IMPORTANT QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS RELATED TO REAL LIFE CONCRETE CONSTRUCTION OR RCC STRUCTURES

Ans. This is a very classical question raised by many graduate engineers. In fact, there are two schools of thought regarding this issue. The first school of thought is rather straightforward: the contractor fails to comply with contractual requirements and therefore as per G. C. C. Clause 54 (2) (c) the engineer could order suspension of the Works. Under the conditions of G. C. C. Clause 54(2) (a) – (d),  the contractor is not entitled to any claims of cost which is the main concern for most engineers.
Ans. In determining the external stability of retaining walls, failure modes like bearing failure, sliding and overturning are normally considered in design. In considering the criterion of sliding, the sliding resistance of retaining walls is derived from the base friction between the wall base and the
Ans. To answer this question, let’s consider an example of a cube. The surface area to volume ratio of a cube is 6/b where b is the length of the cube. This implies that the surface area to volume ratio decreases with an increase in volume. Therefore, when the size of maximum aggregate is increased, the surface area to be wetted by water per unit volume is reduced.
Ans. Basically, the force supplied by a concrete compression machine is a definite value. For normal concrete strength application, say below 50MPa, the stress produced by a 150mmx150mmx150mm cube is sufficient for the machine to crush the concrete sample.
Ans. In pumping operation, the force exerted by pumps must overcome the friction between concrete and the pumping pipes, the weight of concrete and the pressure head when placing concrete above the pumps. In fact, as only water is pumpable, it is the water in the concretethat transfers the pressure.
Ans. To increase the strength of concrete, say from 40MPa to 80MPa, it definitely helps in improving the structural performance of the structure by producing a denser, more durable and higher load capacity concrete. The size of concrete members can be significantly reduced resulting in substantial cost savings. However, an increase of concrete strength is also accompanied by the occurrence of thermal cracking. With an increase in concrete strength, the cement content is increased and this leads to higher thermal strains.
Ans. The Scmidt hammer test is based on the elastic rebound of hammer which presses on concrete surface and it measures the surface hardness of concrete. Since the test is very sensitive to the presence of aggregates and voids at the concrete surface, it is necessary to take more than 10 readings over the area of test. However, it should be noted that Schmidt hammer test measures surface hardness only but not the strength of concrete. Therefore, it may not be considered a good substitute for concrete compression test.
Ans. There are three types of slump that may occur in slumps test, namely, true slump, shear slump and collapse slump.
Ans. When a rectangular panel is subject to an eccentric load or a lateral load, it tends to deform into a parallelogram with one diagonal shortening and the other elongating. Theoretically, it is sufficient to brace along one of the diagonals (the one in tension). If one diagonal is only allowed to brace inside the rectangular panel, it should be not braced in the diagonal in compression because under severe lateral loading the diagonal may buckle leading to failure of structure.
Ans. Basically, the results of compression test carried out by using cubes are higher than that by cylinders. In compression test, the failure mode is in the form of tensile splitting induced by uniaxial compression. However, since the concrete samples tend to expand laterally under compression, the friction developed at the concrete-machine interface generates forces which apparently increase the compressive strength of concrete. However, when the ratio of height to width of sample increases, the effect of shear on compressive strength becomes smaller. This explains why the results of compression test by cylinders are lower than that of cubes. Reference is made to Longman Scientific and Technical (1987).
Ans. Construction joints are created on sites to facilitate the construction process. However, if improperly constructed, the completed construction joints will leave an uneven scar on the concrete surface and affect significantly its appearance. To avoid this, a rebate is formed during the first pour of one side of construction joint. After the other pour is concreted, it will hide the uneven joint inside the rebate.
Ans. In contractual aspect, based on the requirement of General Specification of Civil Engineering Works (1992 Edition), the tolerance of concrete cover is between +5mm and –5mm and engineers should not accept sub-standard work because they do not possess the authority to change the acceptance criteria. In case engineers consider contractor’s proposal acceptable in technical point of view, consent has to be sought from the employer regarding the changes in acceptance criteria.
Ans. The mixture of cement and water alone cannot replace concrete (Longman Scientific and
Ans. Based on the experiment conducted by the Building Research Establishment, it was shown that the corrosion resistance of galvanized steel was the worst among the three types of bar reinforcement. For galvanized steel bars, corrosion started to occur when a certain chloride content in concrete (i.e. 0.4% by cement weight) was exceeded. However, for epoxy-coated bars, they extended the time taken for cracking to occur when compared with galvanized steel bars.
Ans. Consider that the concrete structure is not subject to the problem of differential settlement. For contraction joints, it may be possible to design a concrete structure without any contraction joints. By using sufficient steel reinforcement to spread evenly the crack width over the span length of the structure, it may achieve the requirement of minimum crack width and cause no adverse impact to the aesthetics of the structure. However, it follows that the amount of reinforcement required is higher than that when with sufficient contraction joints.
Ans. In fact, the presence of rust in bars may not have adverse impact to the bond performance and it depends on the types of bar reinforcement under consideration. For plain round bars, the rust on bars improves the bond performance by the formation of rough surfaces which increases the friction between steel and concrete.
Ans. If plain steel tying wires are used for reinforcement adjacent to Class F4 and F5 finishes, it poses the problem of rust staining which may impair the appearance of exposed concrete surfaces. The rate of corrosion of plain steel tying wires is similar to normal steel reinforcement. However, for tying wires with very small diameter, upon long exposure it stands a high chance of rusting completely and these rust will stain the formwork and significantly affect the concrete finish. Therefore, stainless steel tying wires are specified for locations in the vicinity of high quality of finishes to avoid rust staining by corroded typing wires.
Ans. After concreting, the time at which striking of formworks should not be too long, otherwise it would affect the colour of concreted structures. For long span concrete structures, when they have attained sufficient strength to support their self-weight, creep deflection may occur in these structures if propping is not provided after the removal of formwork.
Ans. Open stirrups are provided principally to resist shear forces in concrete beams and they are applied in locations in which the effect of torsion is insignificant. U-shaped stirrups are placed in the tension side of concrete beams in which shear cracks would occur. However, when concrete beams are designed to resist a substantial amount of torsion, closed stirrups should be used instead.
Ans. The use of links for column design in Britain is very popular. However, in U.S.A. engineers tend to use helical reinforcement instead of normal links because helical reinforcement has the potential advantage of protecting columns/piles against seismic loads. Moreover, when the columns reach the failure state, the concrete outside hoops cracks and falls off firstly, followed by the eventual failure of the whole columns. The peeling off of concrete outside helical reinforcement provides a warning signal before the sudden failure of columns as suggested by G. P. Manning (1924). In addition, it can take up a higher working load than normal link reinforcement.
Ans. In BS8110, it states that secondary reinforcement should be provided for beams exceeding 750mm deep at a distance measured 2/3 depth from the tension face. Experimental works revealed that at or close to mid-depth of deep beams, the maximum width of cracks arising from flexure may be about two to three times larger than the width of the same crack at the level of surface where the crack originally forms.