kG/cm2 520

Water. Water used has properties as same as those of water used in conventional
concrete. Superplasticizer. Superplasticizer used was SP 51, a product of MBT firm.

2.2 Concrete mix design

The preliminary proportioning, according to ACI , then the optimum proposioning of
concrete mix is found by Experimental plan with 3 Varies. The first X1 is Aggregates
and Binder Ratio, X2 Sand and Aggregates Ratio;X3 Water and Binder Ratio. The
experiment results of the second-class experiment plan are in table 2.5

Table 2.5 The experiment results of the second-class experiment plan

No. X2 X3 X 22 X2X3 X 32 Notation Y

1 + + + + + CP1 110.8
2 - + + - + CP2 108.5
3 + - + - + CP3 107.5
4 - - + + + CP4 105.5
5 +1.41 0 +2.0 0 0 CP5 112.5
6 -1.41 0 +2.0 0 0 CP6 102.9
7 0 +1.41 0 0 +2.0 CP7 111.6
8 0 -1.41 0 0 +2.0 CP8 109.5
9 0 0 0 0 0 CP9 114.3
10 0 0 0 0 0 CP10 111.6
11 0 0 0 0 0 CP1 119.6
12 0 0 0 0 0 CP12 117.7
13 0 0 0 0 0 CP13 114.8

From this result, the equation is calculated as below:

Y = 115,602 + 2,236X2 + 1,161X3 + 0,075X2X3 - 4,229X22 - 2,796X32 (2.3)
The 3-D representation of this relationship in Figure 2.1

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111.68

Gla tri Men ma, x3

♦ x2=-1.41 ■ x2=-1 A x2=0 x2=1 * x2=1.41
Fig. 2.1 The contour plot of model of coded varies X2 and X3
The optimal calculated proportioning is:
Sand Water = .0234; Aggregates = 1.3
= .0345;
Aggregates Binder Binder
Crushd
Cement SF Sand Water
granite
536 54 631 1197 138

3. SOME PROPERTIES OF HIGH STRENGTH CONCRETE USED IN THE

MARINE ENVIRONMENT

From experience of preliminary researches about using sulfate resistance cement for
grade 100 concrete, the mixture was designed in order to compare to normal concrete and
high strength concrete in some properties, such as workability, compressive strength,
permeability, steel adhesion, elastic modulus, etc. Some mixture proportions are performed as
following:
M2-1: Grade 100 concrete mixture using sulfate resistance cement with silica fume M2-2:
Grade 100 concrete mixture using sulfate resistance cement without silica fume M2-3:
Grade 100 concrete mixture using sulfate resistance cement with 20% fly ash
3
________ Table 3.1 Mixture proportions of Grade 100 concrete (kg/m ) _______
Mixture „ . Mineral Superplasti
F „, . „ , Crushed
, . .. Cement , .. . Water Sand
designation___________ admixture_____ cizer __________________ granite
M2.1 Silica fume 5.36 138 629 1199
536 53.6
M2.2 0 5.88 138 630 1196
588
4.90 138 630 1196
M2-3 Fly Ash 98
490

The test results are given in Table 3.2

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Table 3.2 Some test results

No. _________ Properties __________ M2_i_____ M2_2 ________ M2_3
1 Slump, cm 14 - 15
2 Compressive strength, N/mm 2
3 days 96 60 69
7 days 106 65 75
28 days 115 75 85

The test results show that when using mineral admixtures, especially silica fume,
the strength of concrete is higher than that of concrete with out mineral admixture.
Besides, they can promote the reaction of cement and water, so the strength of concrete
is higher than that of concrete without mineral admixture at the early ages.
The strength development of concrete using PC 40 sulfate resistance cement is the same
as that of normal concrete.

Some other tests relating to HPC used for marine environment

The aim of some other tests is to compare the properties of Grade 100 HPC using PC40
sulfate resistance cement to that of Grade 20 normal concrete.

Chloride resistance.
The test method is determined by ASTM C1202-97. This is a rapid test method of
Concrete's ability to resist Chloride ion. The test result is given in Table 3.3

Table 3. The test result of chloride penetration

Time, 00:30 01:00 01:30 02 00 02:30 03: 00 03:30 04:00 04:30 05:00 05:30 06:00
min. :
0
C 28 27 27 27 27 27 28 28 28 28 28 28
mA 13.0 12.9 12.7 12 .5 12.4 12 .5 12.6 12.7 12.6 12.5 12.4 12.4

The calculated average result was 237 Coulombs. Compared to the specification
table of ASTM C 1202-97 standard, chloride ion permeability of this concrete is very
low. It means that its density is very high. Moreover, the cement used in this study is
sulfate resistance cement, so capacity of corrosion resistance of concrete is very high.

Some other mechanical properties

The elastic modulus is determined using ASTM C 649-94. The test result is given in
Table 3.4.

Table 3.4 Elastic modulus and factor of quality test results

Normal concrete Grade 100 concrete

2 5
Elastic modulus (kG/cm )x10 4.3 6.5
Factor of quality 0.083 0.456

The accelerated chloride permeability test

This test is determined using NT Build 356. The test result is given in Table 3.5

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Table 3.5 The test result of current of circuit

Time Current of circuit I (mA) Note

(days) M1 M2 M3 M4 M5
1 2.7 3.0 3.2 3.4 3.6
7 2.8 3.1 3.3 3.5 9.8 Cracking for M5
8 2.75 3.1 3.4 3.6 10.5
9 2.8 3.1 3.3 3.5 11
14 3.0 3.1 9.5 3.5 _ Cracking for M3
15 2.8 3.1 10.0 3.4 -
16 2.9 3.1 10.5 3.5 -
21 2.9 9.5 _ 3.5 _ Cracking for M2
22 3.0 10 - 3.5 -
23 3.0 10.5 - 3.5 -
24 3.0 - - 9.5 - Cracking for M4
25 2.9 - - 10.0 -
26 3.0 - - 10.5 -
40 3.5 _ _ '". _
41 9.5 - - - - Cracking for M1
42 10 - - - -

This result shows that concrete using silica fume and superplasticizer SP 51 has much
higher ability to resist steel corrosion than normal concrete, which is based on some following
features:
- The higher strength and the longer destroyed time the sample has, the higher the
ability to resist corrosion is.
- The destroyed time of samples M1 and M4 are 41 and 24 days, respectively, in which
the mixture M1 used both of silica fume and superplasticizer.
- The destroyed time of sample M 3 which didn't use superplasticizer is 13 days. It
means that superplasticizer is the important factor for improving the microstructure.
- The destroyed time of samples M2 and M4 are 20 and 23 days, respectively, in which
the sample M2 didn't use any admixture, sample M4 used fly ash. It means that fly ash doesn't
improve much the microstructure of concrete.
- The sample M1 with water/binder=0.223, 10% silica fume, 1% SP 51 has
compressive strength 1114.1 kG/cm2, charge passed 292 coulombs, stable current of circuit
2.7-3.5mA, destroyed time 41 days. The quality of this sample is the highest compared to the
rest of test samples.

Determination of adhesion with steel

The steel adhesion property is one of important properties of reinforced concrete,

which relates to combined ability of steel and concrete, quality of reinforced concrete
products.
The test samples include the steel with 10mm diameter, 300mm length. The size of samples is
100x100x200mm. The steel adhesion ability is determined by steel pull-out from concrete
sample at 28-day standard curing. The result is given in Table 3.6.

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Table 3.6 The test of adhesion ability

No. M1(psi) ¥ M2(psi) K2
Diameter, mm
1 9.6 35000 33 ,37 18000 16,69
23 9.7 34000 31 ,74 19000 17,74
9.8 33500 30 ,64 19500 17,83
Note: M1, M2 is the pull-out strength of grade 100 concrete and normal concrete,
respectively, psi.
K1, K2 is steel adhesion factor of grade 100 concrete and normal concrete, respectively.
The result shows that steel adhesion ability of optimal mixture is much higher than that of
normal concrete.

4. CONCLUSION

Based on the research results, several conclusions are drawn as follows:

- Grade 100 concrete can be produced for the usage in the marine environment from available
materials in Vietnam, including super plasticizer and ultra-fine mineral admixture.
- High performance concrete using sulfate resistance cement has two effects: (i) it improves
the dense structure; (ii) it has the corrosion resistance for agents from marine environment.
- Grade 100 concrete used for marine environment is high performance concrete because it
not only has high compressive strength, but also some good properties, such as high
impermeability, high elastic modulus (increasing 1.5 times), high ability of steel adhesion
(increasing 1.8 times), very high quality factor (increasing nearly 5.5 times), high strength
development at the early ages (reaching 70-80% designed compressive strength at 3 days).
- The sample M1 with water/binder=0.223, 10% silica fume, 1% SP 51 has compressive
strength 1114.1 kG/cm2, charge passed 292 coulombs, stable current of circuit 2.7-3.5mA,
destroyed time 41 days. The quality of this sample is the highest compared to the rest of the
test samples.

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Science andTechnology", Noyes Publications, USA, 12. BSI BS 6349-1 Maritime

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