REPAIR AND REHABILITATION OF BUILDINGS Module 3

MODULE3
Strength and Durability of Concrete - Quality assurance for concrete – Strength, Durability
and Thermal properties of concrete – Effects due to climate, temperature, Sustained elevated
temperature, Corrosion - effects of cover thickness. Substrate preparation - Importance of
substrate/surface preparation, General surface preparation methods and procedure,
reinforcing steel cleaning.
Strength and Durability of Concrete- ASSIGNMENT
Quality assurances for concrete construction
Quality management ensures that every component of the structure keeps
performing throughout its life span. In fact, quality is a measure of the degree of excellence and
is indeed related to fulfillment enjoyed by the user. In concrete construction, even if rigid quality
is not followed, the material performs for a short while without loss of strength. On account of this
forgiving property of concrete, many in the construction industry have been operating under the
illusion that rigid quality management, which is essential for mechanical industries, is not so
important for concrete manufacture. This is not correct. The quality management in the current
day context is based on the fact that the probability of failure of structure must be as low as possible
and definitely lower than a prefixed accepted limit. Hence, quality management in essence is the
management of uncertainties inherent in the construction industry.
Need for Quality Assurance
All involved with the construction and use of a concrete structure are concerned that the
quality is necessary to give good performance and appearance throughout its intended life.
The client requires it in promoting his next engineering scheme.
The designer depends on it for his reputation and professional satisfaction.
The material producer is influenced by the quality of work in his future sales.
The building contractor also relies on it to promote his organization in procuring future
contracts, but his task is often considerably complicated by the problems of time scheduling
and costs.
Finally the user is rewarded by a functionally efficient structure of good appearance. It
would seem to follow therefore that since all responsible parties gain by quality it should
be automatically achieved.
Yet this is not so, and a considerable positive effort must be employed to achieve it.

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This effort can best be expanded by instituting a quality assurances scheme whichinvolves
each of the above parties.
The quality management system in a true sense should have the following three
components
1) Quality assurance plan(QAP)
2) Quality control process(QC)
3) Quality Audit(QA)
Quality assurance plan
The following aspects should be addressed by any QAP:
- Organizational Set-up
- Responsibilities of personnel
- Coordinating personnel
- Quality control measure
- Control norms and limit
- Acceptance/rejection criteria
- Inspection program
- Sampling, testing and documentation
- Material specification and qualification
- Corrective measure for noncompliance
- Resolution of disputed/difficulties
- Preparation of maintenance record
The quality assurance plan starts right from the planning and design stage itself,
and it can be defined as a procedure for selecting a level of quality required for a project.
Quality Control Plan
It is a system of procedures and standards by which the contractor, the product
manufacture and the engineer monitor the properties of the product.
Generally the contracting agency is responsible for the QC process

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A contractor responsible for quality control incurs a cost for it, which is less than the
uncontrolled cost for correcting the defective workmanship or replacing the defective
material.
Hence it is prudent to introduce effective quality control.

Quality Audit

This is the system of tracing and documentation of quality assurance and quality control
program.
It is the responsibility of the process owner.
Both design and construction processes comes under this process.
The concept of QA encompasses the project as a whole.
Each element of the project comes under the preview of quality audit.

Concrete Properties
Strength
Strength of concrete is one of the most important factors. Concrete is used as a structural
element, and all structural uses are associated with its compressive strength. Strength of concrete
is defined as the resistance that concrete provides against load so as to avoid failure. It depends
on the water-cement ratio, quality of aggregates, compaction, curing etc. The primary factor that
affects the strength of concrete is the quality of cement paste, which in turn, depends on the quality
of water and cement used.
Sometimes it is economical to add pozzolana or use Portland pozzolana cementinstead
of ordinary cement concrete. Pozzolanas are materials that have little cementing valuebut rich
with calcium hydroxide to form compounds that are cementitious. This reaction contributes to the
ultimate strength and watertightnesss of concrete. Pozzolanas also increases the plasticity and
workability of concrete. Excessive addition of pozzolanas affects durability. Soit should be used
along with cement as a partial replacement or in small percentage.
Generally construction industry needs faster development of strength in concrete so that
the projects can be completed in time or before time. This demand is catered by high early strength
cement, use of very low W/C ratio through the use of increased cement concrete and

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reduced water content. But this result in higher thermal shrinkage, drying shrinkage, modulus of
elasticity and lower creep coefficients. With higher quantity of cement content, the concrete
exhibits greater cracking tendencies because of increase in thermal and during shrinkage. As the
creep coefficient is low in such concrete there will not be much slope for relaxation of stresses.
Therefore high early strength concretes are more prone to cracking than moderate or low strength
concrete.
Of course, the structural cracks in high strength concrete can be controlled by use of
sufficient steel reinforcement. But this practice does not help the concrete durability, as provision
of more steel reinforcement; will only results in conversion of the bigger cracks to smaller
cracks. And these smaller cracks are sufficient to allow oxygen, carbon dioxide and moisture get
into the concrete to affect the long term durability of concrete.
Field experience have also corroborated that high early strength concrete are more cracks-
prone. According to a recent report, the cracks in pier caps have been attributed to use of high
cement content in concrete. Contractors apparently thought that a higher than the desired strength
would speed up the construction time, and therefore used high cement content.
Similarly, report submitted by National Cooperative Highway Research
Programme(NCHRP) of USA during 1995, based on their survey showed that more than, 100000
concrete bridge decks in USA showed full depth transverse cracks even before structures were less
than one month old. The reasons given are that combination of thermal shrinkage and drying
shrinkage caused most of the cracks. It is to be noted that deck concrete is made of high strength
concrete. These concrete have a high elastic modulus at an early age. Therefore, they develop high
stresses for a given temperature change or amount of drying shrinkage. The most important point
is that such concrete creeps little to relieve the stresses.
It is interesting to see that the above point of view is not fully convincing when seen from
many other consideration.
Firstly, the high strength concrete has high cement content and low water content. On
account of low water content, only surface hydration of cement particle will have taken place
leaving considerable amount of unhydrated core of cement grains. This unhydrated core of cement
grains has strength in reserve. When micro cracks have developed, the unhydrated core

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gets hydrated, getting moisture through micro cracks. The hydration products so generated seal
the cracks and restore the integrity of concrete for long term durability.
Secondly, as per aiticin, the quality of products of hydration formed in the case of low W/C
ratio is superior to the quality of gel formed in the case of high W/C ratio.
Thirdly, the micro structure of concrete with low W/C ratio is much stronger and less
permeable. The interconnected networks of capillaries are so fine that water cannot flow any more
through them. It is reported that when tested for chloride ion permeability, it showed 10-50 times
slower penetration than low strength concrete.
Permeability
Concrete is a permeable and a porous material. The rates at which liquids and gases can
move in the concrete are determined by its permeability. Permeability affects the way in which
concrete resists external attack and the extent to which a concrete structure can be free of leaks.
The permeability is much affected by the nature of the pores, both their size and the extent to which
they are interconnected. There can therefore be no one measure of porosity which fully describes
the way in which the properties of concrete or of hardened cement paste are affected.
If a material were judged, the decision would rest primarily on the choice of medium used
for testing.
For (ex) Vulcanized rubber would be found impervious and nonporous if tested with
mercury, but if tested with hydrogen it would be found to be highly porous. Early work on the
permeability of concrete was generally related to its use in dam construction.
In 1946 Powers and Brownyard examined the permeability of cement pastes and came to
the conclusion that well-cured neat paste of low w/c ratio is practically impermeable and that the
permeability of cement pastes depends almost entirely on the amount of capillary water present,
since the gel pores are extremely small. Earlier work of Ruettgers resulted that the permeability of
concrete is generally much higher than the theoretical permeability owing to the fissures underthe
aggregate that permit the flow partially to bypass the paste and owing to the capillaries in the paste
that permit the flow in the paste to bypass the gel. Numerical values for permeability of concrete
need to be examined with care.
The coefficient of permeability K1 is obtained from applying Darcy‟s law for low velocity
flow,
(dr/dt).(1/A)=K1.(^h/L)

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dr/dt= The rate of volume flow (m3s-1)

A= Area of porous medium normal to the direction of flow (M2)
^h= Drop in hydraulic head across the thickness of the medium (m).
L= Thickness of the medium (m).
K1=Coefficient of permeability depending on the properties of the medium and of fluid (ms-1)
For any set of tests, the value of K1 depends on both the medium and the fluid and therefore
represents the permeability of the medium to a specified fluid at specified temperature. As pointed
out by the concrete society working party, a number of factors can account for widespread of
permeability results for a specific w/c ratio concrete, due primarily to aspects of the test method
for eg:
a) Varying and continuing hydration of the specimen.
b) Incomplete and variable initial saturation.
c) Lack of absolute water cleanliness.
d) Chemical reaction of specimen with the test fluid
e) Effect of dissolved gases where high pressure air is used to pressurize the water.
f) Silting due to movement of fines.
g) Micro structural collapse and macroscopic instability when very high flow
pressures are used.
h) Lack of attainment of steady state condition.
The composition of the water and the presence of dissolved materials can also have a
substantial effect. The drying was found to increase the permeability and for the particular
specimens examined, drying at 79% relative humidity increased the permeability about 70-told.
The flow tests are appropriate for testing material which has a high permeability but for concrete
of low permeability a method in which the depth of penetration is measured is usually a core
practical proposition. The water tightness of a concrete structure is not determined by the
permeability of the hardened cement paste or even by the measured permeability of laboratory
specimens of the concrete. The permeability of concrete, both to moisture and to gas is important
in relation to the protection afforded to embedded steel. The initial surface absorption test measures
the rate at which water is absorbed in to the surface of the concrete for a brief period under a head
of 200mm. The Figg test subsequent modifications of its measure the permeability of the concrete
at the bottom of a fine hole drilled to some depth below the concrete surface. The

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depth to which water which is absorbed into concrete under little head has been shown to be
initially a linear function of the square-root of time. The slope of this function is called Sorptivity.
The sorptivity is a measure for assessing the protection that will be a afforded to embedded
reinforcing steel, particularly after it has become activated.
Penetration of concrete by materials in solution may adversely affect its durability. For
instance, when Ca(OH)2 is being leaching out or an attack by aggressive liquids takes place. This
penetration depends o the permeability of the concrete. Since permeability determines the relative
ease, with which concrete can become saturated with water, permeability has an important bearing
on the vulnerability of concrete to frost. Furthermore, in case of reinforced concrete, the ingress of
moisture and of air will result in the corrosion of steel. Since this leads toan increase in the volume
of the steel, cracking and spalling of the concrete cover may well follow.
The high permeability of concrete in actual structures is due to the following
reasons:
The large microcracks with generated time in the transition zone.
Cracks generated through higher structural stresses.
Due to volume change and cracks produced on account of various minor reasons.
Existence of entrapped air due to insufficient compaction.
Thermal Properties
Concrete is a material used in all climatic regions for all kinds of structures. Thermal
properties are important in structures in which temperature differentials occur including those due
to solar radiation during casting and the inherent heat of hydration. Knowledge of thermal
expansion is required in long span bridge girders, high rise buildings subjected to variation of
temperatures, in calculating thermal strains in chimneys, blast furnace and pressure vessels, in
dealing with pavements and construction joints, in dealing with design of concrete dams and in
host of other structures where concrete will be subjected to higher temperatures such as fire,
subsequent cooling, resulting in cracks, loss of serviceability and durability.
The thermal properties of concrete are more complex than those of most other materials
because these are affect ted by moisture content and porosity.

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Threee types of tests are commonly used to study the effect of transient high temperature
on the stress-strain properties of concrete under compression. These are the following,
(a) Unstreesed Tests: Where specimens are heated under no initial stress and then loaded until the
point of failure.
(b) Stressed Tests: Where a fraction of the compressive strength capacity at room temperature is
applied and sustained during heating. When the target temperature is reached, the load is increased
until the point of failure.
(c) Residual Unstressed Tests: Where the specimens are heated without any load, cooled to room
temperature, and then loaded until the point of failure.
To study about the thermal properties of concrete the following properties needs to
be known,

Thermal conductivity
Thermal diffusivity
Specific heat
Coefficient of thermal expansion
Thermal Conductivity:
This measures the ability of material to conduct heat. Thermal conductivity is measured in
joules per second per square meter of area of body when the temperature deference is 10C per
meter thickness of the body.
The conductivity of concrete depends on type of aggregate, moisture content, density and
temperature of concrete. When the concrete is saturated, the conductivity ranges generallybetween
about 1.4 and 3.4j/m2s 0c/m.
Thermal Diffusivity:
Diffusivity represents the rate at which temperature changes within the concrete mass.
Diffusivity is simply related to the conductivity by the following equation.
Conductivity
Diffusivity = ---------------
CP
Where C is the specified heat and P is the density of concrete. The range of diffusivity of
concrete is between 0.002 to 0.006 m2/h.

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Specific Heat:
It is defined as the quantity of heat required to raise the
temperature of a unit mass of a material by one degree centigrade. The
common range of values for concrete is between 840 and 1170 j/kg
per 0C.
Coefficient of thermal expansion:
Coefficient of thermal expansion is defined as the change in length per degree changeof temperature. In
concrete it depends upon the mix proportions. The coefficient of thermal expansion of hydrated cement
paste varies between 11*10-6 and 20*10-6 per 0C. Coefficient of thermal expansion of aggregate varies
between 5*10-6 and 12*10-6 per 0C. Limestone and gabbors will have low values and quartzite will have
high values of coefficient of thermal expansion. Therefore the kind of aggregate and content of aggregate
influences the coefficients of thermal expansion of concrete

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