CE 201: Engineering Materials

Lecture# 5
Concrete Mix Design: Introduction

Dr. Sheikh Mokhlesur Rahman

Assistant Professor, Dept. of CE
Contact: smrahman@[Link]
 Concrete Mix Design 2

➢ Mixdesign is the process of selecting suitable ingredients and their

quantities to produce concrete with specific properties such as
consistency, strength, and durability as economically as possible
➢ Purposes:
• Approximate design:
▪ Cost estimation, trial mix preparation, checking of existing design

• Accurate design:
▪ Safety and economy of structures: single or multiple specifications
▪ Meeting quality assurance requirements

• Comparing performances of different materials or mixes

January 2021 Term - SMR CE 201_Intro to Concrete Mix Design

 Concrete Mix Design 3

➢ Mix ratios
• Nominal mix: used for relatively unimportant works. All ingredients and their
proportions are prescribed and specified. e.g. 1:1.5:3 for 3000 psi concrete

• Design mix (usually by weight)

▪ Real mix: on the basis of dry or SSD materials
▪ Field mix: modified real mix to fit the filed condition e.g., moisture content of
aggregates

Mix ratios are always reported as

cement : fine aggregate : coarse aggregate

January 2021 Term - SMR CE 201_Intro to Concrete Mix Design

 Concrete Mix Design 4

➢ Supporting methods or information sources for mix design

• Laboratory trial mix
• Full-scale trial mix
• Previous production data
• “ready-to” use standard data
• “simplified” methods of design
• “comprehensive” methods of design

January 2021 Term - SMR CE 201_Intro to Concrete Mix Design

 Factors Affecting the Choice of Mix Proportion 5

➢ Strength
➢ Durability
➢ Water/cement ratio
➢ Consistency
➢ Workability
➢ Types of cement
➢ Cement content
➢ Cement/aggregate ratio
➢ Gradation of aggregate
➢ Maximum size of aggregate
➢ Quality control

January 2021 Term - SMR CE 201_Intro to Concrete Mix Design

 Basic Factors in the Process of Mix Design 6

Liability to chemical
attack or size of Method of Size of section and
concrete mass compaction spacing of reinforcement
Quality Minimum
control strength
Required Maximum size Aggregate shape
workability of aggregate and texture
Mean Type of Age at which
Durability
strength cement strength is required

Water/cement ratio

Overall grading of
Aggregate/cement ratio aggregate

Proportion of each
Capacity of the Mix proportions
size fraction
mixture

Weight of ingredients per

batch
January 2021 Term - SMR CE 201_Intro to Concrete Mix Design
 Sources of variability in concrete strength 7

➢ Variations in mix ingredients

➢ Variations in concrete production
• Making
• Placing
• Curing
• Testing
➢ Variations in sampling procedure
➢ Variations in testing procedure

Quality Control is very important at all stages of construction: selection of

raw materials, mixing of aggregates, water, and cement, transportation and
placing of concrete, compacting of concrete, and curing of concrete, as well
as testing of concrete.
January 2021 Term - SMR CE 201_Intro to Concrete Mix Design
 Statistics of Concrete Strength Distribution 8

• Maximum number of observations are found at Distribution

the mean of the observed values of test data
• Strength distribution are often observed/
assumed to follow normal distribution
σ𝑛
𝑖=1 𝑥𝑖
➢ Mean Strength, 𝑥ҧ =
𝑛

σ𝑛 ҧ 2
𝑖=1(𝑥𝑖 −𝑥)
➢ Standard Deviation, 𝑠 =
𝑛−1
Here,
• 𝑥ҧ = mean strength
• 𝑥𝑖 = strength of individual cylinder/ cube
•𝑛 = number of samples (cylinders or cubes)
•𝑠 = standard deviation of strength
Normal Distribution
January 2021 Term - SMR CE 201_Intro to Concrete Mix Design
 Statistics of Concrete Strength Distribution 9

Normal Distribution Curve

➢ To ensure the strength does not fall below the design
strength, mean strength needs to be higher.
Average design strength, 𝑓𝑚 = 𝑓𝑚𝑖𝑛 + 𝑘𝑠
Here,
• 𝑓𝑚 = Average design strength/ Target mean strength
• 𝑓𝑚𝑖𝑛 = Minimum strength (often structural design strength)
• 𝑘 = constant (Himsworth constant)
• 𝑠 = standard deviation

➢ The greater the value of k the lesser the probability of the

sample strength be less than the design strength

January 2021 Term - SMR CE 201_Intro to Concrete Mix Design

 Mix Design Methods 10

• Fineness modulus method

• Minimum voids method Old methods

• Trial mix method (ad-hoc approach)
• Arbitrary method

• BS method (British Standard)

New methods
• ACI method (American Standard) (systematic approach)

January 2021 Term - SMR CE 201_Intro to Concrete Mix Design

 Arbitrary Method 11

➢ Very simple but not suitable for high quality concrete

➢ This method uses nominal mix ratios

➢ The ratios are expressed as 1 : n : zn (cement : FA : CA)

➢ Water is added on the basis of slump and consistency

January 2021 Term - SMR CE 201_Intro to Concrete Mix Design

 Fineness Modulus Method 12

➢ The design of concrete mix is based on the factors that affect its strength
a) Fineness modulus of combined aggregates (FA + CA)
b) Volume of combined aggregates with respect to volume of cement
c) Size of aggregate
▪ as aggregate size would govern the cement requirements
d) Slump of concrete
▪ an indicator of water/cement ratio

➢ Design chart (Slide# 13)

• Explain the relationship between the FM, aggregate size, cement to
aggregate volume ratio, and slump of concrete
• Also depends on the compaction method of the concrete

January 2021 Term - SMR CE 201_Intro to Concrete Mix Design

 Fineness Modulus Method 13

Relationship of strength and

cement/total aggregate
ratio, size of coarse
aggregate and combined
fineness modulus

January 2021 Term - SMR CE 201_Intro to Concrete Mix Design

 Fineness Modulus Method 14

➢ Design Steps
• Design strength and aggregate properties (e.g., size and FM) are often given
• Find the volume of cement to aggregate and FM of the combined aggregate
from the chart (Slide# 13)
• Using the following equation determine the ratio of FA to the CA
𝐹𝑀𝐶𝐴 −𝐹𝑀𝑐𝑜𝑚𝑏𝑖𝑛𝑒𝑑
ratio of FA to CA, 𝑥 =
𝐹𝑀𝑐𝑜𝑚𝑏𝑖𝑛𝑒𝑑 −𝐹𝑀𝐹𝐴

Based on: 𝐹𝑀 = 𝑃𝐴 ∗ 𝐹𝑀𝐴 + 𝑃𝐵 ∗ 𝐹𝑀𝐵 + 𝑃𝐶 ∗ 𝐹𝑀𝐶 + … …

• Using the shrinkage factor of the aggregate, find the loose volume of
aggregates
• Water requirement is estimated based on slump and workability

January 2021 Term - SMR CE 201_Intro to Concrete Mix Design

 Example Problem 15

Example 1: Find the mix ration to produce a concrete with strength of 3000 psi
after 28 days using ¾” aggregate for normal machine-mixed hand-compacted
concrete. FM of fine aggregate is 3.18 and FM of coarse aggregate is 6.15.

Solution:
For ¾” aggregate size and 3000 psi strength,
FM of combined aggregate = 5, and
Ratio of cement to total volume of aggregate = 4.7
𝐹𝑀𝐶𝐴 −𝐹𝑀𝑐𝑜𝑚𝑏𝑖𝑛𝑒𝑑 6.15 − 5
Ratio of FA to CA, 𝑥 = = = 0.63
𝐹𝑀𝑐𝑜𝑚𝑏𝑖𝑛𝑒𝑑 −𝐹𝑀𝐹𝐴 5 − 3.18
4.7∗0.63 4.7∗1
Ratio of Cement : FA : CA = 1: : = 1: 1.82: 2.88
1.63 1.63
Considering Shrinkage factor of aggregate to be 0.8,
𝟏.𝟖𝟐 𝟐.𝟖𝟖
Cement : FA : CA = 𝟏: : = 𝟏: 𝟐. 𝟐𝟖: 𝟑. 𝟔
𝟎.𝟖 𝟎.𝟖

January 2021 Term - SMR CE 201_Intro to Concrete Mix Design

 Minimum Voids Method 16

➢ Objective:
to produce a mix having minimum voids (maximize density)
➢ Assumptions:
• FA fills the voids in the CA and the cement fills in the voids in the FA
• The voids in CA dictate the volume of FA and the voids in FA dictate the
volume of cement
• To make a dense concrete ~5 to 10% more FA and Cement should be used
➢ Steps:
• Find the voids in both FA and CA
• Find the volume of FA and cement from the estimated voids in CA and FA, by
allowing excess of FA and cement
• Water is estimated based on the required slump and workability
• Strength needs to be tested before using

January 2021 Term - SMR CE 201_Intro to Concrete Mix Design

 Example Problem 17

Example 2: Find the mix ration to produce a concrete with strength of 3000 psi
after 28 days using ¾” aggregate for normal machine-mixed hand-compacted
concrete. Voids in CA is 45% and voids in fine aggregate is 30%. Allow 10%
excess for cement and 7% excess for FA.

Solution:
Assume, volume of CA = 100 Cu. ft.
So, volume of FA = 100 * 0.45 = 45 Cu. ft.
and volume of Cement = 45 * 0.30 = 13.5 Cu. ft.
Allowing for the loss: Volume of FA = 45 * 1.07 = 48.15 Cu. ft.
Volume of Cement = 13.5 * 1.1 = 14.85 Cu. ft.

Cement : FA : CA = 𝟏𝟒. 𝟖𝟓 ∶ 𝟒𝟖. 𝟏𝟓 ∶ 𝟏𝟎𝟎 = 𝟏 ∶ 𝟑. 𝟐𝟒 ∶ 𝟔. 𝟕𝟑

January 2021 Term - SMR CE 201_Intro to Concrete Mix Design
 Trial Mix Method 18

➢ Trialmixes are made with varying proportions of FA and CA to get a dense

mixture
➢ Steps:
• FA and CA are mixed in different proportions
• The heaviest mixture with the highest weight per unit volume is identified
• The respective proportions of FA and CA are expected to form a dense
concrete
• The strength of the mix is estimated from the lab test

January 2021 Term - SMR CE 201_Intro to Concrete Mix Design