Civil Engineering Materials

3. Concrete Production
CEL 141
 General Outline
™Concrete Production
• Production Process
• Batching
• Mixing
 Production Process

Batching Placing Compaction

Mixing Transport
Curing
 Batching
• Batching is the process of measuring and
combining the ingredients of concrete
cement, water, sand, aggregate) as per the
mix design or correct proportions.
Batching process
• Volumetric batching: Not preferred, Non
Engineered jobs
• Weigh batching: (based on Mass, IS456:2000
reommended)
 Batching Process
• Weigh batching system facilitates simplicity,
flexibility and accuracy.
• The materials like aggregate and sand are
stored in bins and cement and cementitious
material (like fly ash etc) are stored in silos.
 Batching Plant
Main components are:
• Balance or weighing system
• Aggregate bins, water storage tank, cement
silos, dispenser for admixtures
• Conveyors (or scrappers, hoists)
• Mixers
• Control panels
Functioning of Batching Plant
Batching Plant
 Batching Plant
• Can be Cyclic or Continuous
• Can be Automatic or Manual
• Accuracy
• As per IS456 The measuring equipment shall
be within ±2% of the quantity of cement and
mineral admixtures being measured and
within ±3% of the quantity of aggregate,
chemical admixture and water being
measured.
 PLANT CAPACITY
Capacity depends on:
• Size of the job
• Required production rate
• Required standard of batching performance
• Capacity of material handling system, bin size,
batcher size, and mixture size.
• So Q=min(Q1, Q2, Q3..)
 INSTRUMENTATION AND
MEASUREMENT
• Mechanical level system, load cell etc for
measurements of mass.
• Controlling the discharge from storage and
weigh hoppers is through gates operated by
compressed air cylinders.
• Presetting of desired batch weights can be
done by digit switches/ rotating dials and
computers.
 INSTRUMENTATION AND
MEASUREMENTS
• Electrical or microwave moisture gauges can
be used as aggregate moisture meters
• Water is most commonly measured through
flow meters.
• With the need of adequate calibration,
frequent regulatory routine and specialists
checks of weighing process are required
without too much difficulty.
Tolerances (individual Batch IS 4925)

Water and Admixture tolerance can be w.r.t volume or

weight As per Clause 6.1.1
 TOLERANCES
• What should be the minimum weight the
tolerance will apply?
• Minimum Weight
= 0.3xscale capacity/weight tolerance(%)
• Uniform concrete exhibits less variation.
• Variation in cement and water measurements
will result in higher variation in strength.
 MIXING
• Through mixing should be done to achieve
uniform quality concrete.
• Equipment and method should be capable of
effectively mixing concrete material containing
largest specified aggregate to produce uniform
mixtures of the lowest slump practical for the
work.
Mixers
Mixer types
 MIXING
• Cyclic or batch mixers, and continuous mixers
• Gravity mixers or mixers with forced
movements
• They can be tilting or Non-tilting
• Counter flow mixer or open-pan mixers
Reversing Drum Mixer
PAN Mixer
 MIXING
• Uniformity tests on samples of fresh concrete
collected from the mixer at different stages of
its discharge from a given batch.
• Charging: pre-blending and ribboning effect
• Mixing Time: 1 minute is required for 0.75m3
capacity mixer and 0.25 minute is required for
each additional 0.75 m3 capacity
 MIXING TIME (IS 4925:2004)

• IS 456:2000 guidelines specifies a overall minimum mixing

time of 2 minutes.
 MIXING TIME
• Increasing mixing time may result in more
uniform distribution of hydration product
resulting in higher compressive strength
• Prolonging the mixing process too long may not
increase the strength proportionally and may
result in a decrease in some cases.
• Over grinding of the material may generate more
fine material and can result in effecting the
strength. Excessive mixing leads to segregation in
case of leaner concretes.
 SUMMARY
• Concrete Production process
• Batching process and its importance in quality
• Mixing process and equipment