Class 1 Flashcards
What is the role of C3S (Tri-Calcium Silicate) in concrete?
It is hydrated to form calcium silicate hydrates. It provides the majority of concrete’s strength.
What does C3A (Tri-Calcium Aluminate) do in concrete? Why is it desirable?
It flash sets. It may also expand if the concrete deteriorates, leading to cracking / spalling.
It is desirable because it reduces kiln temperatures.
What is clinker?
Clinker is raw meal that has been heated in a kiln. Clinker is ground with gypsum to create cement.
What is gypsum for?
Gypsum is added to clinker when griding to prevent concrete from flash setting due to C3A.
Limestone, clay and chalk are ground up. What is the result called?
Raw Meal.
What is ground up to make Raw Meal?
Limestone, clay and chalk.
Name 3 chemicals that are commony mixed with portland cement to reduce the amount of OPC required.
GGBS (Ground, Granulated Blast furnace Slag)
PFA (Pulverised Fly Ash)
Silica Fume
How is Magnesium Oxide relevant?
It is a type of cement, made at lower kiln temperatures. It is expensive to source and not alakaline enough to protect the steel.
What is Cemfree?
A OPC-free cement using GGBS and PFA
What is OPC?
Ordinary Portland Cement.
What is specified for concrete?
SESME: Strength Exposure Class Slump Maximum aggregate size Extras
What do the two Es stand for in SESME?
Exposure Class and Extras
What does M stand for in SESME?
Maximum Aggregate Size
One S in SESME stands for strength. What does the other one stand for?
Slump.
What does A1-A3 measure?
Cradle to Gate
What does A4 measure?
Transport
What does A5 measure? What are the two subscripts?
Construction: A5waste and A5activities
Why is carbonation bad?
Lowers pH>Rusting
Why might a lack of OPC lead to carbonation?
Give a material where this is a problem.
OPC raises the pH. A lack of OPC makes rusting more likely. For example, Magnesium Oxide cements suffer from carbonation.
What is the typical stress profile block for concrete?
0.8x deep, f_cd wide
How wide are T-beams taken to be?
0.2*length between M=0 + b_w
The total width at the top of the flange is
0.2 L_0 + b_w
How are columns designed?
Assume compression steel is yielding & 0.0035 in concrete
Set N-A somewhere
Calculate what axial load and moment are
Repeat for all N-A
What are the four inequalities on a Magnel diagram?
Top and bottom of beam ; concrete tension and compression
How is strength design of pre-stressed concrete performed?
Assume yield of top concrete in compression, vary N-A to get equilibrium, (and therefore find steel stress), find M
Note that steel stress is affected by pre-stress and concrete relaxation pre-stress
Why might steel strains be higher than expected in prestressed concrete?
Small cracks in the concrete concentrate strain in the steel. Pre-stressing steel isn’t that ductile.
What admixtures are there? Name 3.
Accelerators, Plasticizers, Set-retarders
What is segregation?
Concrete is over-vibrated, so aggregate falls to the bottom.
What is phenolphthaelin for?
See where carbonation front has reached. Colourless if OK, pink if not.
Why is cracking along reinforcement worse?
Both the anode and cathode are exposed, so corrosion occurs more readily.
A high strength concrete mix needs what ad mixture?
A plasticizer because it will have a low water:cement ratio
Why is a fabric mould good?
Lower porosity to carbonation and chlorides. (Potentially) cheaper and lower carbon emissions. More flexible shapes.
How to design a doubly reinforced beam?
Assume steel yields everywhere (and then check at the end).
fyAs’+0.8f_{cd}xb=fyAs
What is the P-\Delta effect?
M=(e+\Delta)P
As P increases, \Delta > 0, and so line in M-P space isn’t straight. For very slender beams, a buckling instability occurs before reaching the failure envelope.
What shape is the P-M failure envelope for a concrete beam?
P on y axis; M on x axis
M is greatest for P a little bit more than zero.
Note that M=eP unless \Delta effects are important
What is a Kern Point in terms of the section properties?
What is the Kern point’s sign for the top surface?
- Zi / A
For the top surface, Z1 is -ve, so Kern point is +ve, so Kern point is below the N-A.
What is the significance of a kern point on a mangel diagram?
For P->inf (1/P>0) so need to be applied at kern points for top / bottom stress to be OK.
One kern point represents top stress being zero (and therefore between limits) , other for bottom stress.
What is the y-intercept on a e , 1/P graph called?
The Kern point. There are 2, each with two straight lines.
A beam has depth h and cover c. At what depth is the longitudinal reinforcement?
h-c-D/2
Don’t forget half of bar diameter!
What is pitting caused by?
Chloride ions cause pitting. It is difficult to spot.
What is the outer most point on a P-M diagram representative of?
The point of balanced failure.
For higher P, the concrete fails in compression.
For lower P, the steel yields first.
At this point, the tension steel and compression concrete fail at the same time.
How would you find the balanced failure point of a column?
The compression concrete fails at the same time as the tension steel yields. Therefore, a strain diagram can be drawn.
How would you find the maximum axial load of a column?
P = fy (As + As’) + f_cd * b * h
Note no factors on concrete strength or stress block size
The maximum axial column load is
P = fy (As + As’) + f_cd * b * h
What is the corresponding moment? eccentricity?
M = 0 ; e = 0
Where is the neutral axis for balanced failure of a column?
This is the x-intercept of line from ec=0.0035 to es=fy/E
Concrete extreme fibre fails in compression
Steel just yields in tension.
How do you design a T-beam?
Assume fyAs in the steel. Then 0.8xp* b * fcd = Asfy to find N-A. Then take moments.
Does the steel in a singly reinforced T-beam yield?
Yes. Design is performed with 0.8xpb*fcd=Asfy
Why is grout applied to a post-tensioned beam?
Grout fills the duct, providing better shear transfer to the beam, and preventing corosion.
Where is the shear transfer in a post-tensioned beam?
Mostly at the anchors, although some is via grout in the duct.
Where is the shear transfer in a pre-tensioned beam?
Along the strand due to bond with the concrete. Ribbing helps this.
What is the concrete strain in an uncracked unbonded beam?
It is approximately parabolic. The total contraction is equal to the total steel contraction. The peak strain is about twice the steel strain (which is a constant).
What shape is the STEEL strain along an uncracked unbonded beam?
It is constant.
What is the concrete strain in a CRACKED, unbonded beam?
It increases towards the centre of the beam. The peak is about 4x higher than the steel strain (which is a constant)
In the absence of shear reinforcement, how is the strut-and-tie model used?
Draw straight lines from load application to reactions.
The tension steel probably forms a tie between the reactions.
Is the strut-and-tie model valid in concrete without shear reinforcement?
Yes. Compression struts need to go from load to reactions, and the tension struts are in the longitudinal reinforcement.
A strut-and-tie model in concrete without shear reinforcement has compression struts from the load application to the supports. What other struts are there?
A tension strut in the longitudinal reinforcing steel.
A beam has shear reinforcement and is loaded by a point load in the centre. Flexural checks show that the beam is just sufficient to carry the moment. Why is this a problem?
The shear carrying scheme is a strut and tie model. This loads the tension steel in tension, so the longitudinal reinforcement may be insufficient.
A strut and tie model has inclined compression struts. What other struts are there?
Tension struts in longitudinal steel, and compression struts at the top of the truss.
What is aggregate interlock?
Shear forces carried by interlocking aggregate in beam.
What is dowel action?
Shear links prevent the flexural reinforcement fom falling of the bottom of the beam. In cracks, the longitudinal reinforcement is no longer flat, and so a component of its tension helps to resist shear.
What is the size effect in shear?
Larger beams resist less shear than they might be expected to by plasticity theory. For very large beams, elastic theory becomes a better model.
What model predicts shear failure in very large beams?
Elastic theory is a better estimate for very large beams.
What is the Compressive Force Path Method for concrete beams?
The top of the beam is in pure compression, and the bottom of the beam is reinforcing steel in tension. Below the compression concrete are vertical ‘teeth’ serve only to build up the tension and compression loads. The compression concrete carries all of the shear force.
What is peridynamics?
Numerical simulation of concrete. Can be used to predict cracking behaviour. Nodes interact if they are sufficiently close together.