Maximum Concrete Volume Cast Limit

[rummaan17]

Dear Eng-Tips Members,
I would like to know if there is any limit on Maximum Volume of concrete that can be cast in one go?
Other than providing construction/Contraction/Control joints in hot weather, are there any other specification that limit maximum volume of concrete cast in one batch ?
Reference would be appreciated.

 

[hokie66]

Not that I know of.

 

[rummaan17]

In Specific, I am concerned about Mass concreting in RAFT. If there is no concrete volume limit, So how do we limit Heat of Hydration ?
Upto my knowledge, we cannot provide control/contraction joints in Raft.

 

[dik]

Use thermocouples... it's a requirement in Canada for mass concrete... the Oroville dam used massive amounts of concrete... I do not know how they addressed heat of hydration...

Dik

 

[canwesteng]

Monitor heat during the pour with thermocouples as dik said, and have piping installed in the concrete for cooling. They use to just dump ice in the concrete when making dam iirc.

 

[LittleInch]

The Hoover Dam used cooling pipes embedded in the concrete using initially river water to cool the concrete and then, iirc, the largest Air conditioning plant of its time ( I've seen 1000 TR) to actually cool the concrete and decrease the curing time. Once cooled they filled the cooling pipes with grout.

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[SlideRuleEra]

I am concerned about Mass concreting in RAFT.

Mass concrete concerns depend not only on the volume of concrete, but also the dimensions of the concrete. No matter how large the volume, if the raft is less than 3 feet thick, heat of hydration can probably be handled by common methods, such as chilled mix water or ice, placing concrete at night, etc.

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[rummaan17]

Dear All, Thanks for adding your valuable inputs.

In my case, contractor is pouring 1.4meter deep foundation raft and more than 10meter by 10meter in area in one go. He is not using any thermo-couples to control heat of hydration as he exclaim than there is no guidance regarding volume of concrete that can be casted without taking these measures.

@SlideRuleEra
Can you please indicate any reference for this 3ft thick ? as to justify it I need some technical document.

 

[JAE]

1.4m x 10m x 10m isn't that large. That is only 140cm of concrete. We had a large mat foundation placement once at 3290cm.


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[SlideRuleEra]

See the second page of ""Engineering Mass Concrete Structures", published by the Portland Cement Association.

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[EDub24]

Check out the book "Design and Control of Concrete Mixtures" by the Portland Cement Association. They don't provide specifics on how large mass concrete structures can be and as far as I know the sky is the limit if you're willing to control the massive amounts of temperature differential. The book does give some recommendations on how internal temperatures can be controlled including lowering the cement content, having large aggregate size, increasing the course aggregate content, using low hear-of-hydration cement etc. The current edition is number 16 but they have some past editions on their website for free download (see link below). The latest I saw that was available was the 14th edition which was last revised in 2008. Mass concrete is discussed in Chapter 18 of that edition.

PCA Library Online Catalog

 

[rummaan17]

@JAE,
I apologize that I havent mentioned correctly. Actually there are number of these and daily contractor is casting 5000-8000 cu.m without taking any measure to control Heat of Hydration.

@SlideRuleEra / EDub24
Thanks alot for sharing the references.

Just want to add. Is there any specific value I can calculate by doing any analysis that can depict the volume of concrete that is suitable to cast in one go?.
Thanks again everyone.

 

[dik]

JAE... probably gave off heat for a week...