1.

COMPRESSIVE STRENGTH

The compressive strength of any material is defined as the resistance to

failure under the action of compressive forces. Especially for concrete,
compressive strength is an important parameter to determine the
performance of the material during service conditions. Concrete mix can be
designed or proportioned to obtain the required engineering and durability
properties as required by the design engineer. Some of the other engineering
properties of hardened concrete include Elastic Modulus, Tensile Strength,
Creep coefficients, density, coefficient of thermal expansion etc.

The compressive strength of concrete is determined in batching plant

laboratories for every batch in order to maintain the desired quality of
concrete during casting. The strength of concrete is required to calculate the
strength of the members. Concrete specimens are a cast and tested under the
action of compressive loads to determine the strength of concrete. In very
simple words, compressive strength is calculated by dividing the failure load
with the area of application of load, usually after 28 days of curing. The
strength of concrete is controlled by the proportioning of cement, coarse and
fine aggregates, water, and various admixtures. The ratio of the water to
cement is the chief factor for determining concrete strength. The lower the
water-cement ratio, the higher is the compressive strength.
Why compressive strength of concrete cube is more than that
of cylinder?

Reasons for concrete cube to have greater compressive strength as

compared to cylinder is

Contact area of a standard cube mould with the upper platen

in the testing machine is more which results in more
confinement.
more confinement resist against specimen expansion resulting
in more compressive strength (2)

Figure 1
 The main difference between cylinder and cube specimens is that the
cylinder specimens need capping before loading because the top
surface of the cylinder finished by the trowel causes no plane for
testing. Two methods are used to obtain the plane surface of the
cylinder. (i) Capping method: sulphur mortar, high strength gypsum
plaster and cement paste in order to have plain loading surfaces, the
thickness of the capping should be 1.53 mm and have the same
strength of the concrete. (ii) Grinding method: is satisfactory but
expensive (3) . Cubes do not require capping as they are turned over
on their sides, when being loaded. The height/diameter ratio equal to
2, the compressive strength of cylinder specimens with varying
diameter, the larger the diameter, the lower will be the strength (4).

The cylinders are cast and tested in the same position, but the cubes
are cast in one direction and tested at right angles to the position cast
and thus no need of capping or grinding.
The comparison between the compressive strength of cube and
compressive strength of cylinder, a factor of 0.8 to the cube strength is
often applied for normal strength concrete (3).

Figure 2 shows the influence of the aspect ratio of the compressive stress
assuming that the value of the slope, was approximately selected as 45
since the confinement effects of frictional force would be negligible if the
aspect ratio h/d becomes very large. Therefore, a cylinder with an aspect
ratio h/d = 1 will be able to resist higher loads than a cylinder with an aspect
ratio of 2 (3)(4).
 Figure 2

The usual fracture of cylinder specimens is cone and there are other types of
concrete cylinders specimens fracture as shown in Figure 3(a) (5).

Figure 3 (b) shows the typical failure modes of test cubes (1)
2. FAILURE MECHANISM OF CONCRETE

According to Griffith's theory, cracks, flaws, voids and defects exist within a
brittle material. These may be present in the material before any load is
applied or may be initiates fracture as a result of high stress concentrations
induced at or near the crack when the material is loaded (1)(2). He
concluded that the strength of any ideal material (without formed as a result
of its application. Griffiths theory states that the presence of such cracks
flaws or defects) is very much larger than the strength of the same material
with flaws and defects. The failure, generally, begins in the location of the
critical flaws and defects (the larger and normal on stress direction),
consequently the flaws or voids grow and the gross-area of the material
decreases resulting in the increase in the applied stress, leading finally to
failure. Since the number of critical flaws or defects increases as specimen
size increases, the probability of large specimens failure becomes larger
than the probability of small specimens failure, which is inverted in the same
manner in the compressive strength (1).

CONCLUSIONS

1) The effect of specimen shape was decrease when the compressive

strength increasing.

2) The compressive strength of cylinder or cube with dimensions smaller

than standard is higher strength of the larger specimen.

3) The increase in size of highly stressed region results in a decrease of

structural strength with size.
4) The Compressive strength of a cube is about 20% higher than a cylinder
made of the same concrete mix.

3.MODULUS OF ELASTICITY
The value of the modulus of elasticity, E-value, chosen in design is
fundamental to all analysis with regard to stiffness of members. For
example, it is used in the calculation of:

deflection
moment analysis
requirements for prestressed elements
column shortening under load
Stresses due to restrained movements.

There are two types of elastic modulus. The static modulus is measured by
plotting the deformation of a cylinder under an applied load, usually 30
40% of the ultimate load. The dynamic modulus is determined by resonance
methods or by the measurement of ultrasonic pulse velocity (UPV). The two
test procedures do not give the same measured value of the modulus. Static
modulus is the value usually quoted by concrete producers. The E-value is
the ratio between stress (load/area) and strain (deformation, or change of
length/length). As concrete is not a truly elastic material, the relationship
between stress and strain is not constant. Three E-value conventions are
used:

the secant modulus

 the tangent modulus
the initial tangent modulus (see Figure 4 below).

The correlation between the design of concrete structures and the

modulus of elasticity of concrete

The elastic modulus of concrete is of great interest for design of new

structures and condition assessment of existing structures. In structure
design, there are requirements for serviceability of concrete structures such
as maximum permissible deflections (6)(7). It is a fundamental parameter for
calculating the static and dynamic behavior of structural elements (e.g.,
deflection, side sway of tall buildings, and vibration of concrete elements).
Furthermore, it is a good indicator of degree of concrete deterioration: more
degradation results in lower. Therefore, it is popularly used for condition
assessment of concrete structures such as building components, pavements,
and bridge decks (8).
Elastic modulus of concrete is directly measured by the static uniaxial
compressive test in accordance with ASTM C469 (9), which is called static
elastic modulus. In practice, it is generally determined from compressive
strength based on design codes rather than on the direct measurement.
REFERENCES:-

1. Mindess, S., and Young, J. F., Concrete, Prented-Hall International,

London,1981, pp. 353-371.

2. Neville, A. M., Properties of Concrete, Fourth and Final Edition, Wiley,

New York and Longmont, London, 2000, 844 pp.

3. Al-Sahawneh, E.I., 2013. Size effect and strength correction factors for
normal weight concrete specimens under uniaxial compression stress.
Contemp. Eng. Sci. 6 (2), 5768.

4. Kim, Jin.-keum., Seong-Tae, Y., 2002. Application of size effect to

compressive strength of concrete members. India 27 (4), 467484.

5. ASTM C 39, 2003. Standard Test Method for Compressive Strength of

Cylindrical Concrete Specimens. Annual Book of ASTM Standards, vol.
04.02.

6.ACI Committee 318, Building Code Requirements for Structural Concrete

(ACI 318-11) and Commentary, American Concrete Institute, Farmington
Hills, Mich, USA, 2014.

7.IBC Council, International Building Code (IBC 2012), 2014.

8.N. Gucunski, A. Imani, F. Romero et al., Nondestructive testig to identify

concrete bridge deck deterioration, SHRP 2 Report S2-R06A-RR-1, 2013.
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9.ACI Committee 469, Standard Test Method for Static Modulus of
Elasticity and Poisson's Ratio of Concrete in Compression, American
Concrete Institute, Farmington Hills, Mich, USA, 2014.