Concrete

About the Authors

P. KUMAR MEHTA, Ph.D., is Professor Emeritus, Civil
and Environmental Engineering at the University of
California at Berkeley. The recipient of the Berkeley
Citation—the highest honor for contributions to his
field and to the University—Dr. Mehta is also an Honor-
ary Member of the American Concrete Institute (ACI).
He is the author or coauthor of numerous scientific
papers and four books in the field of concrete technology.
PAULO J. M. MONTEIRO, Ph.D., is Roy W. Carlson
Distinguished Professor, Department of Civil and
Environmental Engineering, University of California
at Berkeley and Faculty Scientist, Department of
Materials, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.
Dr. Monteiro has authored or coauthored over 190
archival articles, and numerous conference pro-
ceedings, and reports.
 Concrete
Microstructure, Properties, and Materials

P. Kumar Mehta
Paulo J. M. Monteiro

Fourth Edition

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 Contents
Foreword . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xix
Preface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xxi

Part I Microstructure and Properties of Hardened Concrete

1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Preview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
1.1 Concrete as a Structural Material . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
1.2 Components of Modern Concrete . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
1.3 Types of Concrete . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
1.4 Properties of Hardened Concrete and Their Significance . . . . 14
1.5 Units of Measurement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
Test Your Knowledge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
Suggestions for Further Study . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
2 Microstructure of Concrete . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
Preview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
2.1 Definition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
2.2 Significance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
2.3 Complexities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
2.4 Microstructure of the Aggregate Phase . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
2.5 Microstructure of the Hydrated Cement Paste . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
2.5.1 Solids in the Hydrated Cement Paste . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
2.5.2 Voids in the Hydrated Cement Paste . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
2.5.3 Water in the Hydrated Cement Paste . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
2.5.4 Microstructure-Property Relationships in the
Hydrated Cement Paste . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
2.6 Interfacial Transition Zone in Concrete . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
2.6.1 Significance of the Interfacial Transition Zone . . . . . 38
2.6.2 Microstructure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
2.6.3 Strength . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
2.6.4 Influence of the Interfacial Transition Zone on
Properties of Concrete . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
Test Your Knowledge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
Suggestions for Further Study . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
3 Strength . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
Preview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
3.1 Definition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47

vii
viii Contents

3.2 Significance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
3.3 Strength-Porosity Relationship . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
3.4 Failure Modes in Concrete . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
3.5 Compressive Strength and Factors Affecting It . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
3.5.1 Characteristics and Proportions of Materials . . . . . . 51
3.5.2 Curing Conditions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
3.5.3 Testing Parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
3.6 Behavior of Concrete under Various Stress States . . . . . . . . . . 63
3.6.1 Behavior of Concrete under Uniaxial
Compression . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
3.6.2 Behavior of Concrete under Uniaxial Tension . . . . . 66
3.6.3 Relationship between the Compressive and the
Tensile Strength . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
3.6.4 Tensile Strength of Mass Concrete . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
3.6.5 Behavior of Concrete under Shearing Stress . . . . . . . 73
3.6.6 Behavior of Concrete under Biaxial and
Multiaxial Stresses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
Test Your Knowledge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
Suggestions for Further Study . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
4 Dimensional Stability . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
Preview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
4.1 Types of Deformations and Their Significance . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
4.2 Elastic Behavior . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
4.2.1 Nonlinearity of the Stress-Strain Relationship . . . . . 81
4.2.2 Types of Elastic Moduli . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
4.2.3 Determination of the Static Elastic Modulus . . . . . . . 84
4.2.4 Poisson’s Ratio . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
4.2.5 Factors Affecting Modulus of Elasticity . . . . . . . . . . . 86
4.3 Drying Shrinkage and Creep . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
4.3.1 Causes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
4.3.2 Effect of Loading and Humidity Conditions on
Drying Shrinkage and Viscoelastic Behavior . . . . . . 89
4.3.3 Reversibility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
4.3.4 Factors Affecting Drying Shrinkage and Creep . . . . 92
4.4 Thermal Shrinkage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100
4.4.1 Factors Affecting Thermal Stresses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
4.5 Thermal Properties of Concrete . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106
4.6 Extensibility and Cracking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108
Test Your Knowledge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110
Suggestions for Further Study . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111
5 Durability . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
Preview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
5.1 Definition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
 Contents ix

5.2 Significance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114

5.3 General Observations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114
5.4 Water as an Agent of Deterioration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115
5.4.1 The Structure of Water . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115
5.5 Permeability . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117
5.5.1 Permeability of Hardened Cement Paste . . . . . . . . . . 118
5.5.2 Permeability of Aggregate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119
5.5.3 Permeability of Concrete . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119
5.6 Classification of the Causes of Concrete Deterioration . . . . . . 121
5.7 Surface Wear . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121
5.8 Crystallization of Salts in Pores . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125
5.9 Frost Action . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126
5.9.1 Frost Action on Hardened Cement Paste . . . . . . . . . . 127
5.9.2 Frost Action on Aggregate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131
5.9.3 Factors Controlling the Frost
Resistance of Concrete . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133
5.9.4 Freezing and Salt Scaling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136
5.10 Effect of Fire . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139
5.10.1 Effect of High Temperature on Hydrated
Cement Paste . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139
5.10.2 Effect of High Temperature on Aggregate . . . . . . . . . 140
5.10.3 Effect of High Temperature on Concrete . . . . . . . . . . 140
5.10.4 Behavior of High-Strength Concrete
Exposed to Fire . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142
5.11 Deterioration of Concrete by Chemical Reactions . . . . . . . . . . 144
5.11.1 Hydrolysis of the Cement Paste Components . . . . . . 146
5.11.2 Cation-Exchange Reactions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146
5.12 Reactions Involving the Formation of Expansive Products . . . 148
5.13 Sulfate Attack . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148
5.13.1 Chemical Reactions in Sulfate Attack . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149
5.13.2 Delayed Ettringite Formation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150
5.13.3 Selected Cases Histories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151
5.13.4 Control of Sulfate Attack . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 154
5.14 Alkali-Aggregate Reaction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156
5.14.1 Cements and the Aggregate Types
Contributing to ASR . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157
5.14.2 Mechanisms of Expansion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159
5.14.3 Selected Case Histories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161
5.14.4 Control of Expansion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 162
5.15 Hydration of Crystalline MgO and CaO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163
5.16 Corrosion of Embedded Steel in Concrete . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 164
5.16.1 Mechanisms Involved in Concrete Deterioration by
Corrosion of Embedded Steel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165
5.16.2 Selected Case Histories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167
5.16.3 Control of Corrosion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 170
5.17 Development of a Holistic Model of Concrete Deterioration . . . 171
x Contents

5.18 Concrete in the Marine Environment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174

5.18.1 Theoretical Aspects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175
5.18.2 Case Histories of Deteriorated Concrete . . . . . . . . . . 176
5.18.3 Lessons from the Case Histories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180
Test Your Knowledge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 182
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183
Suggestions for Further Study . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 185
General . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 185
Concrete Exposed to Elevated Temperatures . . . . . . . . . . . . . 185
Chemical Aspects of Durability ........................ 185
Sulfate Attack ....................................... 186
Alkali-Aggregate Expansion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 186
Corrosion of Embedded Steel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 186
Seawater Attack ..................................... 186
Frost Action and Fire ................................. 187

Part II Concrete Materials, Mix Proportioning, and Early-Age Properties

6 Hydraulic Cements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191
Preview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191
6.1 Hydraulic and Nonhydraulic Cements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191
6.1.1 Chemistry of Gypsum and Lime Cements . . . . . . . . 191
6.2 Portland Cement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 192
6.2.1 Manufacturing Process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 192
6.2.2 Chemical Composition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193
6.2.3 Determination of the Compound Composition
from Chemical Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 196
6.2.4 Crystal Structure and Reactivity of the Compounds . . . 197
6.2.5 Fineness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 200
6.3 Hydration of Portland Cement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 201
6.3.1 Significance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 201
6.3.2 Mechanism of Hydration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 201
6.3.3 Hydration of the Aluminates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 203
6.3.4 Hydration of the Silicates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 206
6.3.5 Models for the Structure of C-S-H . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 208
6.4 Heat of Hydration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 209
6.5 Physical Aspects of the Setting and Hardening Process . . . . . 211
6.6 Effect of Cement Characteristics on Strength and
Heat of Hydration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 212
6.7 Types of Portland Cement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 214
6.8 Special Hydraulic Cements ............................ 218
6.8.1 Classification and Nomenclature . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 218
6.8.2 Blended Portland Cements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 218
6.8.3 Expansive Cements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 224
6.8.4 Rapid Setting and Hardening Cements . . . . . . . . . . . 227
6.8.5 Oil-Well Cements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 228
 Contents xi

6.8.6 White and Colored Cements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 229

6.8.7 Calcium Aluminate Cement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 230
6.9 Trends in Cement Specifications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 234
Test Your Knowledge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 237
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 239
Suggestions for Further Study . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 240
7 Aggregates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 241
Preview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 241
7.1 Significance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 241
7.2 Classification and Nomenclature . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 242
7.3 Natural Mineral Aggregates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 242
7.3.1 Description of Rocks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 242
7.3.2 Description of Minerals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 244
7.4 Lightweight Aggregate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 248
7.5 Heavyweight Aggregate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 249
7.6 Blast-Furnace Slag Aggregate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 250
7.7 Aggregate from Fly Ash . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 250
7.8 Aggregates from Recycled Concrete . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 250
7.9 Aggregate Production . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 252
7.10 Aggregate Characteristics and Their Significance . . . . . . . . . . 254
7.10.1 Density and Apparent Specific Gravity . . . . . . . . . . . 255
7.10.2 Absorption and Surface Moisture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 256
7.10.3 Crushing Strength, Abrasion Resistance,
and Elastic Modulus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 257
7.10.4 Soundness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 257
7.10.5 Size and Grading . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 258
7.10.6 Shape and Surface Texture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 260
7.10.7 Deleterious Substances . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 263
Test Your Knowledge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 264
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 266
Suggestions for Further Study . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 266
8 Admixtures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 267
Preview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 267
8.1 Significance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 267
8.2 Nomenclature, Specifications, and Classifications . . . . . . . . . . 267
8.3 Surface-Active Chemicals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 269
8.3.1 Nomenclature and Chemical Composition . . . . . . . . 269
8.3.2 Mechanism of Action . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 270
8.3.3 Applications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 272
8.3.4 Superplasticizers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 274
8.3.5 Shrinkage Reducing Admixtures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 276
8.4 Set-Controlling Chemicals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 281
8.4.1 Nomenclature and Composition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 281
8.4.2 Mechanism of Action . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 281
8.4.3 Applications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 283
xii Contents

8.5 Mineral Admixtures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 286

8.5.1 Significance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 286
8.5.2 Classification . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 287
8.5.3 Natural Pozzolanic Materials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 287
8.5.4 By-Product Materials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 290
8.5.5 Applications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 297
8.6 Concluding Remarks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 301
Test Your Knowledge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 301
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 303
Suggestions for Further Study . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 305
9 Proportioning Concrete Mixtures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 307
Preview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 307
9.1 Significance and Objectives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 307
9.2 General Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 308
9.2.1 Cost . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 308
9.2.2 Workability . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 309
9.2.3 Strength and Durability . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 310
9.2.4 Ideal Aggregate Grading . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 310
9.3 Specific Principles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 311
9.3.1 Workability . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 311
9.3.2 Strength . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 311
9.3.3 Durability . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 312
9.4 Procedures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 312
9.5 Sample Computations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 318
9.6 ACI Tables in the Metric Units System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 320
9.7 Proportioning of High-Strength and
High-Performance Concrete Mixtures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 320
Appendix: Methods of Determining Average Compressive
Strength from the Specified Strength . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 324
Test Your Knowledge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 325
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 327
Suggestions for Further Study . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 327

10 Concrete at Early Age . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 329

Preview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 329
10.1 Definitions and Significance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 329
10.2 Batching, Mixing, and Transport . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 330
10.3 Placing, Compacting, and Finishing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 332
10.4 Concrete Curing and Formwork Removal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 338
10.5 Workability . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 340
10.5.1 Definition and Significance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 340
10.5.2 Measurement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 341
10.5.3 Factors Affecting the Workability and
Their Control . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 344
10.6 Slump Loss . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 345
10.6.1 Definitions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 345
 Contents xiii

10.6.2 Significance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 345

10.6.3 Causes and Control . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 346
10.7 Segregation and Bleeding . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 348
10.7.1 Definitions and Significance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 348
10.7.2 Measurement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 349
10.7.3 Causes and Control . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 349
10.8 Early Volume Changes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 350
10.8.1 Definitions and Significance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 350
10.8.2 Causes and Control . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 350
10.9 Setting Time . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 352
10.9.1 Definitions and Significance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 352
10.9.2 Measurement and Control . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 352
10.10 Temperature of Concrete . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 353
10.10.1 Significance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 353
10.10.2 Cold-Weather Concreting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 355
10.10.3 Hot-Weather Concreting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 356
10.11 Testing and Control of Concrete Quality . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 358
10.11.1 Methods and Their Significance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 358
10.11.2 Accelerated Strength Testing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 359
10.11.3 Core Tests . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 360
10.11.4 Quality Control Charts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 360
10.12 Early Age Cracking in Concrete . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 363
10.13 Concluding Remarks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 366
Test Your Knowledge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 367
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 368
Suggestions for Further Study . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 368
11 Nondestructive Methods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 371
Preview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 371
11.1 Surface Hardness Methods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 372
11.2 Penetration Resistance Techniques . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 374
11.3 Pullout Tests . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 375
11.4 Maturity Method . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 376
11.5 Assessment of Concrete Quality
from Absorption and Permeability Tests . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 377
11.6 Stress Wave Propagation Methods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 380
11.6.1 Theoretical Concepts of Stress Wave
Propagation in Solids . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 380
11.6.2 Ultrasonic Pulse Velocity Methods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 383
11.6.3 Impact Methods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 388
11.6.4 Acoustic Emission . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 390
11.7 Electrical Methods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 393
11.7.1 Resistivity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 393
11.8 Electrochemical Methods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 397
11.8.1 Introduction to Electrochemistry of
Reinforced Concrete . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 397
11.8.2 Corrosion Potential . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 399
xiv Contents

11.8.3 Polarization Resistance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 401

11.8.4 Electrochemical Impedance Spectroscopy ........ 404
11.9 Electromagnetic Methods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 409
11.9.1 Covermeter .................................. 409
11.9.2 Ground Penetrating Radar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 411
11.9.3 Infrared Thermography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 414
11.10 Tomography of Reinforced Concrete . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 416
11.10.1 X-Ray Computed Tomography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 416
11.10.2 Collapsing a Three-Dimensional World
into a Flat Two-Dimensional Image . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 418
11.10.3 Electrical Resistance Tomography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 420
Test Your Knowledge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 422
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 423
Suggestions for Further Readings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 425
General . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 425
Acoustic Emission . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 425
Electrochemical Methods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 425
Tomography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 425

Part III Advances in Concrete Technology

12 Special Types of Concrete . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 429
Preview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 429
12.1 Structural Lightweight Concrete . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 430
12.1.1 Definition and Specifications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 430
12.1.2 Mix-Proportioning Criteria . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 431
12.1.3 Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 432
12.1.4 Applications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 438
12.2 High-Strength Concrete . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 439
12.2.1 A Brief History of Development . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 439
12.2.2 Definition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 439
12.2.3 Significance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 439
12.2.4 Materials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 439
12.2.5 Mixture Proportioning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 444
12.2.6 Microstructure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 444
12.2.7 Properties of Fresh and Hardened Concrete . . . . . . . 447
12.2.8 High-Strength, Lightweight Aggregate
Concrete . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 453
12.3 Self-Consolidating Concrete . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 455
12.3.1 Definition and Significance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 455
12.3.2 Brief History of Development . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 456
12.3.3 Materials and Mixture Proportions .............. 457
12.3.4 Properties of SCC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 458
12.3.5 Applications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 459
12.4 High-Performance Concrete . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 459
12.4.1 A Brief History of Development . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 459
 Contents xv

12.4.2 ACI Definition and Commentary on

High-Performance Concrete . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 459
12.4.3 Field Experience . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 460
12.4.4 Applications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 461
12.4.5 High-Performance, High-Volume Fly
Ash Concrete . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 465
12.5 Shrinkage-Compensating Concrete . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 469
12.5.1 Definition and the Concept . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 469
12.5.2 Significance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 471
12.5.3 Materials and Mix Proportions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 472
12.5.4 Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 473
12.5.5 Applications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 476
12.6 Fiber-Reinforced Concrete . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 478
12.6.1 Definition and Significance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 478
12.6.2 Toughening and Strengthening Mechanisms . . . . . . 480
12.6.3 Mechanics of Fiber Pullout . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 484
12.6.4 Materials and Mix Proportioning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 487
12.6.5 Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 494
12.6.6 Development of Ultra-High-Performance
Fiber-Reinforced Composites . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 498
12.6.7 Classifications of Fiber-Reinforced
Cement Composites . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 501
12.6.8 Applications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 503
12.7 Concrete Containing Polymers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 505
12.7.1 Nomenclature and Significance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 505
12.7.2 Polymer Concrete . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 505
12.7.3 Latex-Modified Concrete . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 507
12.7.4 Polymer-Impregnated Concrete . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 508
12.8 Shotcrete . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 510
12.8.1 Definitions and Brief History . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 510
12.8.2 The Shotcreting Process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 511
12.8.3 Mixture Proportioning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 512
12.8.4 Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 512
12.8.5 Field Applications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 514
12.8.6 Fiber-Reinforced Shotcrete . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 514
12.9 Heavyweight Concrete for Radiation Shielding . . . . . . . . . . . . 515
12.9.1 Significance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 515
12.9.2 Concrete as a Shielding Material . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 516
12.9.3 Materials and Mix Proportions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 516
12.9.4 Important Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 517
12.10 Pervious Concrete . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 518
12.10.1 Definition and Specification . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 518
12.10.2 Benefits of Pervious Concrete . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 518
12.10.3 Mixture Proportioning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 520
12.10.4 Applications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 521
12.10.5 Properties of Pervious Concretes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 521
xvi Contents

12.10.6
Potential Drawbacks and Challenges of
Pervious Concretes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 524
12.11 Mass Concrete . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 525
12.11.1 Definition and Significance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 525
12.11.2 General Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 525
12.11.3 Materials and Mix Proportions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 526
12.11.4 Application of the Principles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 531
12.12 Roller-Compacted Concrete . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 533
12.12.1 Materials and Mix Proportions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 536
12.12.2 Laboratory Testing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 537
12.12.3 Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 538
12.12.4 Construction Practice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 541
12.12.5 Applications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 543
Test Your Knowledge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 545
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 546
Suggestions for Further Study . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 552
Lightweight Concrete . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 552
High-Strength Concrete . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 552
Self-Consolidating Concrete . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 553
Expansive Cement Concrete . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 553
Fiber-Reinforced Concrete . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 553
Concrete Containing Polymers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 553
Heavyweight Concrete . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 554
Mass Concrete and Roller Compacted Concrete . . . . . . . . . . . . 554
Shotcrete . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 554
Pervious Concrete . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 554
13 Concrete Mechanics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 555
Preview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 555
13.1 Elastic Behavior . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 556
13.1.1 Hashin-Shtrikman (H-S) Bounds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 563
13.2 Viscoelasticity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 564
13.2.1 Basic Rheological Models . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 566
13.2.2 Generalized Rheological Models . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 575
13.2.3 Time-Variable Rheological Models . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 578
13.2.4 Superposition Principle and Integral
Representation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 581
13.2.5 Mathematical Expressions for Creep . . . . . . . . . . . . . 582
13.3 Temperature Distribution in Mass Concrete . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 584
13.3.1 Heat Transfer Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 585
13.3.2 Initial Condition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 587
13.3.3 Boundary Conditions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 588
13.3.4 Finite Element Formulation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 589
13.3.5 Examples of Application . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 592
13.3.6 Case Study: Construction of the Cathedral of Our
Lady of the Angels in California, USA . . . . . . . . . . . . 597
 Contents xvii

13.4 Fracture Mechanics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 599

13.4.1 Linear Elastic Fracture Mechanics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 600
13.4.2 Concrete Fracture Mechanics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 605
13.4.3 Fracture Process Zone . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 607
13.4.4 Fracture at the Nanoscale . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 615
13.5 Poromechanics of Concrete Exposed to
Freezing Temperatures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 617
13.5.1 Effect of the Pore Size Distribution on the
Liquid Saturation Curve Below the
Melting Point . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 617
13.5.2 Unsaturated Poroelasticity for Freezing
Materials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 620
13.5.3 Development of Strain during Freezing . . . . . . . . . . . 621
13.5.4 Effect of Air-Entrained Voids . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 624
13.6 Mechanics of Concrete Affected by the Alkali-Silica
Reaction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 629
Test Your Knowledge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 635
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 636
Suggestions for Further Study . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 638
Elastic Behavior . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 638
Viscoelasticity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 638
Thermal Stresses in Mass Concrete . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 639
Fracture Mechanics of Concrete . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 639
14 Concrete in the Era of Global Warming and Sustainability . . . . . . . 641
Preview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 641
14.1 The Forces Shaping Our World—An Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . 642
14.2 Concrete Requirements in the Near Future . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 643
14.3 Environmental Impact of the Global Concrete Industry . . . . . 644
14.4 Global Warming—An Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 646
14.5 Enhancement of Concrete Durability . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 648
14.6 Accelerating Cement Production in the
Era of Rapidly Changing Climate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 649
14.7 Sustainability of the Concrete
Industry—A Holistic Approach . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 651
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 652
Index ...................................................... 653
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 Foreword

T
he authors of this outstanding textbook, Professors Mehta and Monteiro, are
leading researchers who have made lasting and seminal contributions in the
field of nano- and microstructure of concrete, cement chemistry, concrete
technology and mechanics. Apart from their distinguished academic career, they
have also served as consultants for challenging real-world projects. The perceptive
case studies described in the textbook will inspire engineers to find creative and
sustainable solutions for concrete materials and structures. The text material has
been presented in a remarkably clear and intuitive manner; it is greatly appreci-
ated by students and professional engineers. The quality of the textbook has been
recognized worldwide; previous editions have been translated into Japanese, Chi-
nese, Greek, Spanish, Portuguese, and Persian.
For this fourth edition, every chapter has been carefully revised or rewritten to
incorporate new developments in the field, including recent construction projects
worldwide, shrinkage-reducing admixtures, self-consolidating concrete, shotcrete, per-
vious concrete, internal curing, electrical tomography of concrete, and other cutting-
edge innovations. A strong feature of the textbook is the synergy between concrete
materials, concrete technology, and concrete mechanics. For the new edition, the chap-
ter on concrete mechanics includes the ground-breaking poromechanics formulation
to model concrete exposed to freezing temperatures, analysis of the length scale in
nanomechanics and an insightful review of the modeling of the alkali-aggregate reac-
tion in concrete.
The authors made a profound analysis of the environmental impacts caused by the
global concrete industry. They estimated that in 2010, 33 billion tonnes of concrete were
produced globally, consuming nearly 3.7 billion tonnes of portland cement clinker and
27 billion tonnes of aggregate, in addition to 2.7 billion tonnes of mixing water and a
small amount of chemical admixtures. The mining, processing, and transport of such
huge quantities of materials for making concrete require considerable energy, and
adversely affect the ecology of virgin lands. Also, the world’s yearly cement production
of mostly portland cement is responsible for nearly 7 percent of the global anthropo-
genic CO2 emissions. Professors Mehta and Monteiro provided solid guidelines for the
development of green concrete by using large amounts of supplementary cementing
materials, particularly coal fly ash or blast-furnace slag. Chemical and mineral admix-
tures are fully described in Chapter 8 and their applications to the development of

xix
xx Foreword

high-performance green concrete are given in Chapter 12. Professors Mehta and
Monteiro rounded off the textbook with a discussion of concrete in the era of global
warming and sustainability. This should be required reading for everyone committed
to sustainable concrete construction.

Victor Li, FASCE, FASME, FWIF, FACI

E. Benjamin Wylie Collegiate Professor
Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Department of Materials Science and Engineering
University of Michigan
 Preface

T
here is a direct relationship between population and urbanization. During the
last 100 years, the world population has grown from 1.5 to 7 billion and nearly
3 billion people now live in and around the cities. Seventeen of the 20 megacities,
each with a population of 10 million or more, happen to be situated in developing coun-
tries where enormous quantities of materials are required for the construction of hous-
ing, factories, commercial buildings, drinking water and sanitation facilities, dams and
canals, roads, bridges, tunnels, and other parts of the infrastructure. And the principal
material of construction is portland cement concrete. By volume, the largest manufactured
product in the world today is concrete. Naturally, design and construction engineers need
to know more about concrete than about other materials of construction.
Written primarily for the use of students in civil engineering, it covers a wide spec-
trum of topics in modern concrete technology that should be of considerable interest to
practicing engineers. For instance, to reduce the environmental impact of concrete,
roles of pozzolanic and cementitious by-products as well as superplasticizing admix-
tures in producing highly durable products are thoroughly covered.
One of the objectives of this book is to present the art and science of concrete in a sim-
ple, clear, and scientific manner. Properties of engineering materials are governed by their
microstructure. Therefore, it is highly desirable that structural designers and engineers
interested in properties of concrete become familiar with microstructure of the material.
In spite of apparent simplicity of the technology of producing concrete, the microstruc-
ture of the product is highly complex. Concrete contains a heterogeneous distribution of
many solid compounds as well as voids of varying shapes and sizes that may be com-
pletely or partially filled with alkaline solution.
Compared to other engineering materials like steel, plastics, and ceramics, the
microstructure of concrete is not a static property of the material. This is because two of
the three components of the microstructure, namely, the bulk cement paste and the
interfacial transition zone between aggregate and cement paste change with time. In
fact, the word concrete comes from the Latin term concretus, which means to grow
together. The strength of concrete depends on the volume of the cement hydration
products that continue to form for several years, resulting in a gradual enhancement of
strength. Depending on the exposure to environment, solutions penetrating from the
surface into the interior of concrete sometimes dissolve the cement hydration products
causing an increase in porosity which reduces the strength and durability of concrete;
conversely, when the products of interaction recrystallize in the voids and microcracks,
it may enhance the strength and durability of the material. This explains why analytical

xxi
xxii Preface

methods of material science that work well in modeling and predicting the behavior of
microstructurally stable and homogeneous materials do not seem to be satisfactory in
the case of concrete.
In regard to organization of the subject matter, the first part of this three-part book is
devoted to hardened concrete microstructure and properties, such as strength, modulus of
elasticity, drying shrinkage, thermal shrinkage, creep, tensile strain capacity, permeability,
and durability to various processes of degradation. Definition of each property, its signifi-
cance and origin, and factors controlling it are set forth in a clear manner. The second part of
the book deals with concrete-making materials and concrete processing. Separate chapters
contain state-of-the-art reviews on composition and properties of cements, aggregates, and
admixtures. There are also separate chapters on proportioning of concrete mixtures,
properties of concrete at early ages, and nondestructive test methods. The third part
covers special topics in concrete technology. One chapter is devoted to composition,
properties, and applications of special types of concrete, such as lightweight concrete,
high-strength concrete, high-performance concrete, self-consolidating concrete,
shrinkage-compensating concrete, fiber-reinforced concrete, pervious concrete, shot-
crete, concretes containing polymers, and mass concrete. A separate chapter deals with
advances of concrete mechanics covering composite models, creep and shrinkage,
thermal stresses, fracture of concrete, and durability of concrete. The final chapter con-
tains some reflections on current challenges to concrete as the most widely used build-
ing material, with special emphasis on ecological considerations.
A special feature of the book is the inclusion of numerous unique diagrams, photo-
graphs, and summary tables intended to serve as teaching aids. New terms are indi-
cated in italics and are clearly defined. Each chapter begins with a preview of the
contents, and ends with a self-test and a guide for further reading.

Acknowledgments
This thoroughly revised fourth edition of the book would not have been possible with-
out the help and cooperation of many friends and professional colleagues. The authors
thank all of them most sincerely.

Grigory Isaakovich Barenblatt for his insightful comments on the nanomechanics

of concrete.
Fabbri Antonin, Teddy Fen-Chong, and Patrick Dangla for their critical review of
the poromechanics of freezing concrete. Olivier Coussy would be proud of his team.
John Bolander for his valuable contribution to fiber reinforced concrete in Chapter 12.
Omkar Deo for the new material describing previous concrete.
Maria Garci for the perceptive review of Chapters 2 and 10.
Guoging Geng for the superb work during the final proofreading.
Claire Johnson for the careful editing of the manuscript.
Mônica Batista Leite for the discussions on recycled aggregate.
Maryanne McDarby for the continuous support with the editing process.
Joclyn Norris for dedicated work with the illustrations.
Jae-Eun Oh for the photographs of modern concrete construction.
Rossella Pignatelli for discussions on the poromechanics of alkali-aggregate reaction.
 Preface xxiii
John Provis for his comprehensive review of Chapters 6 and 8.
Silvia Vieira for the detailed review of the chapters on aggregates and cements.
George W. Scherer for discussion on the mechanism for salt scaling.
Gaurav Sant for the description of shrinkage reducing admixtures.
Rae Taylor for the many discussions on the microstructure of the hydration products
and the beautiful TEM images.
Mason Walters for the photographs of the Cal Stadium.

P. Kumar Mehta
Paulo J. M. Monteiro
University of California at Berkeley
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Concrete
This page has been intentionally left blank
 PART I
Microstructure and
Properties of Hardened
Concrete
CHAPTER 1 CHAPTER 4
Introduction Dimensional Stability
CHAPTER 2 CHAPTER 5
Microstructure of Concrete Durability
CHAPTER 3
Strength
This page has been intentionally left blank
 CHAPTER 1
Introduction
Preview
This chapter describes important applications of concrete, and examines the reasons
that made concrete the most widely used structural material in the world today. The
principal components of modern concrete are identified and defined. A brief descrip-
tion of the major concrete types is given.
For the benefit of beginning students, an introduction to important properties of
engineering materials, with special reference to concrete, is also included in this chapter.
The properties discussed are strength, elastic modulus, toughness, dimensional stability,
and durability.

1.1 Concrete as a Structural Material

In an article published by the Scientific American in April 1964, S. Brunauer and L.E.
Copeland, two eminent scientists in the field of cement and concrete, wrote:

The most widely used construction material is concrete, commonly made by mixing portland
cement with sand, crushed rock, and water. Last year in the U.S. 63 million tons of portland
cement were converted into 500 million tons of concrete, five times the consumption by weight
of steel. In many countries the ratio of concrete consumption to steel consumption exceeds ten
to one. The total world consumption of concrete last year is estimated at three billion tons, or
one ton for every living human being. Man consumes no material except water in such tremen-
dous quantities.

Today, the rate at which concrete is used is much higher than it was 50 years ago. It
is estimated that the present consumption of concrete in the world is of the order of 33
billion metric tonnes every year.
Concrete is neither as strong nor as tough as steel, so why is it the most widely
used engineering material? There are at least three primary reasons. First, concrete∗
possesses excellent resistance to water. Unlike wood and ordinary steel, the ability of
concrete to withstand the action of water without serious deterioration makes it an
ideal material for building structures to control, store, and transport water. In fact,
some of the earliest known applications of the material consisted of aqueducts and
waterfront retaining walls constructed by the Romans. The use of plain concrete for

∗In this book, the term concrete refers to portland cement concrete unless stated otherwise.

3
4 Microstructure and Properties of Hardened Concrete

FIGURE 1-1 Itaipu Dam, Brazil. (Photograph courtesy of Itaipu Binacional, Brazil.)
This spectacular 12,600 MW hydroelectric project at Itaipu, estimated cost $18.5 billion,
includes a 180-m high hollow-gravity concrete dam at the Paraná River on the Brazil-Paraguay
border. By 1982 twelve types of concrete, totaling 12.5 million cubic meters, had been used in
the construction of the dam, piers of diversion structure, and the precast beams, slabs, and
other structural elements for the power plant.
The designed compressive strengths of concrete ranged from as low as 14 MPa at 1 year for
mass concrete for the dam to as high as 35 MPa at 28 days for precast concrete members. All
coarse aggregate and about 70 percent of the fine aggregate was obtained by crushing basalt
rock available at the site. The coarse aggregates were separately stockpiled into gradations of
150, 75, 38, and 19 mm maximum size. A combination of several aggregates containing different
size fractions was necessary to reduce the void content and, therefore, the cement content of the
mass concrete mixtures. As a result, the cement content of the mass concrete was limited to as
low as 108 kg/m3, and the adiabatic temperature rise to 19°C at 28 days. Furthermore, to
prevent thermal cracking, it was specified that the temperature of freshly cooled concrete would
be limited to 7°C by precooling the constituent materials.

dams, canal linings, and pavements is now a common sight almost everywhere in the
world (Fig. 1-1). Structural elements exposed to moisture, such as piles, foundations,
footings, floors, beams, columns, roofs, exterior walls, and pipes, are frequently built
with reinforced and prestressed concrete (Fig. 1-2). Reinforced concrete is a concrete
usually containing steel bars, which is designed on the assumption that the two mate-
rials act together in resisting tensile forces. With prestressed concrete by tensioning the
steel tendons, a precompression is introduced such that the tensile stresses during
service are counteracted to prevent cracking. Large amounts of concrete find their
way into reinforced or prestressed structural elements. The durability of concrete to
aggressive waters is responsible for the fact that its use has been extended to severe
industrial and natural environments (Fig. 1-3).
 Introduction 5

FIGURE 1-2 Precast concrete girders under installation for the Skyway Segment of the eastern
span crossing the San Francisco Bay. (Photograph courtesy of Joseph A. Blum.)
The Loma Pietra earthquake caused damage in the eastern span of the San Francisco Bay
Bridge. After years of studying the seismic performance of the bridge, the engineers decided that
the best solution was to construct a new span connecting Oakland to the Yerba Buena Island.
The two new twin precast segmental bridges accommodate five lanes of traffic in each direction
and a bike path on one side. The superstructure, constructed using the segmental cantilever
method, will require 452 precast girders, each weighting as much as 750 tons.

The second reason for the widespread use of concrete is the ease with which struc-
tural concrete elements can be formed into a variety of shapes and sizes (Figs. 1-4 to
1-10). This is because freshly made concrete is of a plastic consistency, which enables
the material to flow into prefabricated formwork. After a number of hours when the
concrete has solidified and hardened to a strong mass, the formwork can be removed
for reuse.
The third reason for the popularity of concrete with engineers is that it is usually the
cheapest and most readily available material on the job. The principal components for
making concrete, namely aggregate, water, and portland cement are relatively inexpen-
sive and are commonly available in most parts of the world. Depending on the compo-
nents’ transportation cost, in certain geographical locations the price of concrete may be
as high as U.S. $75 to $100 per cubic meter, at others it may be as low as U.S. $60 to $70
per cubic meter.
Some of the considerations that favor the use of concrete over steel as the construc-
tion material of choice are as follows:

Maintenance. Concrete does not corrode, needs no surface treatment, and its strength
increases with time; therefore, concrete structures require much less maintenance.
6 Microstructure and Properties of Hardened Concrete

FIGURE 1-3 Statfjord B offshore concrete platform, Norway. (Photograph courtesy of Norwegian
Contractors, Inc.)
Since 1971, twenty concrete platform requiring about 1.3 million cubic meters of concrete have
been installed in the British and Norwegian sectors of the North Sea. Statfjord B, the largest
concrete platform, built in 1981, has a base area of 18,000 m2, 24 oil storage cells with about
2 million barrels of storage capacity, four prestressed concrete shafts between the storage cells
and the deck frame, and 42 drilling slots on the deck. The structure was built and assembled at a
dry dock in Stavanger; then the entire assembly, weighing about 40,000 tonnes, was towed to the
site of the oil well, where it was submerged to a water depth of about 145 m. The prestressed
and heavily reinforced concrete elements of the structure are exposed to the corrosive action of
seawater and are designed to withstand 31-m-high waves. Therefore, the selection and
proportioning of materials for the concrete mixture was governed primarily by consideration of the
speed of construction by slip-forming and durability of hardened concrete to the hostile
environment. A free-flowing concrete mixture (220-mm slump), containing 380 kg/m3 of finely
ground portland cement, 20 mm of maximum-size coarse aggregate, a 0.42 water-cement ratio,
and a superplasticizing admixture was found satisfactory for the job. The tapered shafts under
slip-forming operation are shown in the figure.

Steel structures, on the other hand, are susceptible to rather heavy corrosion in off-
shore environments, require costly surface treatment and other methods of protec-
tion, and entail considerable maintenance and repair costs.
Fire resistance. The fire resistance of concrete is perhaps the most important single
aspect of offshore safety and, at the same time, the area in which the advantages of
concrete are most evident. Since an adequate concrete cover on reinforcement or
tendons is required for structural integrity in reinforced and prestressed concrete
 Introduction 7

FIGURE 1-4 The tallest self-supporting tower in the world, Tokyo, Japan, 2012. (Photograph
courtesy of Tobu Tower Skytree Co. and Obayashi Co.)
TOKYO SKYTREETM is a 634-m-high tower that has become a landmark structure. The
architecture of the tower was selected to symbolize the integration between the past and
the future. As one example of the symbolism that characterized the design process, the
designers originally had specified a 610-m tower. In the final design; however, they insisted
that the building be 634 m high because in old Japanese numbers it sounds as “mu-sa-shi,”
which is reminiscent of the old Musahi Province, a large area including Tokyo and Saitama.
The tower was built with a central column similar to a traditional Japanese five-story
pagoda, which is another link to the past. Advanced slip form construction was successfully
used to place the 54-MPa high-strength concrete during the winter. The observation decks—
at 350 and 450 m—offer a remarkable view of the Tokyo skyline and were made with light-
weight concrete. Special care was taken to minimize the thermal stresses in the mat
foundation, which was cast with 60 MPa high-strength concrete using a low-heat portland
cement.
8 Microstructure and Properties of Hardened Concrete

FIGURE 1-5 Interior of the Sports Palace in Rome, Italy, designed by Pier Luigi Nervi, for Olympic games
in 1960. (Photograph from Ediciones Dolmen.)
Nervi was a creative engineer with full appreciation of structural concept, practical constructability, and
new materials. He was a pioneer of “ferro-cement” technology, which involves embedding a thin metallic
mesh in a rich cement mortar to form structural elements with high ductility and crack-resistance. The
above photograph shows the Palazzo dello Sport Dome built with a 100-m span, for a seating capacity of
16,000. Thin-walled precast elements with higher flexibility, elasticity, and strength capacity were created.

FIGURE 1-6 Seismic retrofit of California Memorial Stadium, University of California, Berkeley.
(Photograph courtesy of Forell Elsesser Engineers.)
The California Memorial Stadium, a landmark structure in the Berkeley campus, was designed in 1923
by the renowned architect John Galen Howard. Because the active Hayward fault bisects the stadium, in
2000 it was decided to perform a major retrofit to the structure. A series of creative retrofit schemes
accommodates the concentrated ground deformations of an estimated 1.8 m of horizontal movement
and 0.6 m of vertical offset generated by the surface fault rupture. Part of the retrofit strategy involved
using a green, sustainable concrete. A high-volume fly concrete mixture was utilized that was easy to
pump, place, and consolidate in heavily reinforced structural members. During 2009-2011, the repair
project consumed over 20,000 m3 of concrete in constructing mat foundations, footings, grade beams,
columns, and pile caps. Although specified to produce 27 MPa compressive strength, the concrete
consistently measured 41 MPa or more at 56 days. The concrete mixture proportions were as follows
(in kg/m3): portland cement Type II/V: 196, ASTM Class F fly ash: 196, water content: 148, fine
aggregate: 857, coarse aggregate: 1038. A superplasticizer was used with a dosage of 1-3 L/m3.
 Introduction 9

FIGURE 1-7 Concrete frieze at the Colegio Official de Arquitectos in Barcelona, Spain. Picasso designed
the drawings, and the Norwegian artist Carl Nesjar transferred them to concrete via sandblasting.
(Photograph by P.J.M. Monteiro.)
Pablo Picasso was born in Andalusia, Spain, but he always maintained a strong emotional attachment to
Barcelona, the city that nurtured his early artistic career. When invited to design a frieze for the new
building of the Colegio de Arquitectos, he enthusiastically accepted the commission, but only if it would be
done in sandblasted concrete by Carl Nesjar, the famed Norwegian painter and sculptor. Picasso’s drawings
were reminiscent of his early days in Barcelona, which depicts the joyful Corpus Christi procession with
young children waving palms. The artistic and technical challenges entailed transferring the spontaneity of
Picasso’s drawings with their different lines intensities to concrete. A vibrant black basalt from the
Pyrenees was selected as aggregate for the concrete in the frieze. Picasso’s drawings were scaled up to
their final size onto large sheets of paper, and the layout was then traced to the surface of the concrete.
The last step was to carefully sandblast the concrete surface to reveal the black basalt aggregate and
recreate the vitality of Picasso’s drawings. Even though the concrete has been exposed to ambient
condition for over fifty years, the quality of the lines, texture, and contrast remain fresh and alluring.

structures, the protection against failure due to excessive heat is provided at the
same time.
Resistance to cyclic loading. The fatigue strength of steel structures is greatly influ-
enced by local stress fields in welded joints, corrosion pitting, and sudden changes
in geometry, such as from thin web to thick frame connections. In most codes of
practice, the allowable concrete stresses are limited to about 50 percent of the ulti-
mate strength; thus the fatigue strength of concrete is generally not a problem.

1.2 Components of Modern Concrete

Although composition and properties of materials used for making concrete are dis-
cussed in Part II, here it is useful to define concrete and the principal concrete-making
components. The following definitions are adapted from ASTM C 125∗ (Standard Defi-
nition of Terms Relating to Concrete and Concrete Aggregates), and ACI Committee 116
(A Glossary of Terms in the Field of Cement and Concrete Technology):

∗The ACI committee reports and the ASTM (American Society for Testing and Materials) standards
are updated from time to time. The definitions given here are from the ASTM standard approved in
the year 2004.
10 Microstructure and Properties of Hardened Concrete

FIGURE 1-8 Fountain of Time: a sculpture in concrete. (Photograph courtesy of David Solzman.)
“Time goes, you say? Ah, no. Alas, time stays; we go.” Concrete is an extraordinary material
because it can be not only cast into a variety of complex shapes, but also given special surface
effects. Aesthetically pleasing sculpture, murals, and architecture ornaments can be created by
suitable choice of concrete-making materials, formwork, and texturing techniques. Fountain of
Time is a massive 120 by 36 by 5 by 4 m (120 by 18 by 14 ft) work of art in concrete on the
south side of the University of Chicago campus. The sculpture is a larger-than-life representation
of 100 individual human figures, all cast in place in the exposed aggregate finish. In the words of
Steiger, the central figure is Time the conqueror, seated on an armored horse and surrounded by
young and old, soldiers, lovers, religious practitioners, and many more participants in the diversity
of human life, finally embracing death with outstretched arms. Lorado Taft made the model for
this sculpture in 1920 after 7 years of work. About the choice of concrete as a medium of art,
the builder of the sculpture, John J. Earley, had this to say: “Concrete as an artistic medium
becomes doubly interesting when we realize that in addition to its economy it possesses those
properties which are the most desirable of both metal and stone. Metal is cast, it is an exact
mechanical reproduction of the artist’s work, as in concrete . . . Stone (sculpture) is an
interpretation of an original work and more often than not is carried out by another artist. But
stone has the advantage of color and texture which enable it to fit easily into varied surroundings,
a capability lacking in metal. Concrete, treated as in the Foundation of Time, presents a surface
almost entirely of stone with all its visual advantages while at the same time offering the
precision of casting that would otherwise only be attained in metal.”

Concrete is a composite material that consists essentially of a binding medium

within which are embedded particles or fragments of aggregate. In hydraulic-cement
concrete, the binder is formed from a mixture of hydraulic cement and water.
Aggregate is the granular material, such as sand, gravel, crushed stone, crushed
blast-furnace slag, or construction and demolition waste that is used with a cementing
medium to produce either concrete or mortar. The term coarse aggregate refers to the
aggregate particles larger than 4.75 mm (No. 4 sieve), and the term fine aggregate refers
 Introduction 11

FIGURE 1-9 Baha’i Temple, Wilmette, Illinois. (Photograph courtesy of David Solzman.)
The Baha’i Temple is an example of the exceedingly beautiful, ornamental architecture that can
be created in concrete. Describing the concrete materials and the temple, F. W. Cron (Concrete
Construction, Vol. 28, No. 2, 1983) wrote: “The architect had wanted the building and specially
the great dome, 27-m diameter, to be as white as possible, but not with a dull and chalky
appearance. To achieve the desired effect Earley proposed an opaque white quartz found in
South Carolina to reflect light from its broken face. This would be combined with a small amount
of translucent quartz to provide brilliance and life. Puerto Rican sand and white portland cement
were used to create a combination that reflected light and imparted a bright glow to the
exposed-aggregate concrete surface. On a visit to the Temple of Light one can marvel at its
brilliance in sunlight. If one returns at night, the lights from within and the floodlights that play
on its surface turn the building into a shimmering jewel. The creativity of Louis Bourgeois and
the superbly crafted concrete from Earley Studios have acted in concert to produce this great
performance.”

to the aggregate particles smaller than 4.75 mm but larger than 75 m (No. 200 sieve).
Gravel is the coarse aggregate resulting from natural disintegration by weathering of
rock. The term sand is commonly used for fine aggregate resulting from either natural
weathering or crushing of stone. Crushed stone is the product resulting from industrial
crushing of rocks, boulders, or large cobblestones. Iron blast-furnace slag, a by-product
of the iron industry, is the material obtained by crushing blast-furnace slag that solidi-
fied by slow cooling under atmospheric conditions. Aggregate from construction and
demolition waste refers to the product obtained from recycling of concrete, brick, or
stone rubble.
Mortar is a mixture of sand, cement, and water. It is like concrete without a
coarse aggregate. Grout is a mixture of cementitious material and aggregate, usually
fine aggregate, to which sufficient water is added to produce a pouring consistency
12 Microstructure and Properties of Hardened Concrete

FIGURE 1-10 Burj Khalifa building in the United Arab Emirates. (Photograph courtesy of Samsung
C&T Corporation.)
The Burj Khalifa building, 828 m high and with 162 floors, is presently the world’s tallest building.
The Burj Khalifa surpassed Taipei 101 building in Taiwan (see Fig. 12-6), the previous record
holder, by 320 m, which is a remarkable increase of 61%. Historically, tall buildings have used
steel as a construction material, but nowadays reinforced concrete and composite structures are
dominant. For instance, in 1990, 57 of the 100 tallest buildings only had steel in the structural
framework; presently, the number of purely steel building has been reduced to 24. Because the
Burj Khalifa can accommodate up to 35,000 people, transportation and evacuation of the
building were carefully studied. Fifty-seven elevators and 8 escalators were strategically installed,
and some of the elevators were designed to permit evacuation during fire. In the event of an
emergency, pressurized and air-conditioned refuge areas are available every 25 floors.
The design of the Burj Khalifa building combined reinforced concrete with a steel framework;
the high-performance concrete mixtures were specified to have low permeability and high
durability. Concrete mixtures with 80 MPa and 60 MPa compressive strength were composed of
portland cement, fly ash, silica fume, and local aggregates. The concrete mix was designed to
have a high stiffness, which significantly reduced the displacement; the 80 MPa concrete had an
impressive high elastic modulus of 43.8 GPa at 90 days. Two notable achievements during the
construction of this building were as follows: the concrete was pumped up to 600 m, and an
efficient system of automatic self-climbing formwork was developed. Three specialized satellites
for GPS measurements were used to monitor the verticality of the structure; therefore, the
contractors were able to maintain the margin of error within 5 mm.
 Introduction 13
without segregation of the constituents. Shotcrete refers to a mortar or concrete that
is pneumatically transported through a hose and projected onto a surface at high
velocity.
Cement is a finely pulverized, dry material that by itself is not a binder but devel-
ops the binding property as a result of hydration (i.e., from chemical reactions between
cement minerals and water). A cement is called hydraulic when the hydration products
are stable in an aqueous environment. The most commonly used hydraulic cement for
making concrete is portland cement, which consists essentially of reactive calcium sili-
cates; the calcium silicate hydrates formed during the hydration of portland cement
are primarily responsible for its adhesive characteristic, and are stable in aqueous
environment.
The foregoing definition of concrete as a mixture of hydraulic cement, aggregates,
and water does not include a fourth component, namely admixtures that are frequently
used in modern concrete mixtures.
Admixtures are defined as materials other than aggregates, cement, and water,
which are added to the concrete batch immediately before or during mixing. The use
of admixtures in concrete is now widespread due to many benefits which are possible
by their application. For instance, chemical admixtures can modify the setting and
hardening characteristic of the cement paste by influencing the rate of cement hydra-
tion. Water-reducing admixtures can plasticize fresh concrete mixtures by reducing the
surface tension of water; air-entraining admixtures can improve the durability of con-
crete exposed to cold weather; and mineral admixtures such as pozzolans (materials
containing reactive silica) can reduce thermal cracking in mass concrete. Chapter 8
contains a detailed description of the types of admixtures, their composition, and
mechanism of action.

1.3 Types of Concrete

Based on unit weight, concrete can be classified into three broad categories. Concrete
containing natural sand and gravel or crushed-rock aggregates, generally weighing
about 2400 kg/m3 (4000 lb/yd3), is called normal-weight concrete, and it is the most
commonly used concrete for structural purposes. For applications where a higher
strength-to-weight ratio is desired, it is possible to reduce the unit weight of con-
crete by using natural or pyro-processed aggregates with lower bulk density. The
term lightweight concrete is used for concrete that weighs less than about 1800 kg/m3
(3000 lb/yd3). Heavyweight concrete, used for radiation shielding, is a concrete pro-
duced from high-density aggregates and generally weighs more than 3200 kg/m3
(5300 lb/yd3).
Strength grading of cements and concrete is prevalent in Europe and many other
countries but is not practiced in the United States. However, from standpoint of dis-
tinct differences in the microstructure-property relationships, which will be discussed
later, it is useful to divide concrete into three general categories based on compressive
strength:

• Low-strength concrete: less than 20 MPa (3000 psi)

• Moderate-strength concrete: 20 to 40 MPa (3000 to 6000 psi)
• High-strength concrete: more than 40 MPa (6000 psi)
14 Microstructure and Properties of Hardened Concrete

Low-Strength Moderate-Strength High-Strength

(kg/m3) (kg/m3) (kg/m3)
Cement 255 356 510
Water 178 178 178
Fine aggregate 801 848 890
Coarse aggregate 1169 1032 872
Cement paste proportion
percent by mass 18 22.1 28.1
percent by volume 26 29.3 34.3
Water/cement by mass 0.70 0.50 0.35
Strength, MPa 18 30 60

TABLE 1-1 Typical Proportions of Materials in Concrete Mixtures of Different Strength

Moderate-strength concrete, also referred to as ordinary or normal concrete, is used

for most structural work. High-strength concrete is used for special applications. It is not
possible here to list all concrete types. There are numerous modified concretes which are
appropriately named: for example, fiber-reinforced concrete, expansive-cement concrete,
and latex-modified concrete. The composition and properties of special concretes are
described in Chap. 12.
Typical proportions of materials for producing low-strength, moderate-strength,
and high-strength concrete mixtures with normal-weight aggregate are shown in
Table 1-1. The influence of the cement paste content and water-cement ratio on the
strength of concrete is obvious.

1.4 Properties of Hardened Concrete and Their Significance

The selection of an engineering material for a particular application has to take into
account its ability to withstand the applied force. Traditionally, the deformation occur-
ring as a result of applied load is expressed as strain, which is defined as the change in
length per unit length; the load is expressed as stress, which is defined as the force per
unit area. Depending on how the stress is acting on the material, the stresses are further
distinguished from each other: for example, compression, tension, flexure, shear, and
torsion. The stress-strain relationships in materials are generally expressed in terms of
strength, elastic modulus, ductility, and toughness.
Strength is a measure of the amount of stress required to fail a material. The working
stress theory for concrete design considers concrete as mostly suitable for bearing com-
pressive load; this is why it is the compressive strength of the material that is generally
specified. Since the strength of concrete is a function of the cement hydration process,
which is relatively slow, traditionally the specifications and tests for concrete strength
are based on specimens cured under standard temperature-humidity conditions for a
period of 28 days. Typically, the tensile and flexural strengths of concrete are of the
order of 10 and 15 percent, respectively, of the compressive strength. The reason for
 Introduction 15
500
Yield point
Loading and unloading
400

Stress (MPa)
300

200

100
Plastic
strain

0
0 .05 0.1 0.15 0.2
Strain

FIGURE 1-11 Stress-strain behavior of a steel specimen subjected to incremental loads.

such a large difference between the tensile and compressive strength is attributed to the
heterogeneous and complex microstructure of concrete.
With many engineering materials, such as steel, the observed stress-strain behav-
ior when a specimen is subjected to incremental loads can be divided into two parts
(Fig. 1-11). Initially, when the strain is proportional to the applied stress and is revers-
ible on unloading the specimen, it is called the elastic strain. The modulus of elasticity
is defined as the ratio between the stress and the reversible strain. In homogeneous
materials, the elastic modulus is a measure of the interatomic bonding forces and is
unaffected by microstructural changes. This is not true of the heterogeneous mul-
tiphase materials like concrete. The elastic modulus of concrete in compression var-
ies from 14 ⋅ 103 to 40 ⋅ 103 MPa (2 ⋅ 106 to 6 ⋅ 106 psi). The significance of the elastic
limit in structural design lies in the fact that it represents the maximum allowable
stress before the material undergoes permanent deformation. Therefore, the engi-
neer must know the elastic modulus of the material because it influences the rigidity
of a design.
At a high stress level (Fig. 1-11), the strain no longer remains proportional to the
applied stress, and also becomes permanent (i.e., it will not be reversed if the specimen
is unloaded). This strain is called the plastic or inelastic strain. The amount of inelastic
strain that can occur before failure is a measure of the ductility of the material. The
energy required to break the material, the product of force times distance, is repre-
sented by the area under the stress-strain curve. The term toughness is used as a measure
of this energy. The contrast between toughness and strength should be noted; the former
is a measure of energy, whereas the latter is a measure of the stress required to fracture
the material. Thus, two materials may have identical strength but different values of
toughness. In general, however, when the strength of a material goes up, the ductility
and the toughness go down; also, very high-strength materials usually fail in a brittle
manner (i.e., without undergoing any significant plastic strain).
16 Microstructure and Properties of Hardened Concrete

Although under compression concrete appears to show some inelastic strain

before failure, typically the strain at fracture is of the order of 2000 ⋅ 10−6, which is
considerably lower than the failure strain in structural metals. For practical purposes,
therefore, designers do not treat concrete as a ductile material and do not recom-
mend it for structures that are subject to heavy impact loading unless reinforced
with steel.
Concrete is a composite material, however, many of its characteristics do not fol-
low the laws of mixtures. For instance, under compressive loading both the aggregate
and the hydrated cement paste, if separately tested, would fail elastically, whereas
concrete itself shows inelastic behavior before fracture. Also, the strength of concrete is
usually much lower than the individual strength of the two components. Such anoma-
lies in the behavior of concrete can be explained on the basis of its microstructure,
specially the important role of the interfacial transition zone between coarse aggregate
and cement paste.
The stress-strain behavior of the material shown in Fig. 1-11 is typical of specimens
loaded to failure in a short time in the laboratory. For some materials the relationship
between stress and strain is independent of the loading time; for others it is not. Con-
crete belongs to the latter category. If a concrete specimen is held for a long period
under a constant stress, for instance 50 percent of the ultimate strength of the material,
it will exhibit plastic strain. The phenomenon of gradual increase in strain with time
under a sustained stress is called creep. When creep in concrete is restrained, it manifests
itself as a progressive decrease of stress with time. The stress relief associated with creep
has important implications for the behavior of plain, reinforced, and prestressed con-
crete structures.
Strains can arise even in unloaded concrete as a result of changes in the environ-
mental humidity and temperature. Freshly formed concrete is moist; it undergoes
drying shrinkage when exposed to the ambient humidity. Similarly, shrinkage strains
result when, due to the heat generated by cement hydration, hot concrete is cooled to
the ambient temperature. Massive concrete elements register considerable rise in tem-
perature because of poor dissipation of heat, therefore significant thermal shrinkage
occurs on cooling. Shrinkage strains can be detrimental to concrete because, when
restrained, they manifest into tensile stress. As the tensile strength of concrete is low,
concrete structures often crack as a result of restrained shrinkage caused by humidity
and temperature changes. In fact, the cracking tendency of the material is one of the
serious disadvantages in structures built with concrete.
Professional judgment in the selection of construction materials should take into con-
sideration not only the strength, dimensional stability, and elastic properties of the mate-
rial but also its durability, which has serious implications for the life-cycle cost of a
structure. Durability is defined as the service life of a material under given environmen-
tal condition. Generally, watertight concrete structures endure for a long time. The
excellent conditions of the 2700-year-old concrete lining of a water storage tank on the
Rodos Island in Greece and several aqueducts built in Europe built by the Romans
nearly 2000 years ago, are a living testimony to the long-term durability of concrete in
moist environments. In general, there is a relationship between strength and durability
when low strength is associated with high porosity and high permeability. Permeable
concretes are, of course, less durable. The permeability of concrete depends not only on
mix proportions, compaction, and curing, but also on microcracks caused by the ambi-
ent temperature and humidity cycles. Finally, as discussed in Chap. 14, ecological and
 Introduction 17
sustainability considerations are beginning to play an important role in the choice of
materials for construction.

1.5 Units of Measurement

The metric system of measurement, which is prevalent in most countries of the world,
uses millimeters and meters for length; grams, kilograms, and tonnes for mass; liters
for volume; kilogram force per unit area for stress; and degrees Celsius for tempera-
ture. The United States is the only country in the world that uses old English units of
measurement such as inches, feet, and yards for length; pounds or tons for mass; gallons
for volume; pounds per square inch (psi) for stress; and degree Fahrenheit for tempera-
ture. Multinational activity in the design and construction of large engineering
projects is commonplace in the modern world. Therefore, it is becoming increasingly
important that scientists and engineers throughout the world speak the same lan-
guage of measurement.
The metric system is simpler than the old English system and has recently been
modernized in an effort to make it universally acceptable. The modern version of the
metric system, called the International System of Units (Système International d’Unités),
abbreviated as SI, was approved in 1960 by many participating nations in the General
Conference on Weights and Measures.
In SI measurements, meter and kilogram are the only units permitted for length and
mass, respectively. A series of approved prefixes, shown in Table 1-2, are used for the
formation of multiples and submultiples of various units. The force required to acceler-
ate a mass of 1 kilogram (kg) at the rate of 1 meter per square second (m/s2) is expressed
as 1 newton (N), and a stress of 1 newton per square meter (N/m2) is expressed as
1 pascal (Pa). The ASTM Standard E 380-70 contains a comprehensive guide to the use
of SI units.

Multiplication Factor Prefix SI Symbol

1 000 000 000 = 10 9 giga G
1 000 000 = 106 mega M
1 000 = 10 3 kilo k
100 = 10 2
hecto∗ h
10 = 101 deka∗ da
0.1 = 10 −1
deci∗ d
0.01 = 10 −2
centi∗ c
0.001 = 10 −3 milli m
0.000 001 = 10 −6 micro
0.000 000 001 = 10−9 nano† n

∗Not recommended but occasionally used.

†
0.1 nanometer (nm) = 1 angstrom (Å) is a non-SI unit which is com-
monly used.

TABLE 1-2 Multiple and Submultiple SI Units and Symbols

18 Microstructure and Properties of Hardened Concrete

To Convert From: To: Multiply By:

yards (yd) meters (m) 0.9144
feet (ft) meters (m) 0.3048
inches (in.) millimeter (mm) 25.4
3 3
cubic yards (yd ) cubic meters (m ) 0.7646
U.S. gallons (gal) cubic meters (m3) 0.003785
U.S. gallons (gal) liters 3.785
pounds, mass (lb) kilograms (kg) 0.4536
U.S. tons (t) tonnes (T) 0.9072
pounds/cubic yard (lb/yd3) kilograms/cubic meter (kg/m3) 0.5933
kilogram force (kgf ) newtons (N) 9.807
pounds force (lbf ) newtons (N) 4.448
2
kips per square inch (ksi) megapascal (MPa or N/mm ) 6.895
degrees Fahrenheit (°F) degrees Celsius (°C) (°F − 32)/1.8

TABLE 1-3 Conversion Factors from the U.S. to SI Units

In 1975, the U.S. Congress passed the Metric Conversion Act, which declares that it
will be the policy of the United States to coordinate and plan the increasing use of the
metric system of measurement (SI units). Meanwhile, a bilinguality in the units of
measurement is being practiced so that engineers should become fully conversant with
both systems. To aid quick conversion from the U.S. customary units to SI units, a list of
the commonly needed multiplication factors is given in Table 1-3.

Test Your Knowledge

1.1 Why is concrete the most widely used engineering material?

1.2 Compared to steel, what are the engineering benefits of using concrete for structures?

1.3 Define the following terms: fine aggregate, coarse aggregate, gravel, grout, shotcrete, hydrau-
lic cement.

1.4 What are the typical unit weights for normal-weight, lightweight, and heavyweight con-
cretes? How would you define high-strength concrete?

1.5 What is the significance of elastic limit in structural design?

1.6 What is the difference between strength and toughness? Why is the 28-day compressive
strength of concrete generally specified?

1.7 Discuss the significance of drying shrinkage, thermal shrinkage, and creep in concrete.

1.8 How would you define durability? In general, what concrete types are expected to show
better long-time durability?
 Introduction 19

Suggestions for Further Study

ACI, 2010, “ACI Concrete Terminology,” American Concrete Institute, Farmington Hills,
MI, http://terminology.concrete.org.
Ashby, M.F., and D.R.H. Jones, Engineering Materials 1, Butterworth-Heinemann, Oxford,
1996.
ASTM International, Annual Book of ASTM Standards, Vol. 04.01 (Cement, Lime, and
Gypsum), Philadelphia, PA, 2012.
ASTM International, Annual Book of ASTM Standards, Vol. 04.02 (Concrete and Mineral
Aggregates), Philadelphia, PA, 2012.
Callister, W.D. Jr., D.G. Rethwisch, Materials Science and Engineering: An Introduction,
8th ed. John Wiley & Sons, Hoboken, NJ, 2010.
Mindess, S., R.J. Gray, and A. Bentur, The Science and Technology of Civil Engineering
Materials, Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle River, NJ, p. 384, 1998.
Smith, W.F., and J. Hashemi, Foundations of Materials Science and Engineering, 5th ed.
McGraw-Hill, New York, 2009.