7 Mixing, handling, placing, and compacting concrete We have considered, so far, what could be called & recipe for concrete We know the properties of the ingredients, although not much about their proportions; we also know the properties of the mixture: the fresh concrete and now we should look at the practical means of producing fresh concrete and placing it in the forms so that it can harden into the structural or building material: the hardened concrete, usually referred to simply as conerete, The sequence of operations is as follows. The correct quantities ‘of cement, aggregate, and water, possibly also of admixture, are batched and mixed in a conerete mixer. This produces fresh concrete, which is transported from the mixer to its final location. The fresh conerete is then placed in the forms, and compacted so as to achieve a dense mass which is allowed, and helped, to harden, Let us consider the various operations in turn Mixers ‘The mixing operation consists essentially of rotation or stirring, the objec- tive being to coat the surface of all the agaregate particles with cement paste, and to blend all the ingredients of conerete into a uniform mass: this Uniformity must not be disturbed by the process of discharging from the miner. The usual type of mixer is @ batch mixer, which means that one batch of concrete is mixed and discharged before any more materials are put into the mixer. There are four types of batch mixers A tilting drum mixer is one whose drum in which mixing takes place is tilted for discharging. The drum is conical or bowl-shaped with internal ‘vanes, and the discharge is rapid and unsegregated so that these mixers are suitable for mixes of low workability and for those containing large-size aggregate. ‘A non-tilting drun miver is one in which the axis of the mixer is always horizontal, and discharge takes place by inserting a chute into the drum 122MIXERS or by reversing the direction or rotation of the drum (a reversing drum iver). Because of a slow rate of discharge, some segregation may occur, a part of the coarse aggregate being discharged last, This type of mixer is, charged by means of a loading skip. which is also used with the larger tilting drum mixers, and it is important that the whole charge be trans- ferred from the skip into the mixer every time. ‘A pan-type mixer is a forced-action mixer, as distinet from drum mixers which rely on the free fall of concrete inside the drum. The pan mixer consists essentially of a circular pan rotating about its axis with one or two stars of paddles rotating about vertical axis not coincident with the axis of the pan; sometimes the pan is static and the axis of the star travels along a circular path about the axis of the pan. In either case, the concrete in every part of the pan is thoroughly mixed, and scraper blades ensure that mortar does not stick to the sides of the pan. The height of the paddles can be adjusted to prevent the formation of a coating of ‘mortar-on the bottom of the pan, Pan mixers are particularly efficient with stiff and cohesive mixes and are, therefore, often used for precast concrete, as well as for mixing small quantities of concrete or mortar in the laboratory. ‘A dual drum mixer is sometimes used in highway construction. Here, there are two drums in series, conerete being mixed part of the time in one and then transferred to the other for the remainder of the mixing time before discharging. In the meantime, the first drum is recharged so that initial mixing takes place without inter-mixing of the batches. In this manner the yield of conerete can be doubled, which is a considerable advantage in the case of highway construction where space or access is ofien limited, Triple drum mixers are also used. Ie may be relevant to mention that in drum-type mixers no scraping of the sides takes place during mixing so that a certain amount of mortar adheres to the sides of the drum and remains until the mixer is cleancd. It follows that, at the beginning of concreting, the first mix would leave behind a proportion of its mortar, the discharge consisting largely. of coated course aggregate particles. This initial batch should be discarded. As an alternative, a certain amount of mortar (concrete less coarse aggregate) may be introduced into the drum prior to mixing the concrete, 4 procedure known as buttering. The mottar in excess of that stuck in the mixer can be used in construction, e-g. by placing at a cold joint. The necessity of buttering shoukd not be forgotten when using a laboratory miner. ‘The size of @ mixer should be described by the volume of concrete after compaction, as distinet from the volume of the unmixed ingredients in a loose state, which is up to 50 per cent greater than the compacted volume. Mixers are made in a variety of sizes from 0.04 m' (1.5 fe) for laboratory use up to 13 m' (17 yd’). If the quantity mixed represents only a small fraction of the mixer capacity, the operation will be uneconomic, and the resulting mix may be not uniform; this is bad practice. Overloading the mixer by up to 10 per cent is generally harmless, but, if greater, a uniform mix will not be obtained; this is very bad practice 123MIXING, HANDLING, PLACING, AND COMPACTING CONCRETE All the mixers described so far are batch mixers, but there exist also continuous mixers, which are fed automatically by @ continuous weigh- batching system. The mixer itself may be of drum-type or may be in the form of a serew moving in a stationary housing. Specialized mixers are used in shotereting (see page 138) and for mortar for preplaced aggregate conerete (see page 141) Char; g the mixer There are no general ules on the order of feeding the ingredients into the mixer as this depends on the properties of the mixer and of the mix. Usually, a small amount of water is fed frst, followed by all the solid materials, preferably fed uniformly and simultaneously into the mixer. I possible, the greater part of the water should also be fed during the same time, the remainder being added after the solids. However, when using very dry mixes in drum mixers it is necessary to feed the coarse aggregate just afier the smal initial water feed in order to ensure that the aggregate surface is sufficiently wetted. Moreover, if coarse agaregate is absent to begin with, the finer ingredients can become lodged in the head of the mixer ~ an occurrence known as head pack. If water or cement is fed too fast or is too hot there is a danger of forming cement balls, sometimes as large as 75. mm (3 in.) in diameter With small taboratory pan mixers and very stiff mixes, the sand should be fed firs, then a part of the coarse aggregate, cement and water, and finally the remainder of the coarse aggregate so as to break up any nodules of mortar. Uniformity of mixing In any mixer, i is essential that a sufficient interchange of materials occurs between different parts of the chamber, so that uniform concrete is produced. The efficiency of the mixer can’ be measured by the variability of samples from the mix. ASTM C 94-05 prescribes samples to be taken from about points } and ? of the discharge of a batch, and the dif ferences in the properties of the two samples should not exceed any of the following: (a) density of conerete: 16 kg/m (1 Itt’) (b) air content: 1 per cent (©) slump: 25 mm (1 in.) when average is less than 100 mm (4 in.), and 40 mm (1.5 in.) when average is 100 to 150 mm (4 to 6 in.) (a) percentage of aggregate retained on 4.75 mm (7; in.) sieve: 6 per cent (©) density of air-free mortar: 1.6 per cent (£) compressive strength (average 7-day value of 3 eylinders): 7.5 per cent. raFor a suitable performance test of mixers, using a specified mix, tests tare made on 10 samples from each quarter of a batch, and each sample is subjected to wet analysis (see page 296), in accordance with BS 1881 Part 125: 1986, to determine: (a) water content as percentage of solids (to 0.1 per cent), (b) fine aggregate content as percentage of total aggregate (to 0.5 per cent), (©) cement as percentage of total aggregate (to 0.01 per cent), (d)__water/eement ratio (10 0.01). The sampling accuracy is assured by a limit on the average range of pairs, and if two samples in a pair differ unduly then their results are discarded. The mixer performance is judged by the difference between the highest and lowest average of pairs for each batch using three separate test batches; thus one bad mixing operation does not condemn a mixer. Mixing time On site, there is often a tendency to mix concrete as rapidly as possible, and, henee, it is important to know the minimum mixing time necessary {o produce a couctete of uniform composition and, consequently, of reliable strength. The optimum mixing time depends on the type and size Of mixer, on the speed of rotation, and on the quality of blending of ingre- dients during charging of the mixer. Generally, a mixing time of less than to 1! min produces appreciable non-uniformity in composition and significantly lower strength; mixing beyond 2 min causes no significant improvement in these properties. Table 7.1 gives typical values of mixing times for various eapacities of rixers, the mixing time being reckoned from the time when all the solid Table 7.1: Recommended mixing times. Capacity of mixer Mixing time, wo Cee ere 15 2 23 3 34 a8 38 5 2 46 2 16 ioe oH ACT 304R- 00 and ASTM C 94-05. 2s