Concrete Ingredients

Cement manufacturing process, chemical composition and their importance, hydration of cement, types of cement. Testing of cement, steps to reduce carbon footprint. Fine aggregate: Functions, requirement, Alternatives to River sand, M-sand introduction, and manufacturing. Coarse aggregate: Importance of size, shape and texture. Grading and blending of aggregate. Testing on aggregate, requirement. Recycled aggregates Water- qualities of water. Chemical admixtures plasticizers, accelerators, retarders, and air entraining agents. Mineral admixtures Pozzolanic and cementitious materials, Fly ash, GGBS, silica fumes, Metakaolin and rice husk ash.

Fresh Concrete

Factors affecting workability. Measurement of workability-slump, Compaction factor and Vee-Bee Consistometer tests, flow tests. Segregation and bleeding. Process of manufacturing of concrete- Batching, Mixing, Transporting, Placing and Compaction. Curing – Methods of curing – Water curing, membrane curing, steam curing, accelerated curing, self- curing. Good and Bad practices of making and using fresh concrete and Effect of heat of hydration during mass concreting at project sites.

Hardened Concrete

Factors influencing strength, W/C ratio, gel/space ratio, Maturity concept, testing of hardened concrete, Creep factors affecting creep. Shrinkage of concrete plastic shrinking and drying shrinkage, Factors affecting shrinkage. Definition and significance of durability. Internal and external factors influencing durability, Mechanisms- Sulphate attack chloride attack, carbonation, freezing and thawing. Corrosion, Durability requirements as per IS-456, In situ testing of concrete- Penetration and pull-out test, rebound hammer test, ultrasonic pulse velocity, core extraction – Principal, applications and limitations.

Concrete Mix Design

Principles of concrete mix design, Parameters and factors influencing mix design, Concept of Mix Design with and without admixtures, variables in proportioning and Exposure conditions, Selection criteria of ingredients used for mix design, Procedure of mix proportioning. Numerical Examples of Mix Proportioning using IS-10262:2019.

Special Concretes

RMC-manufacture and requirement as per QCI-RMCPCS, properties, advantages, and disadvantages. Self-Compacting concrete- concept, materials, tests, properties, application and typical mix Fiber reinforced concrete types of fibres, properties, application of FRC. Light weight concrete-material properties and types. Typical light weight concrete mix proportion and applications, materials, requirements, mix proportion and properties of Geo polymer Concrete, High Strength Concrete and High-Performance Concrete.