Breakfast Meeting: Concrete Mix Designs: Expectations vs. Reality – What We Want vs. What We Get
Concrete Mix Designs: Expectations vs. Reality – What We Want vs. What We Get
Today’s concrete mixes are very complex, containing a cocktail of admixtures and different cementitious materials. These are very different than those mixes of a few decades ago. Additionally, there has been a significant increase in the expected performance of concrete, not only in terms of strength, but especially in terms of other characteristics, such as those related to durability and service life.
However, concrete specifications have not progressed as much. The industry still specifies concrete mostly in terms of strength, slump, and sometimes some other requirements that supposedly relate to durability, such as shrinkage and rapid chloride penetration, hoping to achieve the desired performance. This presentation will give an overview of how or if the current specified properties and testing requirements can really represent or guarantee the desired performance.
The presenter will be Jussara Tanesi, PhD., FAC (American Engineering Testing)