for concrete engineers 1

[rahulbarve]

dear concrete engineers,
what r the considerations, chemistry aspects, etc that i should be considering to ensure that the concrete obtained is water-tight. am already designing the structure for zero tensile stress using working stress method.
i have learnt that some components like C4A in concrete can play substantial role in making the concrete marine grade, water-tight, etc.

i hope you can throw more light on this and also provide suitable references, theories, links, etc..
thanks a ton
rahul barve

 

[Zambo]

I think it would be useful to give some description of the structure. This could include the depth of the structure below water table (or depth of liquid if a tank), thickness of the wall, proposed grade of concrete.

Apart from designing for a maximum design surface crack width of say 2mm, there are further steps which can be taken. These include specifying an appropriate concrete mix design (which could include admixtures or silica fume), good construction joint detailing and if neccessary additional waterproofing measures such as a membrane.

 

[oneintheeye]

i woudn't design for 2mm!!!

 

[SlideRuleEra]

See "Watertight Concrete", an out-of-print publication from the Portland Cement Association. It located on this page of my website:

http://www.slideruleera.net/PCA-Page.html

http://www.SlideRuleEra.net

http://www.VacuumTubeEra.net

 

[Zambo]

herewegothen,

whoops that was 0.2mm! (fortunately most board members seem to work in imperial and didn't notice the "small" error)

 

[cvg]

USACE has some good references

EM 1110-2-2104 Strength Design for Reinforced - Concrete Hydraulic Structures

EM 1110-2-2102 Waterstops and Other Preformed Joint Materials for Civil Works Structures

http://www.usace.army.mil/inet/usace-docs/eng-manuals/