Effect of Coarse Aggregate Size and Gradation on Workability and Compressive Strength of Plain Concrete

Abstract

In this study effect of coarse aggregate size and gradation on workability and compressive strength of concrete was investigated. A mix ratio of 1:2:4 with a target strength of 20/25MPa, was adopted with a water-cement ratio of 0.6. Concrete cubes were produced with uniform coarse aggregate size of 4.75, 6.7, 9.5, 13.2 and 19mm respectively, with another set of samples produced with all the coarse aggregate sizes. Slump tests were carried out for all mixes and all sets of samples were tested for compressive strength after, 7, 14 and 28 days of curing. It was observed that workability was similar for all mixes with no well-defined pattern of relationship with size of coarse aggregate used. Compressive strength was observed to increase with increase in coarse aggregate size. Authors attributed this to the less quantity of water absorbed by larger size coarse aggregate during mixing which results in lesser quantity of capillary pores after curing. Maximum compressive strength was recorded for samples with 9.5mm coarse aggregate size. These show that quality concrete can still be produced with single-sized coarse aggregate as long as the optimum size can be determined for the particular mix.