Evaluation of isotropy in wet-mix sprayed concrete

Abstract

It is well known that there are differences between the fresh mix concrete and the placed concrete sprayed using dry or wet-mix process. Because of that, the characterization of such material is carried out in cores extracted parallel to the spray direction from sample panels. However, in many applications (e.g. tunnel lining), considerable compressive stresses appear along the transversal direction. In this paper different spayed concretes are evaluated. It was observed that the values of compressive strength and modulus of elasticity were different depending on the direction of measurement. These differences are related to a preferential orientation of the coarse aggregate due to the characteristics of the casting process. Rather than applying classic empirical methods, the concrete mixes used in this study were designed according to a new proportioning method based on the difference between the composition of the fresh mix concrete and the placed concrete.

Keywords

• sprayed concrete
• wet-mix
• compressive strength
• module of elasticity
• isotropy