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The influence of mix design parameters and compressive strenght on durability indices

Includes abstract.

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Angelucci, Matteo
Other Authors: Beushausen, Hans-Dieter
Format: Thesis
Language:English
Published: Department of Civil Engineering 2014
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access_status_str Open Access
author Angelucci, Matteo
author2 Beushausen, Hans-Dieter
author_browse Angelucci, Matteo
Beushausen, Hans-Dieter
author_facet Beushausen, Hans-Dieter
Angelucci, Matteo
author_sort Angelucci, Matteo
collection Thesis
description Includes abstract.
format Thesis
id oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/9990
institution University of Cape Town (South Africa)
language eng
last_indexed 2026-06-10T12:36:31.875Z
license_str Not specified — see source repository
provenance_str_mv Harvested via OAI-PMH from UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository
publishDate 2014
publishDateRange 2014
publishDateSort 2014
publisher Department of Civil Engineering
publisherStr Department of Civil Engineering
record_format dspace
source_str UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository
spelling oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/9990 The influence of mix design parameters and compressive strenght on durability indices Angelucci, Matteo Beushausen, Hans-Dieter Alexander, Mark Gavin Engineering Includes abstract. Current concrete specifications used in mix design are mainly of the prescriptive type, i.e.recipe-based specifications that prescribe limiting values for certain mix design parameters such as minimum binder content, maximum water/binder (w/b) ratio and minimum compressive strength class. This has numerous economical, technical and environmental disadvantages and is one of the driving factors behind the development and promotion of performance-based specifications. These have the potential to lead to alternative methods of mix design to improve concrete structural performance. In South Africa, the use of the Durability Index Approach in performance-based specifications has grown increasingly. Durability can be thought of as a materials concept for a structure in a given environment for the duration of its design life. As such, it can only be accurately described by considering it as a function of numerous intrinsic and extrinsic interrelated factors. Despite this, a dominant assumption in the industry is that concrete durability is directly proportional to its binder content and compressive strength, largely due to the misinterpretation of prescriptive specifications in depicting factors like binder content as the governing parameter of durability. This results in uneconomical and often non-durable concretes due to implications of high cement contents, such as high costs (cement is the most expensive constituent of concrete), high shrinkage, thermal effects and alkali-silica reactions. This thesis presents a study on the influence of parameters of mix design, such as w/b ratio, binder content, binder type and curing regime, as well as compressive strength, on the durability of concrete as expressed by the Durability Index Approach. The objective of the investigation was to identify the issues behind specifications of minimum binder contents, as well as identify relationships between mix design parameters, compressive strength and durability indices. This was done by obtaining findings which would serve as a basis to potentially bring about sensible and justifiable changes to specifications. This could in turn lead to more durability-oriented mix design strategies. In order to verify whether prescriptive specifications such as minimum binder contents are justifiable, various studies in literature were reviewed on the subject. In the literature review, it was identified that certain relationships exist between aspects of concrete durability and various parameters, among which are binder content, w/b ratio and compressive strength. It was found that the nature of these relationships cannot be generalised as each relationship needs to take into consideration a variety of additional influencing factors. One example is that the influence of increasing binder content on durability indicators is often detrimental and can seldom be associated with beneficial effects. This is because there are other factors such as increasing paste volume that need to be considered. 2014-12-25T15:44:38Z 2014-12-25T15:44:38Z 2013 Master Thesis Masters MSc http://hdl.handle.net/11427/9990 eng application/pdf Department of Civil Engineering Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment University of Cape Town
spellingShingle Engineering
Angelucci, Matteo
The influence of mix design parameters and compressive strenght on durability indices
thesis_degree_str Master's
title The influence of mix design parameters and compressive strenght on durability indices
title_full The influence of mix design parameters and compressive strenght on durability indices
title_fullStr The influence of mix design parameters and compressive strenght on durability indices
title_full_unstemmed The influence of mix design parameters and compressive strenght on durability indices
title_short The influence of mix design parameters and compressive strenght on durability indices
title_sort influence of mix design parameters and compressive strenght on durability indices
topic Engineering
url http://hdl.handle.net/11427/9990
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