Some Basic Properties of Concrete

 

Concrete:

Concrete is the homogenous mixture of cement , fine aggregate, coarse aggregate and water. Construction industry is unimaginable about concrete. There are various kind of mixes in concrete for various kind of work such as nominal mix and design mix. The decision of whether to use nominal or design mix depends on the type of work you are doing. For normal house construction generally nominal mixes are used but for heavy duty works , design mixes are used.

Some properties of concrete are:

Workability:

Workability is basically the ease with which we can use the concrete , workability depends on four factors they are making, transporting, placing and compacting. Workability is good for concrete but too much workability can degrade the strength of concrete. At the site the most common test to determine the workability of concrete is the “slump cone” test.  To increase workability without hampering the strength of concrete admixtures are used.

Shrinkage: Shrinkage is the phenomenon in which the water present in the concrete evaporates  and the volume of concrete decreases. It is a very common phenomenon in concrete.

Curing:

After the casting of concrete watering is done for 7-10 days , this process is called curing. This process is done to ensure the proper hydration of cement so that proper strength can be achieved. Hydration is very important for the strength of concrete.

Segregation:

It is the process in which the coarse aggregate in the concrete mass gets separated from the rest of the concrete mass and settles down. Segregation is not at all desirable for concrete it can reduce the strength of concrete.

Reasons for segregation are:

1) improper mixing of concrete.

2) Adding excessive water to the concrete mix.

3) Poor quality material can also be the reason for segregation.

 

Bleeding:

Bleeding happens simultaneously with segregation . It is the process by which the water and cement paste in the concrete seperates from the concrete mass and comes up at the top surface. It can reduce the strength of concrete and there is always a chance of disintegration of the concrete, so bleeding is not at all desirable.

 

1) improper mixing of concrete.

2) Adding excessive water to the concrete mix.

3) Poor quality material can also be the reason for bleeding.

Reinforced Concrete:

When steel bars are used along with concrete to provide reinforcement, then it is called reinforced concrete. As awe know concrete is good for compression load but when subjected to tensile force it may breakdown. So to make the concrete suitable for taking tensile as well as compressive load reinforcement are used.

These are some of the  properties of concrete. I hope you gained some knowledge from this article, if you have any queries you can comment your  queries below, I will try to answer.