Sustainable production of precast combined pile-cap and column elements via statistical analysis of self-compacting concrete kinetics

Abstract

This research applied accelerated bridge construction techniques to the Northern Mexico City Elevated Urban Toll Road. To this end, an 18-m precast combined pile-cap and column element was monitored during production. The recorded high internal temperatures raised concerns, which led to the extraction and testing of concrete cores, yielding satisfactory strengths. The kinetics during the setting and hardening of the three high-strength self-consolidating concrete mixes used in the production of these elements was statistically validated for the temperature range from 4.5 to 88 °C. In a previous study, new maturity functions were developed to predict the strength of equivalent mortars as a function of both the hardening time and isothermal curing temperature, which accounted for the crossover effect and provided better compressive strength predictions than ASTM C1074-11. These functions were applied herein to optimize the production, select the optimal concrete mix, and minimize the total construction time and environmental cost.