Analysis of alternative water sources for use in the manufacture of concrete

In Australia and many other countries worldwide, water used in the manufacture of concrete must be potable. At present, it is currently thought that concrete properties are highly influenced by the water type used and its proportion in the concrete mix, but actually there is little knowledge of the effects of different, alternative water sources used in concrete mix design. Therefore, the identification of the level and nature of contamination in available water sources and their subsequent influence on concrete properties is becoming increasingly important. Of most interest, is the recycled washout water currently used by batch plants as mixing water for concrete. Recycled washout water is the water used onsite for a variety of purposes, including washing of truck agitator bowls, wetting down of aggregate and run off. This report presents current information on the quality of concrete mixing water in terms of mandatory limits and guidelines on impurities as well as investigating the impact of recycled washout water on concrete performance. It also explores new sources of recycled water in terms of their quality and suitability for use in concrete production. The complete recycling of washout water has been considered for use in concrete mixing plants because of the great benefit in terms of reducing the cost of waste disposal cost and environmental conservation. The objective of this study was to investigate the effects of using washout water on the properties of fresh and hardened concrete. This was carried out by utilizing a 10 week sampling program from three representative sites across South East Queensland. The sample sites chosen represented a cross-section of plant recycling methods, from most effective to least effective. The washout water samples collected from each site were then analysed in accordance with Standards Association of Australia AS/NZS 5667.1 :1998. These tests revealed that, compared with tap water, the washout water was higher in alkalinity, pH, and total dissolved solids content. However, washout water with a total dissolved solids content of less than 6% could be used in the production of concrete with acceptable strength and durability. These results were then interpreted using chemometric techniques of Principal Component Analysis, SIMCA and the Multi-Criteria Decision Making methods PROMETHEE and GAIA were used to rank the samples from cleanest to unclean. It was found that even the simplest purifying processes provided water suitable for the manufacture of concrete form wash out water. These results were compared to a series of alternative water sources. The water sources included treated effluent, sea water and dam water and were subject to the same testing parameters as the reference set. Analysis of these results also found that despite having higher levels of both organic and inorganic properties, the waters complied with the parameter thresholds given in the American Standard Test Method (ASTM) C913-08. All of the alternative sources were found to be suitable sources of water for the manufacture of plain concrete.

Renewing concrete sleepers : how long can they last?

The paper explores the way in which the life of concrete sleepers can be dramatically affected by two important factors, namely impact forces and fatigue cycles. Drawing on the very limited experimental and field data currently available about these two factors, the paper describes detailed simulations of sleepers in a heavy haul track in Queensland Australia over a period of 100 years. The simulation uses real wheel/rail impact force records from that track, together with data on static bending tests of similar sleepers and preliminary information on their impact vs static strength. The simulations suggest that despite successful performance over many decades, large unplanned replacement costs could be imminent, especially considering the increasingly demanding operational conditions sleepers have sustained over their life. The paper also discusses the key factors track owners need to consider in attempting to plan for these developments.

Processing load and the use of concrete representations and strategies for solving linear equations

This paper is a report of students' responses to instruction which was based on the use of concrete representations to solve linear equations. The sample consisted of 21 Grade 8 students from a middle-class suburban state secondary school with a reputation for high academic standards and innovative mathematics teaching. The students were interviewed before and after instruction. Interviews and classroom interactions were observed and videotaped. A qualitative analysis of the responses revealed that students did not use the materials in solving problems. The increased processing load caused by concrete representations is hypothesised as a reason.

Managing process model complexity via concrete syntax modifications

While Business Process Management (BPM) is an established discipline, the increased adoption of BPM technology in recent years has introduced new challenges. One challenge concerns dealing with the ever-growing complexity of business process models. Mechanisms for dealing with this complexity can be classified into two categories: 1) those that are solely concerned with the visual representation of the model and 2) those that change its inner structure. While significant attention is paid to the latter category in the BPM literature, this paper focuses on the former category. It presents a collection of patterns that generalize and conceptualize various existing mechanisms to change the visual representation of a process model. Next, it provides a detailed analysis of the degree of support for these patterns in a number of state-of-the-art languages and tools. This paper concludes with the results of a usability evaluation of the patterns conducted with BPM practitioners.

Development of the response coefficient-root function method for the transient vibration serviceability design of flat concrete floors

The vibration serviceability limit state is an important design consideration for two-way, suspended concrete floors that is not always well understood by many practicing structural engineers. Although the field of floor vibration has been extensively developed, at present there are no convenient design tools that deal with this problem. Results from this research have enabled the development of a much-needed, new method for assessing the vibration serviceability of flat, suspended concrete floors in buildings. This new method has been named, the Response Coefficient-Root Function (RCRF) method. Full-scale, laboratory tests have been conducted on a post-tensioned floor specimen at Queensland University of Technology’s structural laboratory. Special support brackets were fabricated to perform as frictionless, pinned connections at the corners of the specimen. A series of static and dynamic tests were performed in the laboratory to obtain basic material and dynamic properties of the specimen. Finite-element-models have been calibrated against data collected from laboratory experiments. Computational finite-element-analysis has been extended to investigate a variety of floor configurations. Field measurements of floors in existing buildings are in good agreement with computational studies. Results from this parametric investigation have led to the development of new approach for predicting the design frequencies and accelerations of flat, concrete floor structures. The RCRF method is convenient tool to assist structural engineers in the design for the vibration serviceability limit-state of in-situ concrete floor systems.

A material model for flexural crack simulation in reinforced concrete elements using ABAQUS

This paper presents a material model to simulate load induced cracking in Reinforced Concrete (RC) elements in ABAQUS finite element package. Two numerical material models are used and combined to simulate complete stress-strain behaviour of concrete under compression and tension including damage properties. Both numerical techniques used in the present material model are capable of developing the stress-strain curves including strain softening regimes only using ultimate compressive strength of concrete, which is easily and practically obtainable for many of the existing RC structures or those to be built. Therefore, the method proposed in this paper is valuable in assessing existing RC structures in the absence of more detailed test results. The numerical models are slightly modified from the original versions to be comparable with the damaged plasticity model used in ABAQUS. The model is validated using different experiment results for RC beam elements presented in the literature. The results indicate a good agreement with load vs. displacement curve and observed crack patterns.

Quantifying axial deformation of columns using vibration characteristics

Column elements at a certain level in building are subjected to loads from different tributary areas. Consequently, differential axial deformation among these elements occurs. Adverse effects of differential axial deformation increase with building height and geometric complexity. Vibrating wire, electronic strain and external mechanical strain gauges are used to measure the axial deformations to take adequate provisions to mitigate the adverse effects. These gauges require deploying in or on the elements during their construction in order to acquire necessary measurements continuously. The use of these gauges is therefore inconvenient and uneconomical. This highlights the need for a method to quantify the axial deformation using ambient measurements. This paper proposes a comprehensive vibration based method. The unique capabilities of the proposed method present through an illustrative example.

Asphalt concrete surfaces macrotexture determination from still images

Road surface macrotexture is identified as one of the factors contributing to the surface's skid resistance. Existing methods of quantifying the surface macrotexture, such as the sand patch test and the laser profilometer test, are either expensive or intrusive, requiring traffic control. High-resolution cameras have made it possible to acquire good quality images from roads for the automated analysis of texture depth. In this paper, a granulometric method based on image processing is proposed to estimate road surface texture coarseness distribution from their edge profiles. More than 1300 images were acquired from two different sites, extending to a total of 2.96 km. The images were acquired using camera orientations of 60 and 90 degrees. The road surface is modeled as a texture of particles, and the size distribution of these particles is obtained from chord lengths across edge boundaries. The mean size from each distribution is compared with the sensor measured texture depth obtained using a laser profilometer. By tuning the edge detector parameters, a coefficient of determination of up to R2 = 0.94 between the proposed method and the laser profilometer method was obtained. The high correlation is also confirmed by robust calibration parameters that enable the method to be used for unseen data after the method has been calibrated over road surface data with similar surface characteristics and under similar imaging conditions.

Vibration characteristics of concrete-steel composite floor structures

This paper discusses the vibration characteristics of a concrete-steel composite multi-panel floor structure; the use of these structures is becoming more common. These structures have many desirable properties but are prone to excessive and complex vibration, which is not currently well understood. Existing design codes and practice guides provide generic advice or simple techniques that cannot address the complex vibration in these types of low-frequency structures. The results of this study show the potential for an adverse dynamic response from higher and multi-modal excitation influenced by human-induced pattern loading, structural geometry, and activity frequency. Higher harmonics of the load frequency are able to excite higher modes in the composite floor structure in addition to its fundamental mode. The analytical techniques used in this paper can supplement the current limited code and practice guide provisions for mitigating the impact of human-induced vibrations in these floor structures.

Greener and leaner : unleashing capacity of railroad concrete ties via limit states concept

New knowledge has raised a concern about the cost-ineffective design methods and the true performance of railroad prestressed concrete ties. Because of previous knowledge deficiencies, railway civil and track engineers have been aware of the conservative design methods for structural components in any railway track that rely on allowable stresses and material strength reductions. In particular, railway sleeper (or railroad tie) is an important component of railway tracks and is commonly made of prestressed concrete. The existing code for designing such components makes use of the permissible stress design concept, whereas the fiber stresses over cross sections at initial and final stages are limited by some empirical values. It is believed that the concrete ties complying with the permissible stress concept possess unduly untapped fracture toughness, based on a number of proven experiments and field data. Collaborative research run by the Australian Cooperative Research Centre for Railway Engineering and Technologies (Rail CRC) was initiated to ascertain the reserved capacity of Australian railway prestressed concrete ties that were designed using the existing design code. The findings have led to the development of a new limit-states design concept. This paper highlights the conventional and the new limit-states design philosophies and their implication to both the railway community and the public. © 2011 American Society of Civil Engineers.