Cement Concrete Mixture Performance Characterization

Abstract

The cementitious composite nature of concrete makes very diffi cult directly ascertaining each mixture-factors’ contribution to a given concrete mixture performance characteristics but also doubly diffi cult to accurately balance mutually exclusive requirements for performance (workability, strength, durability) and sustainability (the economic and effi cient use of materials) for mixture proportioning based on recipes of previously produced concretes. This study sought to quantify individual mixture-factors’ contribution to a given concrete mixture’s performance characteristics. Proposed multi-parametric exponential mixture-response models were fi tted to available test-performance data sets of HPC mixtures proportioned based on the best combined grade aggregate (minimum void) to generate mixture-strength and mixture-porosity development (age-mixture response relationships) profi les of HPC mixtures and deemed robust enough to yield reliable determination of mixture-response rate-parameters So, Sp, Si and Po, Pp, Pi as functions of mixture-factors that permitted reliable quantifi cation of contributions to HPC mixture performance of individual mixture-factors and optimization of mixture properties under study over the study domain. Mixture-response sensitivity analysis models (or mixture response trace plots) to allow construction of mixture-factor envelopes and ultimately optimized mixture-response models to facilitate selection of optimal mixture-factors and optimal tailoring of HPC mixture requirements to HPC mixture performance were developed and used to obtain optimized adapted HPC mixtures from available high performance concrete (HPC) mixture design recipes investigated in the study over the study domain. Adapted HPC mixture design recipes yielded alternative mixture compositions with improved performance and effi ciency characteristics with statistical performance metrics MAPE, NMBE and RMSE values of 7.6%,–3.7% and 6.5 MPa, respectively.