Osama K Adwan | Quality Control of Concrete in the Southern Region of Kingdom of Saudi Arabia Using Local Materials
Research Article
A common concern amongst civil engineers is producing a good quality concrete on-site. This paper reports results of a study carried out to examine the quality of normal strength concrete production in the southern region of Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) made from local coarse aggregate namely Basalt. As all data were analyzed and examined statistically using Chebyshev’s theorem and the Statistical Empirical Rule (SER) method presented herein. It is concluded that, the normal distribution of all test results -in terms of the quality of concrete mix- was strongly agree with Chebyshev’s theorem and ACI 318-14 section 5.6.3. In addition, these results were considerably better than the Statistical Empirical Rule (SER) method. Overall, these concrete mixes, in this investigation, with 28 days compressive strength of 35 MPa can be used confidently in concrete structure applications.
Osama K Adwan articles from Iris Publishers
Quality of concrete can be defined is to ensure to make concrete fit–for the purpose of any civil engineering projects. In addition, to get the best quality of concrete mix on-site, engineers and contractors need to take onto consideration many factors when designing and ordering such mixes [1-4]. Apart from ordering concrete mixes which entirely based on parameters such as slump and strength, civil engineers can make use of their knowledge to give greater value for money. In construction industry concrete is the most demandable material which can be acquired from combination of binding material, fine and coarse aggregate, water, and may be chemical admixtures [5-6]. It is considered one of the cheapest and most readily material which can be formed easily when it is fresh. Moreover, concrete like most other building materials, have certain amount of variability both in materials and in constructional methods [6-10]. Consequently, this results in variation of compressive strength from concrete mix to another. It becomes very difficult task to assess the compressive strength of the final product. In addition, the basis of acceptance of a sample is that a reasonable control of concrete work can be provided, by ensuring that the probability of test results falling below the design strength is not more than a specified tolerance level [10]. Hence, the aim of quality control is to limit the variability as much as practicable. Also, Statistical quality control methods provide a scientific approach to the designer to understand the realistic variability of the materials so as lay down design specifications with proper tolerance to cater for un-avoidable variations. The acceptance criteria are based on statistical evaluation of all test results of samples taken at random during testing. Thus, by devising a proper sampling technique it is possible to ensure a certain quality at a specified risk [8-12]. Overall, this investigation carried out mainly to examine and evaluate the quality of normal strength concrete production in the southern region (Al-Baha) of KSA using statistical analysis techniques.
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