Aggregates in Concrete Mix Design

Abstract: The importance of studying the behaviour and properties of concrete can be highlighted by considering the fact that concrete is the most used man-made material in the world. The very first step in making concrete is its mix design and deciding the type and amount of constitutes used in the production of concrete which should fulfil the requirements of the final product. Mix design models are commonly used for the purpose of proportioning concrete ingredients while anticipating the properties of the final product. The current document deals with the commonly used principals in mix design models namely particle packing theory and excess water/paste layer theories. The conducted studies includes an investigation on accuracy of particle packing models (Toufar, 4C, CPM) and also tries to address the issue with measurement of specific surface area of particles as an essential input to water/paste layer theories. It has been observed that the particle packing models can predict the packing density with acceptable margin. However, it should be mentioned that the particle packing models by themselves are not mix design models but should be rather used as a part of a mix design. In addition, it was found that the accuracy of calculating the specific surface area of particles based on their size distribution curve can be further improved by assuming angular platonic solids as uniform shape of aggregate instead of traditional approach of assuming spheres for aggregates’ shape.