This document discusses various types of special concretes used for specific purposes, including lightweight concrete, high density concrete, mass concrete, plum concrete, fibre reinforced concrete, polymer concrete, and ferroconcrete. Lightweight concrete uses lightweight aggregates to reduce density, while high density concrete uses heavy aggregates. Mass concrete structures require measures to cope with heat generation during curing. Fibres are added to concrete to improve properties like ductility, toughness and crack resistance. Polymer concrete uses polymers instead of or along with cement. Ferroconcrete consists of wire meshes embedded in cement mortar. Each type has distinct composition, properties and applications.

1. Topic :- Special Concrete And
Concreting Method

2. Outline
 Introduction
 Light weight concrete
 High density concrete
 Mass concrete
 Plum concrete
 Fibre reinforced concrete
 Polymer concrete
 Ferro concrete

3. Introduction
 Special concrete are the concretes prepared for specific purpose like light weight, high
density, fire protection, radiation shielding etc.
 Concrete is a versatile material possessing good compressive strength.
 Modification have been made from time to time to overcome the deficiencies of cement
concrete.
 Improvement in mechanical properties like compressive strength, tensile strength,
impact resistance etc.
 Improvement in durability in terms of increased chemical and freeze resistances.
 Improvement in impermeability, thermal insulation, abrasion, skid resistance etc.
 Research work is going on in various concrete research laboratories to get improvement
in the performance of concrete.

4. Light weight aggregate concrete
 The density of conventional concrete is in the order 2200 to 2600
kg/m³.
 This heavy self weight will make it uneconomical structural material.
 There are two type of light weight aggregate concrete:-
(a) Natural light weight aggregate
(b) Artificial light weight aggregate
 Natural light weight aggregate
Pumice, scoria, Rice husk, saw dust.
 artificial light weight aggregate
sintered fly ash ,formed slag, bloated clay, artificial cinders,
expanded clay, slate, shale, coke breeze, expanded perlite , exfoliated
vermiculite.

5. Light weight concrete is achieved by three
different ways
 By replacing the normal mineral aggregate is known as ‘ light
weight aggregate concrete’.
 By introducing air bubbles in mortar is known as ‘ aerated
concrete’.
 By omitting sand fraction from the aggregate as ‘ no fines
concrete’.

6. Aerated concrete
 Aerated concrete can be manufactured in this ways
1. By the formation of gas by chemical reaction within the mass
during liquid or plastic state.
2. By adding preformed stable foam with the slurry.
3. By adding a finely powdered expansive solid matter.

7. No fine aggregate
 No fine aggregate is obtained by omitting fine aggregate fraction
from the conventional concrete.
 It consist of cement, coarse aggregate and water only.
 When conventional aggregate are used no fines concrete show a
density of about 1600 to 2000 kg/m³.
 Strengths of the order of 15 n/mm² have been attained with no
fines concrete.
 The bond strength of no fines concrete is very low and therefore
reinforcement is not used in no fines concrete.

8. High Density concrete
 High density concrete is also known as ‘ Heavy weight concrete’.
 High density concrete is produced by replacing the ordinary aggregate by a
material of very much higher specific gravity.
 One of the more common natural aggregate is Barytes (barium sulphate).its
specific gravity of 4.1 and occurs as a natural rock with a purity of about 95%.
 Another type of natural heavy weight aggregate is iron ore: magnetite, limonite,
hematite, goethite have been used.
 By using iron ore aggregate concrete with densities of between 3000 to 3900
kg/m³.
 Apart from biological hazards along with the nuclear reaction very high
temperature is also generated and shielding is necessary to protect the
electronic and other sensitive equipment's in the vicinity.
 High density concrete is also suites for preparing counter-balance weight for lift
bridges and ballast blocks for ships.

9. • “An large volume of cast-in-place concrete with dimensions large
enough to require that measures be taken to cope with the
generation of heat and attendant volume change to minimize
cracking.”
• Mass concrete includes not only low-cement-content concrete
used in dams and other massive structures but also moderate to
high cement content concrete in structural members of bridges
and buildings.
• As the interior concrete increases in temperature and expands,
the surface concrete may be cooling and contracting.
• The width and depth of cracks depends upon the temperature
differential, physical properties of the concrete, and the
reinforcing steel.
Mass concrete:

10. Plum concrete
 The original idea of the use of aggregate as an inert filler can be extended to
the inclusion of large stones up to 300 mm size in a normal concrete; thus the
apparent yield of concrete for a given amount of cement is increased this
result concrete is called ‘ plum concrete’.
 These large stones are called ‘plum’ and used in a large concrete mass.
 They can be as big as 300mm size but should not be greater than 1/3 of the
dimension to be concreted.
 The volume of plums should not exceed 20 to 30% of the total volume of the
finished concrete and they to be well dispersed throughout the mass.
 Care must be taken to ensure that no air is trapped underneath the stones.
 The plums must have no adhering coating. Otherwise discontinuities between
the plums and concret

11. Fibre reinforced concrete
 Fibre reinforced concrete can be define as a composite material consisting of
concrete and discontinuous , discrete, uniform dispersed fine fibres. The
continuous meshes , woven fibre and long wire or rod are not considered to
be discrete fibre.
 The inclusion of fibre in concrete and shotcrete generally improve material
properties like ductility, flexural , toughness, impact resistance and fatigue
strength .
 There is little improvement in compressive strength.
 The type and amount of improvement is dependent upon the fibre
type,size,strength and configuration and amount of fibre

12.  A numerical parameter describing of fibre is its ‘aspect ratio’ which is define
as the fibre length divided by an equivalent fibre diameter.
 Typical aspect ratio range from 30 to150 for length dimensions 0.1 to 7.62cm.
 Typical fibre diameters are 0.25 to 0.75 mm for steel and 0.02 to 0.5 mm for
plastic.
1. Steel fibre
2. Glass fibre
3. Plastic fibre
4. Carbon fibre
5. Asbestos fibre

13. Steel fibres
 They are generally round .
 The diameters may vary from 0.25 to 0.75 mm.
 The steel fibre is lightly rusted and lose some of its strength.
 Use of steel fibre makes significant improvements in flexural impact and
fatigue strength of the concrete.
 Steel fibre has been used in overlays or roads, pavements, air fields. Bridge
decks, thin shells and floorings subjected to wear and tear and chemical
attack

14. Glass fibres
 These are produces in three basic forms.
1. roving
2. strands
3. woven or chopped strand mats
majors problems in their use are breakage of fibres and the surface degradation
of glass by high alkalinity of hydrated cement paste.
glass fibre reinforced concrete is mostly used for decorative application rather
than structural purposes.
GFRC has very high tensile strength 1020 to 4080 N/mm² . They commonly used
verities of glass fibre are E-glass and AR-glass.

15. Plastic fibres
 Fibres such as polypropylene, nylon, aramid and polyethylene have high
tensile strength but low young's modulus thus inhibiting reinforcing effect.
 Polypropylene and nylon fibres are found to be suitable to increase the
impact strength.
 Their addition to concrete has shown better distribute cracking and reduced
crack size.
 The amount of plastic fibres added to concrete is about 0.25 to 1% by volume.
 There are two type of polypropylene (1) mono filaments (2) film fibres.

16. Carbon fibres
Carbon fibres proses high tensile strength and high young's modulus.
 The modulus of rupture of an aligned carbon fibres reinforced cement
composite with 8% fibres volume can be as high as 1623 N/mm² .
 The use of carbon fibres in concrete is promising but is costly and availability
of carbon fibres in india is limited

17. Asbestos fibres
 Asbestos is a mineral fibres and has proved to be the most successful fibres
which can be mixed with OPC .
 The maximum length of asbestos fibres is 10 mm but generally fibres are
shorter than this
 The composite has high flexural strength of asbestos varies between 500 to
980 N/mm²

18. Factors affecting properties of fibres
reinforced concrete
 Volume of fibres
 Aspect ratio of fibres
 Orientation of fibres
 Size of coarse aggregate
 Workability and compaction of concrete
 Mixing

19. Advantages of FRC
 Reduction in shrinkage and cracking
 Improvement in bond strength
 Enhancement of fatigue strength and endurance limit
 better toughness
 Lower permeability of concrete

20. Application of FRC
 Pavements and floors
 Water retaining structures
 Blast resistance structures
 Precast products
 Wearing surface to exiting bridges/ culverts
 Repairs and rehabilitation works

21. Polymer concrete
 There are three type of polymer concrete
(a) Polymer- impregnated concrete
(b) Polymer Portland cement concrete
(c) Polymer concrete

22. Polymer- impregnated concrete
 Polymer- impregnated concrete is produced by impregnating or infiltrating a
hardened Portland cement concrete with n manometer and subsequently
polymerizing the manometer in situ
 It is the widely used polymer composite.
 The manometer used for impregnation are:
i. Methyl methacrylate
ii. Styrene
iii. Acrylonitrile
iv. T-butyle styrene
v. Epoxy

23. Application of polymer- impregnated
concrete
1) Prefabricated structural elements
2) Surface impregnation of bridges decks
3) Hydraulic structures
4) Marine works
5) Desalination plants
6) Nuclear power plants

24. Polymer Portland cement concrete
 Polymer Portland cement concrete is a conventional Portland cement
concrete which is usually made by replacing a part of the mixing water a
latex.
 There are two type of polymer employed in lattices
(a) Elastomeric polymers
(b) Glassy polymers

25. Elastomeric polymers
 They are characterized by their rubber like elongation and low modulus of
elasticity
 Examples are
- natural rubber latex
- styrene butadiene rubber latex
- neoprene

26. Glassy polymers
 They are characterized by higher strength, higher modulus of elasticity and
relatively brittle type of failure.
 Examples are
- polyester styrene
- epoxy styrene
- furans
- vinylidene chloride

27. Polymer concrete
 Polymer concrete is a mixture of aggregate with a polymer as the sole binder.
 There is no bonding material present.
 Monomers or pre-polymers are added to the graded aggregate and the
mixture is thoroughly mixed by hand or machine.
 The thoroughly mixed polymer concrete material is cast in moulds of wood,
steel or aluminium, etc.
 Polymerization can be achieved by these methods :-
(a) Thermal catalytic reaction
(b) Catalyst promoter reaction
(c) Radiation

28. Application
 The application of polymer concrete are repair for overlays, air field
pavements and industrial structure.
 It is also used for repair of sluiceways and stilling basin of the dam.
 It is also used in rock bolting
 Polymer concretes possess good electrical properties and it can be used for
manufacturing poles.

29. Ferro cement
 Ferro cement is a relatively new material consisting of wire meshes and
cement mortar.
 It consists of closely spaced wire meshes which are impregnated with rich
cement mortar mix.
 The Ferro cement possess high resistance against cracking high fatigue
resistance higher toughness and higher impermeability

30. Applications of Ferro cement
 Mobile homes
 Water tight structures
 Silos and bins
 Boat hulls
 Biogas holder
 Pipes
 Folded plates
 Shell roofs
 Kiosks
 Wind tunnel
 Swimming pool
 Curved benches for parks etc…

31.  The construction in Ferro cement may be divided in to
four stages
(a)Fabrication of skeleton frame
(b)Fixing of bars and mesh
(c)Application of mortar
(d)Curing

32. Advantages of Ferro cement
 Ferro cement structures are thin and light therefore self weight of structure
and foundation cost are reduced
 The construction technique is simple and does not require highly skilled
labour
 It is suitable for manufacturing the pre cast concrete elements
 Partial or complete elimination of formwork is possible
 It is very easy to repair the damaged Ferro cement work

33. Properties of Ferro cement
 Thickness - 10 mm to 60 mm
 Steel - 5 to 8%
 Steel cover - 1.5 mm to 5 mm
 Ultimate tensile strength - 34.5 N/mm²
 Allowable tensile strength - 10.0 N/mm²
 Compressive strength - 27.5 to 60 N/mm²