Plum concrete

2022-02-15T07:27:25Z

Roshini: Created page with "Civil design consultants use plum concrete to optimise the project costs in industrial projects. What is Plum Concrete, and where is it used? Concrete, where medium and large-s..."

Civil design consultants use plum concrete to optimise the project costs in industrial projects.

What is Plum Concrete, and where is it used?

Concrete, where medium and large-sized stones are used, is called plum concrete. Plum concrete is also called cyclopean or rubble concrete. The stone aggregates (plum) can be 150mm or 200 mm, or 300 mm or larger. The decision on the plum size is based on the application, availability and engineering decision.

Civil consultants recommend plum concrete for structures like gravity dams. barriers, bridges, mass concrete for machine foundations, retaining walls etc. The size of the plum should be 150 mm.

Uses of plum concrete are:

# Suitable for mass concreting where PCC thickness is high due to strata.
# Plum concrete is applied under footings where the ground slope is 1: 10 to 1: 50.
# Plum concrete is used to construct gravity dams, retaining walls, steep road slopes, bridge and culvert barriers.
# It is also used for road embankments, surface bed for water channels, machine foundations.
# For filling deep or uneven sites

== Properties of plum ==

The plum should be of trap, basalt or any other locally available stone. The stone should have a 100 Kg/Sq mm minimum crushing strength. The stone should be hard, strong, angular shaped, durable, with no seams, cracks or other structural defects.

The plum should be clean, and there should not be any dirt, soil, organic or harmful materials. Plum batching should be done after careful inspection of the materials.

How is Plum Concrete different from PCC?

An economic mass concreting solution is plum concrete. The main difference between plum concrete and PCC is that the filler materials used are large boulders. Thus plum concrete helps bring down the cost by up to 30%.

Plum to Concrete Ratio?

Engineering specifications based on the application helps in deciding the volume of plums in concrete. However, when the plum is 150 mm, the plum volume should be between 30% to 50% of finished concrete.

And when the plums are above 160mm, plums volume of plums shall be capped at 20% of the volume of finished concrete.

Plum Concrete Preparation

The plum is added directly into the mixer or by spreading the plums over concrete and then putting another layer of concrete. When using the former method, the size of the plum shall not be more than 1/3rd of the cross-section of the concrete mixer.

The specification for ingredients, mixing, placing, and testing shall be as per IS456. Usually, M 10 or M15 concrete is used.

Shuttering & Centering for Plum Concrete

Shuttering should be strong enough to avoid damage while placing stones and concrete.

How to prepare for plum concrete

# Clean the surface,
# Remove soft soil, dirt and all loose items. These may affect soil bearing capacity.
# Keep the surface moist by sprinkling water till plum concrete is placed. This moisture is to ensure proper bonding
# Anti-termite treatment, if needed, can be sprayed.

Procedure for curing

A seven-day curing process is recommended

To conclude, plum concrete can be utilised by civil consultants fr optimising the projects depending on the site conditions and project requirements.

User:Roshini

2022-02-15T03:55:59Z

Roshini:

Any industrial project has multiple disciplines. It makes it challenging to create a project merging all these disciplines seamlessly. Architects and Engineers play an essential role in any industrial project. They play an active role, from collecting the inputs for the project to closeout. 
Architects and engineers sit with the client and take the inputs for the project. They prepare a document for the project over multiple meetings. The document contains the project goals, timelines and other significant constraints. These sessions are very productive and result in lesser changes after the planning is over. The architects document the data and sign-off before the designing stage starts. This document usually forms the starting point for the project and a reference point during the designing stage. 
Typically along with this project document, many conceptual plans are discussed. The entire project team looks for bottlenecks and space optimisation methods. At the end of this phase one or two, conceptual plans are finalised. A budget is then presented to the project team based on the finalised plan. The entire project team signs off on the document, the conceptual plan and the budget. 
 
The project team sits together with the consultant's team at the start of the project to have a seamless integration between disciplines. This integration also ensures minimal iterations at the implementation stage. Architects and engineers play a crucial role in achieving this integration. 
 
The architect's team ensures that the regulatory compliances are in line. They also prepare the drawings needed for statutory approvals. Architects and engineers then start detailing the project. During this stage, they prepare the tender drawings, the specifications and Bill of Quantities, Request for Quote/Proposal. Once the vendor is finalised, they issue the good for construction drawings. 
 
During construction, the architects and engineers respond to any RFI (Request for Information) raised by the vendors. Another significant responsibility of the architect's team is to prepare the "As-Built Drawings" after completing the project. 
To conclude, the architect's role does not end at the designing stage. They have to be there till the closeout of the project.

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Plum concrete

User:Roshini