if i ever buy a house and need concrete in the yard, i know what to do. i mean i dont, but i know where the knowledge is, and then i do. this dude really loves his concrete. holy shit..
TBH if I need more concrete than I can fit in a single wheelbarrow I'm just gonna phone up one of the local concrete plants and have them bring a truck over.
The base of Sir Smeaton’s Tower is still standing to this day off the coast of Plymouth, England despite being constantly bashed by waves from the sea. Truly a testament to his hydraulic lime formula for concrete. Extremely strong stuff. You should actually do a video talking about Smeaton’s concrete
i know Im asking randomly but does anybody know of a way to get back into an instagram account..? I somehow lost the login password. I love any tips you can offer me
@Damian Karsyn I really appreciate your reply. I found the site through google and im in the hacking process now. Takes quite some time so I will reply here later with my results.
Enjoy your content, I'm a contractor and one of my older friends says he adds a cup of wood ash to every 3L ratio of portland. He says this will make it more waterproof.
when I built my shop...and living with very poor flatwork done in my home and attached garage...I spec'd 6 inches of 4500 psi, as dry of slump as the finisher was willing to work with, poured over radiant tubes with wire re-enforcement. Once poured and finished, about four hours later I ran water through the radiant tubes to remove heat to slow the cure. Water went in around 50 degrees and came out in the 90's. The water then was sent to a sprinkler that was set on the slab. I ran the water for three days. This was summer with daytime temps in the 90's. Turned out great. only one crack in 8 years.
@@metalrooves3651 At Hoover Dan they ran refrigerant pipes to help cool the concrete. Too much heat can cause cracking. It was July and for three + days it was in the high 90's. If I would have poured it in cooler months I would have done something different. Keep in mind the water was sprinkled on the slab so some of the heat was put back. It was all about slowly curing and keeping the slab hydrated. They run sprinklers on bridge pours all the time around here...
Using a porous aggregate that has a high amount of water retention, holding water like a sponge releasing it slowly into the concrete right in the critical curing stages that are water starved. I believe the technique is called “internal curing” having the water available at the late stages is a game changer. Look into “light weight aggregates” and “internal curing”
Another absolutely fantastic video! Tyler Ley popped up a day before I had to search for anything (something in the Google water!) and BANG ON answers all the questions that I was formulating. Very well done.
Thanks. we use magnesium orthosilicate for sandblast media and have a tremendous amount of dust accumulating in our filters. CAN I use that dust to make concrete? I understand the magnesium orthosilicate is a great material, but how about after it's pulverized and mixed with things like rust and paint?
I have worked with concrete (including compressed) for over two decades. Concrete is a fantastic, useful compound. The use of silanes and siloxanes really do work. You mention it however there are some really important side issues. One is the high VOC silanes. They do work, are up to three part mixes, and are FLAMMABLE. You need to be careful of this. In addition you need protective clothing/gloves/breathing/eye gear. Do not ignore this. There also is an additional matter with a silane/siloxane coating. I have had coated concrete Walk ways mostly) that when coated well:Mitigate mild growth in areas as wet as south Florida. If a silane producer sells you a product:DO get trained on it first. Be safe and all will do well.
You're probably going to mention reinforcing soon too, but basalt rebar will be amazing. Silica fume, super plasticizer, basalt, proper ratios and curing and you have something incredibly tough.
Regular curing methods ensure that the concrete surface is well cured, but deeper inside the concrete the cement can still be starved of water, particularly in low w/c ratio mixes. To solve this problem we can introduce internal curing. This can be accomplished by replacing a portion of the aggregate with a porous material (such as expanded shale). The porous material is pre-soaked it water to fill all the voids in the aggregate with water. When the concrete is mixed, the extra water within the voids of the aggregate is trapped and does not dilute the cement paste (thus reducing its strength, as shown in the video), but once the free water in the concrete is consumed during curing, the water within the voids defuses out of the aggregate, helping to further cure the cement paste (or make those white circles in the video even larger). Internal curing can thus make concrete both stronger and more impermeable.
@@rodolfollanera5936 If all your aggregate was porous you might have a problem getting a high strength concrete, but typically only a fraction of it needs to be, maybe 10-25% of the sand.
@@TylerLey Thanks for your great videos. I'm learning a lot. To be honest, I don't think I fully understood the internal curing concept (which I was introduced to at the Canadian NRC while breaking cylinders a number of years ago) until watching this video and composing my comment above. Your diagram showing how the particles hydrate and link together helped me to visualize what is really going on. Might be worth doing a video on internal curing some day.
This may be beneficial for large members like beams and walls. What about slabs? Wouldn't the porous materials give their water up during the finishing process? This may lead to excessive bleed water and hinder the finishing process.
Great Video...Your videos have been instrumental in helping me understand the fundamentals of concrete. We are in the business of developing cellulose nanocrystals (CNC) as a strength enhancing concrete additive and many of your videos have become "required reading" for our team. Keep up the great work!!
The Aggregate is important, must be clean and strong, mix sizes is good. Vibrate, timely pour, slump, temperature control, lots of clean water afterward. We used to buy ours by the truck. Sometimes a pour would be 5 trucks, sometimes 10, sometimes 30. And if a truck was bad it could jeopardize the whole pour, and possibly the project. So we check each truck for slump, and time from plant. Not all provider had good quality control in plant, we used only the ones we thought were consistent, specially for critical pours. So by the time the concrete got to us after 30 minutes of traffic, it was well mix, there was a final adjustment in water based on slump,, we mixed five minutes and then poured via pump. We then vibrated, in hole. As the hose moved around, we took temperature readings and also listened for noises in the concrete. My job was to watch and listen. And have them move the pumps to the next spot and let that spot set a bit before continuing. With large amounts of concrete it can get very hot and this can dry out concrete and prematurely cure it falsely. If this was underwater it was not a big deal, mother nature would let moisture in. But if pour was above ground managing temperature/moisture was important. On cold days, of 40F-50F we cold still do pours with additives but we watched temperature in other direction, we did not want it to get too cold. At the end the most important part depending on situation, if cold we would put blankets over concrete to hold temperature and moisture and them plastic. Or if hot just the plastic. We would then have a guy come by at least twice a day and water the concrete to make sure it stay wet for at least 4 days.This is the most important part for making sure it sets right. Btw, the best time to pour concrete is early morning so that it gets mid-day sun for faster initial setting, then you finish off by afternoon and then it sits through the night well curing and moist. By morning water it again. Concrete drinks alot of water. The more water you give initially the stronger it will get. The first 30 days it is gaining strength, so if you can keep wet for a month the stronger it will be. Tyler makes great videos, my comments are meant to give some real world concrete experience that I gain from the millions of tons of concrete that I poured over the years. Some of the info may be obsolete, or wrong, but that is the way we were taught. I am not a concrete scientist, just a guys that used to swim in it for many. Yes, swim with it, when we did an underwater pour I directed the hose by swimming a few feet above the wet concrete. Crazy times.
when you are finishing semi hardened "green "concrete with a steel trowel, add a spray of water and dust it with dry pure portland cement powder.....swirl it round and round, work that pure portland paste into the pores. the poured cement going off will catalyze the fresh cement slime you are working in and make it go off pretty quick......keep it all wet as long as possible, even after its hard as hell. if you want a rough surface, use foam or wood trowel for the swirling
You would probably want to visit old fortresses that have been built over 100 years ago. I'm involved in the museum fortress Oscar II Fort ( o2fort.se ) here in Sweden and the cement used when it was built in 1908 is in better condition than the fast modifications added for WWII. So good concrete construction knowledge has been around quite a while, but it has of course been refined over time.
I'm a glassblower and former owner of a business that designed and produced custom colored borosilicate glass. I don't want to get into it too much, but silica fume is complete magic. Also, there's a few of us who've been trying to develop a technique to create stronger concrete by using our waste glass as a medium. Currently, there is no way to recycle borosilicate glass, and there are countless tons of waste produced yearly. We've had pretty good success so far. If we can create a small batch concrete that's strong and durable enough, we know there are a plethora of uses for it.
Can you talk about Type K cement? How about PRAHs like Techcrete 2500 and Masterlife 300D and Xypex and Hycrete Endure WP AND Hycrete Endure CP for steel corrosion protection? Can you talk about E5's Internal Curing admixture? What about particle packing? What about paste to fine aggregate bond strength? So many questions? Why are PCE Superplasticizer HRWRs better than others or are they?
Since you asked me my idea Tyler, I would like to have the inner sections to be more strong - like even the iron H beam for load bearing pillars, surrounded by rebars, and internally along with rebars I would like to use the harder polymer fibers, and external layer with softer fibers for cracks.
Great energy and advice!!! You are a fantastic teacher!! Good positive attitude and in depth material, you sir have a virtuous and valuable character. Good work :)
Very well explaned sir...i made a mistake by adding more water to create the flow but the outcome was bad..i was wondering why cracks since i added more cement ..now i knw that water was more..
Another great informative video. I have been watching the reconstruction of the Oroville Dam spillways. At some point could you explain the different mixes and methods that they used in this huge process?
I cannot find any of these products locally to add to my concrete/ mortar sculpture. The more I searched, I found the possibility of Diatomaceous earth as a pozzolan? This is available locally at a reasonable price. Would this work? @@TylerLey
Thank you for all of the information but I thingThere is a problem Could be caused from over vibrating the concrete Which is Segregating The particles cement paste From the aggregates 4:29
I'm really interested in perfecting the concrete methods. There are some things that need to be cleared up, however. When you vibrate concrete, you have to be careful that your aggregate/rocks do not settle to the bottom and that you end up with cream rising to the top that has far less aggregate and when the concrete is floated out, way too much water floats to the surface creating a really weak surface that will spall and flake immediately after curing. A slump test will demonstrate the proper mixture for each job. Some applications like dry-pack are far preferable BECAUSE of the loose packing of the concrete and the air gaps are necessary for permeability, as the water drains through the concrete purposefully. This is suitable for shower pans (resting on pan-liner of course) and swimming pools. The addition of fiber and admix strengthens the Hell out of concrete, but remember, both additives affect the finishing. Troweling plasticized cement is really difficult and staining the cement with an acid stain is out of the question. To finish a slab (for example) while maintaining a workable surface, you can add fiber to the bottom 3/4 and have a fiber free mix for the top 1/4 spread. Floating/finishing has to be relatively perfectly timed, if you do it too soon, you bring too much water to the surface - literally ruining the job. If you wait too long, it becomes unworkable and you ruin the job. The proper use of rebar supports is critical for large area strength- the problem with rebar is that it rusts. They even manufactured a green-rebar to resolve this issue, but the same problem arose with the green coating getting scratched during shipping. We coat our rebar after it has been placed and pour around the freshly coated rebar. The rule of thumb for concrete work is "40 and rising". You don't want to do anything "concrete" if the temperature is below 40 degrees F.
When we vibrated an 800 yard pour in the mountains of colorado in the oil shale retort,we only dropped thevibrator in every 2 feet..fast in and slow out..I was told by an engineer there that we poured at a 4 inch slump to save money.he told me we could put 1/2a sack more per yard and pour at a 6 slump for the same strength ...
Can you give any help as to what you would recommend as an ideal mix / process for lightweight concrete used for hand built (not mold cast) sculpture... both indoor sculptures & outdoors?
@@cchemmes-seeseeart3948 ALL CRETE or NEW CRETE by Rapid set. If you are wanting to pack the concrete by hand, I would recommend a retarding solution to slow drying time. If you are pouring into some kind of form, just follow manufacturers instructions. Use cold water and make sure all containers are perfectly clean. Even a little contamination can upset a mix.
this comment about 3/4 had fiber?WHAT do you mean?and 1/4 had no fiber to finish it?Surely you cant mean to pour 4 inches thick then come back and pour 2 inches without fiber!....you will NEVER FIND THIS DONE ANYWHERE!nor will you find a contractor to do it!,,in all this vid,while he talks about molecular structure ,HE FAILS to say order 4000-5000 psi concrete,pour it at a dry 5 inch slump,dont over vibrate,get the rebar chaired up 1.5 inches from the bottom of the slab!......this one sentence is what this is all about!
For pumping slurry with a low variability aggregate will fly ash silica and slag also increase strength. I am speaking of use in c&c printing of concrete.
I want to build my own concrete fence panels for a residential application. Keeping the horizontal slats 1 to 2" thick I was planning to reinforce with remesh or rebar. Then I thought about which type of concrete and which additives I'd need. I watched several of your videos and felt very inadequate. What to do?
Instead of having one just type of concrete, use a couple inches of silica fume concrete as the outer layer to reduce migration to and from the rest of the concrete in the middle.
At minute 6, 3 new products are introduced : Fly ash, Slag and Silica Fume. Which is best ? What are some of the factors in choosing one over the other ? What about Basalt fibres ? I was surprised not to find it on the list. Thanks.
0kay, you dangled the rest of the lists of things to make concrete last 100 years, so I'm looking forward to the videos you're going to make concerning having a plan of attack and maintaining concrete. If you've already done those videos, could you put links to them in the description box? Thanks! I so appreciate these videos that you're making. I'm learning a lot.
I'm curious about how this paste formulation and aggregate sizing plays with pervious/purposfully-porous concrete strength. I would assume that you still want the paste to be low water and even add some pozzolans as the paste bond strength may be even more critical than it is with a sand filled void spaces, and so there is very little microporosity even though the goal is a large amount of macro-pores.
Woops. !!!!! Just encountered your video on “fiber reinforced concrete”but have not had a chance to view it yet. With our home internment I will no doubt get to warp the all of your video work. JoeB
Hey Tyler Excellent presentation. Let me offer a "boots on the ground " observation about concrete design specification based not only on your empirical data but also based on observations of reality. Engineering specification/tolerances are to extreme and often concrete is rejected simply because air is half a percent over or under. Also, even with water reducing agents, sump requirements do not allow workability, (keep in mind the adversity that engineers and inspectors have towards "over vibrating") There seems to an engrained fear about the fragility of concrete. It will get hard and usually only fail if there is an extreme variation from excepted practices not de mini mas deviations.
At 6:60 fly ash is 20% replacement in mass of what? Total paste? Cement? Sand? 20% of which? Can you go over how you would order concrete? And timing for the pour?
On Vibration: "Might want to keep doing it a little more for safety factor". Too much vibration will separate the aggregate from the cement. Obviously not completely but enough that the top of your slab will have too much paste (cement). Cement shrinks and so the top layer will shrink at a different rate and will cause failures such as delamination. Good video, just stating what I've learned. Exposed concrete in cold regions is typically air entrained. Vibration can remove these super small bubbles. I’m curious how you design an air entrained slab of concrete to last 100 years. Perhaps the engineering requires not using air entrainment. Not sure
I have seen and used PPC with higher concentration of F.A. like 35 + % and it works well in hot climate of India. The F.A keeps on reacting with water to seal the micro cracks for many days even after cement has been set.
@@TylerLey I would like to know something here has anyone ever tried mixing both slag and Fly Ash in cement ? If yes what would be the result be like? I had this talk with some senior guy from NCCBM (the Institution in India that approves quality of cement and Building material and does research on them), they kind of liked the idea but didnt explain on what would that do.
I used to work with hi performance concrete. I don't want to get into who I worked for or what I built. Let's just say it was more tightly controlled than a slab for a shed. The plant was in Florida. We had hell with sodium ion proliferation. Salts is in the air near the coast and thanks to saltwater intrusion, in the well water too unless you pull from deep in the aquifer. Even then you can still get sodium contamination. Getting to my point, if a few tricks.... Super P was always a given. The synergy that came with lignonsulfates was a huge plus as well as the delay the lignonsulfates gave us to finish the pieces a few times we had really important pieces with crazy specs from customers. We also had a nut job for a research scientist. I won't drop names. We worked great together even if he looked like Doctor Robotnik. We developed a procedure to cure under pressure. We only used distilled water on those projects.. We also tried to duplicate pressure treating. Cure in heated water under pressure until 7 days of curing, then 21 days open atmosohere. Then 7 days in a vacuum environment with moisture absorbant packs. The packs were quickly removed and vacuum was reapplied for 24 hours. The piece was then again submerged in curing fluid under pressure at 120°F for 14 days. The curing solution was little more than acrylic emulsion, and a little vinegar. I mean very little. Like 0.001% theoretically it would open pores for the acrylic to bond and be weak enough to netralize before eating through the float layer. The pieces were then wet polished and waxed like a car. We got break strengths if 16,000+ psi. We never failed a test. I also have to comment about silica fume. If durability is your goal, silica fume is your best friend. But.... nasty to work with, and I always substituted 3% flyash for workabiluty. Fiber reinforcement is also gold. Yes it was highly involved and expensive, but our pieces belong to puzzles that guard VERY valuable stuff. Mud like that doesn't work in a drum mixer. A pan mixer can work, but a volumetric auger mixer was most efficient. For really special stuff, only a pan mixer was feasible.
What do you think about people doing all this DIY stuff with Dry Pours of QuickCrete ? They put forms down. Then pour in dry quickcrete then mist the surface over and over and finally shower it over like an 8 hour period. How long do dry pour slabs last ?
How about trying to make concrete similar to roman concrete to mimic the cristallizing chemical reaction that increase hardness instead of mini fractures over time. There was recent new information about this process and I'm curious if it can be made today or if it just happened to be dumb luck.
It is important to implement a performance based specifications to achieve 100+ year durable concrete. Specifying a particular w/cm ratio may not be enough. It is more important to achieve required strength, permeability, shrinkage, creep, resistance to freezing and thawing, high modulus, and resistance to chemical, chloride and sulfate attack etc. We need to come up with better performance based specs to ensure that concrete lasts for a very long time.
Great video sir...! I think particle packing also have a role in concrete durability. If we are using particle packing ( aggregates) while design the concrete, it will reduces the porosity. Therefore, it increases the life span of concrete.
Whoa there, you're getting into the realm of high level math. The sphere packing problem is already very complex. Adding in the variability of aggregates puts it in PhD thesis territory or some kind of X prize.
PhD In Engineering. Amateur in video production. You are on UA-cam, but I feel like these videos were produced in the 90s with VHS tech. Still very informative and I guess that's the point, kinda. However better video quality tends to equal more views. You need more views. You sir are criminally undersubscribed.
Great videos many thanks for educating us.But there is always a but… I often wonder how is possible to pre-define a future duration of a product’s life cycle without being able to follow your self this life cycle (100 years) For instance I buy painted composite aluminum from a new coming company which is in the market only 10 years and they promise a life cycle of 25 years ! How is that possible ???
Dr Ley, a question please. You mention a water to cement ratio between 0.4 to 0.45... is this of the cement weight only, or the sand and cement weight combined? Thanks
does putting baking soda in the mix could help make it better insulated? co2 is great in styrofoam insulate, now if we just pour it strait in the concrete could reduce the amount of styrofoam you need to use in theory it sacrifice strength for better insulation, so if you don't plan on building a castle and you live in siberia or the mojave desert this could be a great mix to print a house
Dirk, It breaks up the flocs of cement and makes the concrete more flowable. It also makes the hydration product more uniform. Check the referenced video out for more information.
I have experience with FRC and FRG. Fiberglass reinforced concrete and fiberglass reinforced grout. We have used monomers and polymers. Fiberglass used in gfrc have a coating on it I am unfamiliar with its exact composition. Unlike fiberglass used for fiberglass matrix with styrene. I also have experience in that area as well. I read an article decades ago scientific American I love you baby styrofoam microspheres to reduce weight.
I remember my materials prof saying that the fibers often start aligning with the each other during pouring and that directionality is worse that if the fibers were truly randomly oriented, how do you get around this issue?
Hi... bro.. i m from India.....My hearty Wishes for your Passionate Work.... i m in the process of designing 6 m tall gravity reservoir... comparatively its a small reservoir... is there any possible way to obtain 200 Year+ life spam..... No problem with initial capital... 1) steel wont last that much, so can i use synthetic fiber mixture for concrete....? 2) we planed to concrete floor the reservoir to avoid leak, does the concrete floor inside the water reservoir last that much(200 Year+) ...? One Second, i m appreciating for your dedication on Engineering..
if i ever buy a house and need concrete in the yard, i know what to do. i mean i dont, but i know where the knowledge is, and then i do. this dude really loves his concrete. holy shit..
TBH if I need more concrete than I can fit in a single wheelbarrow I'm just gonna phone up one of the local concrete plants and have them bring a truck over.
Thanks Joona!
The base of Sir Smeaton’s Tower is still standing to this day off the coast of Plymouth, England despite being constantly bashed by waves from the sea. Truly a testament to his hydraulic lime formula for concrete. Extremely strong stuff. You should actually do a video talking about Smeaton’s concrete
i know Im asking randomly but does anybody know of a way to get back into an instagram account..?
I somehow lost the login password. I love any tips you can offer me
@Ari Ace instablaster :)
@Damian Karsyn I really appreciate your reply. I found the site through google and im in the hacking process now.
Takes quite some time so I will reply here later with my results.
Believe me You are a great teacher. Iam going to finish watching all your concrete videos in this lockdown
Design phase: W/C =
Hi Mr. Tyler, I have a question “How do we assess reinforced concrete durability over 100 years? Please kindly support!
Enjoy your content, I'm a contractor and one of my older friends says he adds a cup of wood ash to every 3L ratio of portland. He says this will make it more waterproof.
Thanks Neil!
I like that tip. Do you have anymore details about the wood ash?
@@TylerLey Just that he took it out of his woodstove, around here that makes it hardwood ash. He sifted it and kept it in lidded pails .
Blended Banana peels and Bean water in place of what ever water youd normaly use strengthens the bind of atoms by 75 percent
when I built my shop...and living with very poor flatwork done in my home and attached garage...I spec'd 6 inches of 4500 psi, as dry of slump as the finisher was willing to work with, poured over radiant tubes with wire re-enforcement. Once poured and finished, about four hours later I ran water through the radiant tubes to remove heat to slow the cure. Water went in around 50 degrees and came out in the 90's. The water then was sent to a sprinkler that was set on the slab. I ran the water for three days. This was summer with daytime temps in the 90's. Turned out great. only one crack in 8 years.
Wouldnt running water..I ncrease the speed it cured?
@@metalrooves3651 At Hoover Dan they ran refrigerant pipes to help cool the concrete. Too much heat can cause cracking. It was July and for three + days it was in the high 90's. If I would have poured it in cooler months I would have done something different. Keep in mind the water was sprinkled on the slab so some of the heat was put back. It was all about slowly curing and keeping the slab hydrated. They run sprinklers on bridge pours all the time around here...
Dear Sir,
I always love to watch and learn from your videos.
Using a porous aggregate that has a high amount of water retention, holding water like a sponge releasing it slowly into the concrete right in the critical curing stages that are water starved. I believe the technique is called “internal curing” having the water available at the late stages is a game changer. Look into “light weight aggregates” and “internal curing”
Thank you Tayler Lay for sharing vlogs related to Concrete (fresh state or consolidated)
Hi Dr. Ley, Galib from NC State University. Your videos helped me tremendously in understanding the concrete durability concepts. Big thanks.
Dude, I love your passion for concrete!
Cover, compaction, high MPa cementitious design and alkali reactivity mitigation. Job done.
Another absolutely fantastic video! Tyler Ley popped up a day before I had to search for anything (something in the Google water!) and BANG ON answers all the questions that I was formulating. Very well done.
Thanks. we use magnesium orthosilicate for sandblast media and have a tremendous amount of dust accumulating in our filters. CAN I use that dust to make concrete? I understand the magnesium orthosilicate is a great material, but how about after it's pulverized and mixed with things like rust and paint?
I have worked with concrete (including compressed) for over two decades. Concrete is a fantastic, useful compound. The use of silanes and siloxanes really do work. You mention it however there are some really important side issues. One is the high VOC silanes. They do work, are up to three part mixes, and are FLAMMABLE. You need to be careful of this. In addition you need protective clothing/gloves/breathing/eye gear. Do not ignore this. There also is an additional matter with a silane/siloxane coating. I have had coated concrete Walk ways mostly) that when coated well:Mitigate mild growth in areas as wet as south Florida. If a silane producer sells you a product:DO get trained on it first. Be safe and all will do well.
Did you mean 'mitigate mold growth" ???
Please make a video about why so many buildings in Turkey failed during the recent earth quake. Thanks for all your videos.
Any thoughts on specific formulas and fiber reinforcement for making barbell weight lifting plates out of concrete?
You're probably going to mention reinforcing soon too, but basalt rebar will be amazing. Silica fume, super plasticizer, basalt, proper ratios and curing and you have something incredibly tough.
I agree! I am a little concerned about the ductility of basalt rebar. I have played with some of the fibers and they are very brittle.
@@TylerLeyis ductility a concern for all applications? Perhaps it could work in applications in which ductility is not needed.
@@TylerLey Any experience with pretensioning Basalt rebar? I imagine this would mitigate some of the weaknesses of basalt.
Regular curing methods ensure that the concrete surface is well cured, but deeper inside the concrete the cement can still be starved of water, particularly in low w/c ratio mixes. To solve this problem we can introduce internal curing. This can be accomplished by replacing a portion of the aggregate with a porous material (such as expanded shale). The porous material is pre-soaked it water to fill all the voids in the aggregate with water. When the concrete is mixed, the extra water within the voids of the aggregate is trapped and does not dilute the cement paste (thus reducing its strength, as shown in the video), but once the free water in the concrete is consumed during curing, the water within the voids defuses out of the aggregate, helping to further cure the cement paste (or make those white circles in the video even larger). Internal curing can thus make concrete both stronger and more impermeable.
Thanks Dave!
I agree that internal curing is a big help in low w/cm concrete. Thanks so much for jumping in.
How about the effects of porous aggregates on strength of concrete sir.
@@rodolfollanera5936 If all your aggregate was porous you might have a problem getting a high strength concrete, but typically only a fraction of it needs to be, maybe 10-25% of the sand.
@@TylerLey Thanks for your great videos. I'm learning a lot. To be honest, I don't think I fully understood the internal curing concept (which I was introduced to at the Canadian NRC while breaking cylinders a number of years ago) until watching this video and composing my comment above. Your diagram showing how the particles hydrate and link together helped me to visualize what is really going on. Might be worth doing a video on internal curing some day.
This may be beneficial for large members like beams and walls. What about slabs? Wouldn't the porous materials give their water up during the finishing process? This may lead to excessive bleed water and hinder the finishing process.
Adding proper drainage is helpful around footings. Helps with erosion so there is less stress on the concrete.
Drainage is always a good idea!
Thank you for the videos Tyler. You didn’t mention adding loose fiber glass into the mix, perhaps this is covered in reinforcing. I’ll keep watching.
Great Video...Your videos have been instrumental in helping me understand the fundamentals of concrete. We are in the business of developing cellulose nanocrystals (CNC) as a strength enhancing concrete additive and many of your videos have become "required reading" for our team. Keep up the great work!!
Thanks Blaine!
I have heard about CNC but not ever played with it. I am excited that you are inventing a new technology for concrete.
I'm wanting to make a dome bunker this guy has great info wonder what he would use
What do you think about mixing fibre or microrebars with concrete?
The Aggregate is important, must be clean and strong, mix sizes is good. Vibrate, timely pour, slump, temperature control, lots of clean water afterward. We used to buy ours by the truck. Sometimes a pour would be 5 trucks, sometimes 10, sometimes 30. And if a truck was bad it could jeopardize the whole pour, and possibly the project. So we check each truck for slump, and time from plant. Not all provider had good quality control in plant, we used only the ones we thought were consistent, specially for critical pours.
So by the time the concrete got to us after 30 minutes of traffic, it was well mix, there was a final adjustment in water based on slump,, we mixed five minutes and then poured via pump. We then vibrated, in hole. As the hose moved around, we took temperature readings and also listened for noises in the concrete. My job was to watch and listen. And have them move the pumps to the next spot and let that spot set a bit before continuing. With large amounts of concrete it can get very hot and this can dry out concrete and prematurely cure it falsely. If this was underwater it was not a big deal, mother nature would let moisture in. But if pour was above ground managing temperature/moisture was important. On cold days, of 40F-50F we cold still do pours with additives but we watched temperature in other direction, we did not want it to get too cold.
At the end the most important part depending on situation, if cold we would put blankets over concrete to hold temperature and moisture and them plastic. Or if hot just the plastic. We would then have a guy come by at least twice a day and water the concrete to make sure it stay wet for at least 4 days.This is the most important part for making sure it sets right.
Btw, the best time to pour concrete is early morning so that it gets mid-day sun for faster initial setting, then you finish off by afternoon and then it sits through the night well curing and moist. By morning water it again. Concrete drinks alot of water. The more water you give initially the stronger it will get. The first 30 days it is gaining strength, so if you can keep wet for a month the stronger it will be.
Tyler makes great videos, my comments are meant to give some real world concrete experience that I gain from the millions of tons of concrete that I poured over the years. Some of the info may be obsolete, or wrong, but that is the way we were taught. I am not a concrete scientist, just a guys that used to swim in it for many. Yes, swim with it, when we did an underwater pour I directed the hose by swimming a few feet above the wet concrete. Crazy times.
when you are finishing semi hardened "green "concrete with a steel trowel, add a spray of water and dust it with dry pure portland cement powder.....swirl it round and round, work that pure portland paste into the pores. the poured cement going off will catalyze the fresh cement slime you are working in and make it go off pretty quick......keep it all wet as long as possible, even after its hard as hell. if you want a rough surface, use foam or wood trowel for the swirling
Short and sweet video like always Tyler
Thank you!!!
You would probably want to visit old fortresses that have been built over 100 years ago. I'm involved in the museum fortress Oscar II Fort ( o2fort.se ) here in Sweden and the cement used when it was built in 1908 is in better condition than the fast modifications added for WWII.
So good concrete construction knowledge has been around quite a while, but it has of course been refined over time.
I agree! Thanks for sharing.
Just designing my first mix for my construction materials class. Thanks for the tips!
Have fun with it!!!! What a rush!
I wish I could see your videos during my PhD. It would have helped me a lot!! Anyway I'm glad to discover your channel 😊
Sure mr phd
I'm a glassblower and former owner of a business that designed and produced custom colored borosilicate glass.
I don't want to get into it too much, but silica fume is complete magic.
Also, there's a few of us who've been trying to develop a technique to create stronger concrete by using our waste glass as a medium. Currently, there is no way to recycle borosilicate glass, and there are countless tons of waste produced yearly. We've had pretty good success so far. If we can create a small batch concrete that's strong and durable enough, we know there are a plethora of uses for it.
Can you talk about Type K cement? How about PRAHs like Techcrete 2500 and Masterlife 300D and Xypex and Hycrete Endure WP AND Hycrete Endure CP for steel corrosion protection? Can you talk about E5's Internal Curing admixture? What about particle packing? What about paste to fine aggregate bond strength? So many questions? Why are PCE Superplasticizer HRWRs better than others or are they?
Minimum service life for Category 5 Eurocode O is 100 years. Good video on how to hit that standard. No Rice Krispie syndrome here.
Never , ever, beat on the forms !
Since you asked me my idea Tyler, I would like to have the inner sections to be more strong - like even the iron H beam for load bearing pillars, surrounded by rebars, and internally along with rebars I would like to use the harder polymer fibers, and external layer with softer fibers for cracks.
Making mesh of beats foam in different directions in block forming like bone meshwork the space can be filled by cement sand fast
Excellent video on cement
Great energy and advice!!! You are a fantastic teacher!! Good positive attitude and in depth material, you sir have a virtuous and valuable character. Good work :)
Very well explaned sir...i made a mistake by adding more water to create the flow but the outcome was bad..i was wondering why cracks since i added more cement ..now i knw that water was more..
Flagler's concrete bridges in the Florida Keys are 100 years old and still strong. High cement ratio and mixed with mineral rich seawater.
The Sunshine Skyway bridge has some seawater used during mixing and it has been a constant maintenance headache.
Awesome vedio.
Could you please do a vedio on Roman concrete
Please cover mined pozzalines like BASF Metamax which is super fine milled and is better than fly ash.
Here is an older video on Roman concrete: ua-cam.com/video/PMed3YtN-Fo/v-deo.html
Thank you for the information it helps me.
Can you do a video covering Slump? Not sure if you've already done one.
Another great informative video. I have been watching the reconstruction of the Oroville Dam spillways. At some point could you explain the different mixes and methods that they used in this huge process?
Thanks Rick,
I will be talking with some of the engineers from that project next month. I will ask them about it.
I wish you would have listed metakaolin as a SCM along with silica fume, slag, and fly ash. Your videos are very informative.
Thanks Linda,
Metakaolin is a great SCM if you have it available locally. Thanks for the comment.
I cannot find any of these products locally to add to my concrete/ mortar sculpture. The more I searched, I found the possibility of Diatomaceous earth as a pozzolan? This is available locally at a reasonable price. Would this work? @@TylerLey
Thank you for all of the information but I thingThere is a problem Could be caused from over vibrating the concrete Which is Segregating The particles cement paste From the aggregates 4:29
I was thinking the same thing. Overvibration causes concrete to segregate. Heavy aggregates will move to the bottom.
WONDERFUL CHANNEL! Thank you!
Any recommendations for cleaning rust off concrete
I'm really interested in perfecting the concrete methods. There are some things that need to be cleared up, however.
When you vibrate concrete, you have to be careful that your aggregate/rocks do not settle to the bottom and that you end up with cream rising to the top that has far less aggregate and when the concrete is floated out, way too much water floats to the surface creating a really weak surface that will spall and flake immediately after curing. A slump test will demonstrate the proper mixture for each job.
Some applications like dry-pack are far preferable BECAUSE of the loose packing of the concrete and the air gaps are necessary for permeability, as the water drains through the concrete purposefully. This is suitable for shower pans (resting on pan-liner of course) and swimming pools.
The addition of fiber and admix strengthens the Hell out of concrete, but remember, both additives affect the finishing. Troweling plasticized cement is really difficult and staining the cement with an acid stain is out of the question. To finish a slab (for example) while maintaining a workable surface, you can add fiber to the bottom 3/4 and have a fiber free mix for the top 1/4 spread.
Floating/finishing has to be relatively perfectly timed, if you do it too soon, you bring too much water to the surface - literally ruining the job. If you wait too long, it becomes unworkable and you ruin the job.
The proper use of rebar supports is critical for large area strength- the problem with rebar is that it rusts. They even manufactured a green-rebar to resolve this issue, but the same problem arose with the green coating getting scratched during shipping. We coat our rebar after it has been placed and pour around the freshly coated rebar.
The rule of thumb for concrete work is "40 and rising". You don't want to do anything "concrete" if the temperature is below 40 degrees F.
When we vibrated an 800 yard pour in the mountains of colorado in the oil shale retort,we only dropped thevibrator in every 2 feet..fast in and slow out..I was told by an engineer there that we poured at a 4 inch slump to save money.he told me we could put 1/2a sack more per yard and pour at a 6 slump for the same strength ...
Can you give any help as to what you would recommend as an ideal mix / process for lightweight concrete used for hand built (not mold cast) sculpture... both indoor sculptures & outdoors?
@@cchemmes-seeseeart3948 ALL CRETE or NEW CRETE by Rapid set. If you are wanting to pack the concrete by hand, I would recommend a retarding solution to slow drying time. If you are pouring into some kind of form, just follow manufacturers instructions.
Use cold water and make sure all containers are perfectly clean. Even a little contamination can upset a mix.
@@cchemmes-seeseeart3948 If you are doing terrazzo (grinding polish) then just add decorative stones (or any grindable material) to the mix.
this comment about 3/4 had fiber?WHAT do you mean?and 1/4 had no fiber to finish it?Surely you cant mean to pour 4 inches thick then come back and pour 2 inches without fiber!....you will NEVER FIND THIS DONE ANYWHERE!nor will you find a contractor to do it!,,in all this vid,while he talks about molecular structure ,HE FAILS to say order 4000-5000 psi concrete,pour it at a dry 5 inch slump,dont over vibrate,get the rebar chaired up 1.5 inches from the bottom of the slab!......this one sentence is what this is all about!
For pumping slurry with a low variability aggregate will fly ash silica and slag also increase strength. I am speaking of use in c&c printing of concrete.
Thank you for all the wonderful video about concrete
I want to build my own concrete fence panels for a residential application. Keeping the horizontal slats 1 to 2" thick I was planning to reinforce with remesh or rebar. Then I thought about which type of concrete and which additives I'd need. I watched several of your videos and felt very inadequate. What to do?
Instead of having one just type of concrete, use a couple inches of silica fume concrete as the outer layer to reduce migration to and from the rest of the concrete in the middle.
At minute 6, 3 new products are introduced : Fly ash, Slag and Silica Fume. Which is best ? What are some of the factors in choosing one over the other ? What about Basalt fibres ? I was surprised not to find it on the list. Thanks.
Would concrete stratify (or segregate) if I vibrate it for too long? Or is that only an issue if the w/c is high?
0kay, you dangled the rest of the lists of things to make concrete last 100 years, so I'm looking forward to the videos you're going to make concerning having a plan of attack and maintaining concrete. If you've already done those videos, could you put links to them in the description box? Thanks! I so appreciate these videos that you're making. I'm learning a lot.
They are coming!
I'm curious about how this paste formulation and aggregate sizing plays with pervious/purposfully-porous concrete strength. I would assume that you still want the paste to be low water and even add some pozzolans as the paste bond strength may be even more critical than it is with a sand filled void spaces, and so there is very little microporosity even though the goal is a large amount of macro-pores.
Woops. !!!!! Just encountered your video on “fiber reinforced concrete”but have not had a chance to view it yet. With our home internment I will no doubt get to warp the all of your video work.
JoeB
Thanks for the information
Hey Tyler Excellent presentation. Let me offer a "boots on the ground " observation about concrete design specification based not only on your empirical data but also based on observations of reality. Engineering specification/tolerances are to extreme and often concrete is rejected simply because air is half a percent over or under. Also, even with water reducing agents, sump requirements do not allow workability, (keep in mind the adversity that engineers and inspectors have towards "over vibrating") There seems to an engrained fear about the fragility of concrete. It will get hard and usually only fail if there is an extreme variation from excepted practices not de mini mas deviations.
Pickleball courts are the hot topic. Is post tension concrete the only way to go?
Great job 👌 much appreciated ✌️👍
At 6:60 fly ash is 20% replacement in mass of what? Total paste? Cement? Sand? 20% of which? Can you go over how you would order concrete? And timing for the pour?
On Vibration: "Might want to keep doing it a little more for safety factor". Too much vibration will separate the aggregate from the cement. Obviously not completely but enough that the top of your slab will have too much paste (cement). Cement shrinks and so the top layer will shrink at a different rate and will cause failures such as delamination. Good video, just stating what I've learned. Exposed concrete in cold regions is typically air entrained. Vibration can remove these super small bubbles. I’m curious how you design an air entrained slab of concrete to last 100 years. Perhaps the engineering requires not using air entrainment. Not sure
Curb and gutter in street construction are poured without vibrators and a t a 2 inch slump...LOTS OF HONEYCOMB!A JUNL WAY TO DO IT!
I have seen and used PPC with higher concentration of F.A. like 35 + % and it works well in hot climate of India. The F.A keeps on reacting with water to seal the micro cracks for many days even after cement has been set.
Thanks for the information!
@@TylerLey I would like to know something here has anyone ever tried mixing both slag and Fly Ash in cement ? If yes what would be the result be like? I had this talk with some senior guy from NCCBM (the Institution in India that approves quality of cement and Building material and does research on them), they kind of liked the idea but didnt explain on what would that do.
Great video. Long life plasterer and bricklayer cement mix would be good.
I used to work with hi performance concrete. I don't want to get into who I worked for or what I built. Let's just say it was more tightly controlled than a slab for a shed.
The plant was in Florida. We had hell with sodium ion proliferation. Salts is in the air near the coast and thanks to saltwater intrusion, in the well water too unless you pull from deep in the aquifer. Even then you can still get sodium contamination.
Getting to my point, if a few tricks.... Super P was always a given. The synergy that came with lignonsulfates was a huge plus as well as the delay the lignonsulfates gave us to finish the pieces a few times we had really important pieces with crazy specs from customers. We also had a nut job for a research scientist. I won't drop names. We worked great together even if he looked like Doctor Robotnik.
We developed a procedure to cure under pressure. We only used distilled water on those projects.. We also tried to duplicate pressure treating. Cure in heated water under pressure until 7 days of curing, then 21 days open atmosohere. Then 7 days in a vacuum environment with moisture absorbant packs. The packs were quickly removed and vacuum was reapplied for 24 hours. The piece was then again submerged in curing fluid under pressure at 120°F for 14 days. The curing solution was little more than acrylic emulsion, and a little vinegar. I mean very little. Like 0.001% theoretically it would open pores for the acrylic to bond and be weak enough to netralize before eating through the float layer. The pieces were then wet polished and waxed like a car. We got break strengths if 16,000+ psi. We never failed a test.
I also have to comment about silica fume. If durability is your goal, silica fume is your best friend. But.... nasty to work with, and I always substituted 3% flyash for workabiluty. Fiber reinforcement is also gold.
Yes it was highly involved and expensive, but our pieces belong to puzzles that guard VERY valuable stuff. Mud like that doesn't work in a drum mixer. A pan mixer can work, but a volumetric auger mixer was most efficient. For really special stuff, only a pan mixer was feasible.
great video. low a/c as possible, good consolidation and curing
What do you think about people doing all this DIY stuff with Dry Pours of QuickCrete ? They put forms down. Then pour in dry quickcrete then mist the surface over and over and finally shower it over like an 8 hour period. How long do dry pour slabs last ?
Thanks dr tyler. Best summary ever !!!
Thank you, Hamza for your continues support!
Loving the channel, you are the man
How about trying to make concrete similar to roman concrete to mimic the cristallizing chemical reaction that increase hardness instead of mini fractures over time. There was recent new information about this process and I'm curious if it can be made today or if it just happened to be dumb luck.
It is important to implement a performance based specifications to achieve 100+ year durable concrete. Specifying a particular w/cm ratio may not be enough. It is more important to achieve required strength, permeability, shrinkage, creep, resistance to freezing and thawing, high modulus, and resistance to chemical, chloride and sulfate attack etc. We need to come up with better performance based specs to ensure that concrete lasts for a very long time.
how does this video translate to foundations?
Great video sir...! I think particle packing also have a role in concrete durability. If we are using particle packing ( aggregates) while design the concrete, it will reduces the porosity. Therefore, it increases the life span of concrete.
Whoa there, you're getting into the realm of high level math. The sphere packing problem is already very complex. Adding in the variability of aggregates puts it in PhD thesis territory or some kind of X prize.
Hi Tyler, How do SRAs play into all this? wouldn't surface tension reduction lead to more water permeability?
How do you fix cracks in concrete?
PhD In Engineering. Amateur in video production. You are on UA-cam, but I feel like these videos were produced in the 90s with VHS tech. Still very informative and I guess that's the point, kinda. However better video quality tends to equal more views. You need more views. You sir are criminally undersubscribed.
Very nice sir
Comment for the algo, great stuff, keep going!!
What kinda concrete do you think they used to create the megaliths at Sacsayhuamán?
What about pouring concrete underwater?
This series is a great service to me. I may never pour concrete but if I do it will be strong and durable.
Great videos many thanks for educating us.But there is always a but… I often wonder how is possible to pre-define a future duration of a product’s life cycle without being able to follow your self this life cycle (100 years) For instance I buy painted composite aluminum from a new coming company which is in the market only 10 years and they promise a life cycle of 25 years ! How is that possible ???
The Hoover dam was started in 1930. That means there is 97 year old concrete structures with rebar still standing.
I don't see the link to the products. Can u please repost.
Dr Ley, a question please. You mention a water to cement ratio between 0.4 to 0.45... is this of the cement weight only, or the sand and cement weight combined? Thanks
cement weight only
Thank you, much appreciated.
Can we also cure beams and columns?
What is your opinion on additives like Sodium metasilicate or Alginate?
does putting baking soda in the mix could help make it better insulated?
co2 is great in styrofoam insulate, now if we just pour it strait in the concrete could reduce the amount of styrofoam you need to use
in theory it sacrifice strength for better insulation, so if you don't plan on building a castle and you live in siberia or the mojave desert this could be a great mix to print a house
Very informative and helpful! Thank you very much!!!
Can over vibrating the concrete cause the aggregate to sink and the paste to rise?
Does adding a high range water reducer increase the initial cement grain spacing?
Dirk,
It breaks up the flocs of cement and makes the concrete more flowable. It also makes the hydration product more uniform. Check the referenced video out for more information.
best explanation
I have experience with FRC and FRG. Fiberglass reinforced concrete and fiberglass reinforced grout. We have used monomers and polymers. Fiberglass used in gfrc have a coating on it I am unfamiliar with its exact composition. Unlike fiberglass used for fiberglass matrix with styrene. I also have experience in that area as well. I read an article decades ago scientific American I love you baby styrofoam microspheres to reduce weight.
I remember my materials prof saying that the fibers often start aligning with the each other during pouring and that directionality is worse that if the fibers were truly randomly oriented, how do you get around this issue?
Where can I purchase these products in Florida?
Could you take us on a trip so show us some concrete failures and tell us what went wrong ?
🖒
Add oxblood...it makes the concrete more elastic.
Hi... bro.. i m from India.....My hearty Wishes for your Passionate Work.... i m in the process of designing 6 m tall gravity reservoir... comparatively its a small reservoir... is there any possible way to obtain 200 Year+ life spam..... No problem with initial capital... 1) steel wont last that much, so can i use synthetic fiber mixture for concrete....? 2) we planed to concrete floor the reservoir to avoid leak, does the concrete floor inside the water reservoir last that much(200 Year+) ...?
One Second, i m appreciating for your dedication on Engineering..
Would it be possible to make concrete laste for 1000 years? What would have to be done?
I love your videos.. 🤩