Concrete floor strength in Brazil

[todh]

I have a U.S. based client that is working on another project in the country of Brazil (which I am not directly involved in). They have asked me a question I could not answer nor easily find the answer to online, so I will pose it here.

The contractors in Brazil classify concrete floor strength as tons/m2. In thinking this was a direct comparison to the US way of specifying concrete, then 10 tons/m2 concrete (what the contractor suggested) would equal 14.22 psi concrete. Obviously, this can not be a direct comparison and I am comparing apples to oranges.

Does anyone have experience with this? My client would like to know how the concrete strength we used on our US project compares to what they are using in Brazil. We had used 3,000 psi, 4,000 psi, and 5,000 psi concrete here. The contractors in Brazil are suggesting anything from 5 tons/m2 to 10 tons/m2.

Thanks for any insight you may have.

 

[kieran1]

No nothing about brazil but maybe what is specified is the safe load the floor is capable of supporting and not the concrete strength. Thats what it looks like to me. Is it a slab on grade?

Kieran

 

[todh]

That was a thought I had as well as it equates to approximately 2,000 psf. However, there is a lot more to it then just concrete strength if that is the case. This is for site pavement and for slab-on-grade, so obviously as a safe load for the floor then you would also need information on the soils.

 

[concretemasonry]

Do you have any local contacts that can unravel the question you have? That may solve any questions.

When I first went to Brazil for construction a technique study, I was blown out of the water by the sophistication of details of the engineers and the way they translated it into very usable drawings and provided inspection/quality control on site.

They used numerous very high strength levels of concrete block on 15-20 story high rise projects and minimized the amount of materials required by using higher quality engineering and controls. They even used random sampling of grout space cleaning using video cameras. This was in Sao Paulo.

Nothing beats having a local provide information on the local codes (possibly more restrictive than the minimal U.S. codes, since you get a real feel for the situation.

Dick

Engineer and international traveler interested in construction techniques, problems and proper design.

 

[mec00063]

Hi,

I'm not civil but what you're looking for is what we call in Brazil the "fck" of the concret, and we mesure it in MPa.


I'm attaching a standard. I'm not sure if its the latest but it brings some more info. I hope it helps.

Regards

http://files.engineering.com/getfil...3_-_1992_-_Concreto_para_Fins_Estruturais.pdf

 

[rapt]

It could be someone using metric units rather than SI. They would deal in kg/cm2 or t/m2 for concrete strength wheras SI would use MPa = N/mm2. But in metric units the tons would be metric tonnes = 1000kg = 2204pounds, not the US ton.

But it is very weak concrete for anything structural!

Or as someone suggested it could be a very very high floor loading, sounds unrealistic for this!

 

[msquared48]

At 2000 psf, that sounds more like an allowable soil bearing strength than a concrete strength.

Mike McCann
MMC Engineering
Motto: KISS
Motivation: Don't ask