Concrete Works

Longer tension lap lengths at the corners and at the top of concrete structures

In BS8110 for reinforced concrete design, it states that longer tension lap lengths have to be provided at the top of concrete members. The reason behind this is that the amount of compaction of the top of concrete members during concrete placing is more likely to be less than the remaining concrete sections. Moreover, owing to the possible effect of segregation and bleeding, the upper layer of concrete section tends to be of lower strength when compared with other locations.

When the lap lengths are located at the corners of concrete members, the degree of confinement to the bars is considered to be less than that in other locations of concrete members. As such, by taking into account the smaller confinement which lead to lower bond strength, a factor of 1.4 (i.e. 40% longer) is applied to the calculated lap length.

Location of lifting anchors in precast concrete units

It is desirable that the position of anchors be located symmetrical to the centre of gravity of the precast concrete units. Otherwise, some anchors would be subject to higher tensile forces when compared the other anchors depending on their distance from the centre of gravity of the precast concrete units. As such, special checks have to be made to verify if the anchor bolts are capable of resisting the increased tensile forces.

Location of construction joints

Construction joints are normally required in construction works because there is limited supply of fresh concrete in concrete batching plants in a single day and the size of concrete pour may be too large to be concreted in one go.

The number of construction joints in concrete structures should be minimized. If construction joints are necessary to facilitate construction, it is normally aligned perpendicular to the direction of the member. For beams and slabs, construction joints are preferably located at about one-third of the span length. The choice of this location is based on the consideration of low bending moment

anticipated with relatively low shear force. However, location of one-third span is not applicable to simply supported beams and slabs because this location is expected to have considerable shear forces and bending moment when subjected to design loads. Sometimes, engineers may tend to select the end supports as locations for construction joints just to simplify construction.

Measurement of cement and aggregates – by weight vs by volume

Measurement of constituents for concrete is normally carried out by weight because of the following reasons:

(i) Air is trapped inside cement while water may be present in aggregates. As such measurement by volume requires the consideration of the bulking effect by air and water.

(ii) The accuracy of measurement of cement and aggregates by weight is higher when compared with measurement by volume when the weighing machine is properly calibrated and maintained. This reduces the potential of deviation in material quantity with higher accuracy in measurement for the design mix and leads to more economical design without the wastage of excess materials.

Movement accommodation factor for joint sealant

Movement accommodation factor is commonly specified by manufacturers of joint sealants for designers to design the dimension of joints. It is defined as the total movement that a joint sealant can tolerate and is usually expressed as a percentage of the minimum design joint width. Failure to comply with this requirement results in overstressing the joint sealants.

For instance, if the expected movement to be accommodated by a certain movement joint is 4mm, the minimum design joint width can be calculated as 4÷30% = 13.3mm when the movement accommodation factor is 30%. If the calculated joint width is too large, designers can either select another brand of joint sealants with higher movement accommodation factor or to redesign the arrangement and locations of joints.

Minimum distance between bars and maximum distance between bars

In some codes, a minimum distance between bars is specified to allow for sufficient space to accommodate internal vibrators during compaction.

On the other hand, the restriction of maximum bar spacing is mainly for controlling crack width. For a given area of tension steel areas, the distribution of steel reinforcement affects the pattern of crack formation. It is preferable to have smaller bars at closer spacing rather than larger bars at larger spacing to be effective in controlling cracks. Hence, the limitation of bar spacing beyond a certain value (i.e. maximum distance between bars) aims at better control of crack widths.