MASS CONCRETING

A CASE STUDY FROM CHAMELIYA HYDROPOWER PROJECT

Surya Prasad Paudel

Deputy Manager, NEA

1. INTRODUCTION

Mass concrete is defined by American Concrete Institute Committee 207 as "any volume
of concrete with dimensions large enough to require that measures be taken to cope
with the generation of heat from hydration of cement and attendant volume change to
minimize cracking. Main important factor for mass concreting is cracking of concrete due
to heat of hydration as temperature varies inside and outside the concrete body. Main
factors influencing the temperature variation in mass concreting are: size of structure,
ambient temperature, and initial temperature at time of placement of concrete, curing,
cement type and cement content of mix. Specially, characteristic of mass concrete that
distinguishes it from other concrete is thermal behavior and not 28 days strength as
design requirement. Design of mass concrete is generally based on durability, economy
and thermal action rather than strength being primary concern. Design strength of mass
concrete is taken for 90 days or 120 days rather than 28 days for structural concrete.

Historically, in Britain, mass concrete designated early concrete with no reinforcement

cast in situ using shuttering. It was used mainly between 1850 and 1900 on a variety of
buildings, mainly as a walling material or where mass was required for gravity such as in
dams, reservoirs, retaining walls and maritime structures. In those days, the term was
not officially defined and did not contain any connotation to large dimensions generating
heat from hydration of cement, as these occurrences were not yet understood. Mass
concreting practice has been developed largely from concrete dam construction.

The body temperature of concrete rise due to head of hydration but outer surface of
concrete may be cooling and contracting due to ambient temperature. If these two
temperatures differ too much, than concrete may crack. The main important
consideration of mass concreting is to prevent it from cracking. Cracking in mass
concrete may cause a loss of structural integrity, monolithic action, excessive seepage
and shortening of service life of structure or be aesthetically objectionable. The heat
generated as cement hydrates requires careful temperature control during placement
and several days after placement. The control measures include pre-cooling and post
cooling technique to control the peak temperature and control the temperature drop.
Other way of control the peak temperatures is by adding pozzolans in concrete to reduce
the cement content, control lift height and concreting sequence in lifts. If cracking
occurs, epoxy grouting or normal cement grouting is done to seal the crack.

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 In Chameliya Hydropower Project, mass concreting has been done for 54 m high dam,
powerhouse mat foundation and stilling basin foundation. The maximum depth of
concreting for single lift was 2 m and width was upto 28 m. Pozzolan was used to reduce
the quantity of cement to control the peak temperature rise. Pre cooling was not done
but Post cooling was adopted in mass concrete for plugging of adits and headrace
tunnel. This paper intends to provide the general case study of mass concreting in dam
and stilling basin of Chameliya HEP.

2. SITE CONDITION AND TYPE OF MATERIAL USED

Chameliya HEP Site lies in Darchula District, Saile Shikhar Municipality (Present Name)
in Chameliya River between Elevation 900 m to 800 m from Mean Sea Level. Average
Maximum and minimum temperature at site are 400c and -20c respectively. The
maximum and minimum relative humidity at site is 89% and 41% respectively. The
cement used for mass concreting is Ordinary Portland Cement (OPC) with pozzolan and
aggregates are alluvial material at powerhouse and tailrace site which has been
processed. The maximum size of aggregate was 80 mm. Grade of concrete for lean
concrete has been chosen as M15 and that for structural concrete M25 as per Indian
Standard for water retaining structures and specification. Rebar has not been used for
lean concrete; however rebar has been used for structural concrete. Concrete has been
produced at batching plant near headwork for concreting at dam, transported to site by
dump trucks and placed at site by tower crane, excavator and through chutes. The
section of dam for overflow and Non overflow are shown in Fig. 3

3. PROPORTIONING OF MASS CONCRETING

Ingredient of mass concrete is OPC cement, coarse aggregate, fine aggregate,

pazzolan, water and admixtures. The grades of concrete are M15 and M25 as per
specification for lean and structural concrete respectively. Maximum size of aggregate is
80 mm. The maximum and minimum cement content ranges have been specified in
specification for different grade of concrete. The maximum size of aggregate has been
designed as per related ACI manual and IS codes because specification does not
contain such details for aggregate. The percentage of pozzolan is 30 % by weight of
cement. The typical proportioning of M15/80 mass concreting is shown in table 1.

Table 1: Mix Design of M15/80

Cement
Grade of Slump W/C Flyash Sand Aggregate Admixture
Qty.
Concrete (mm) ratio (kg) (kg) (kg) (kg)
(kg)
M15/80 10 to 50 0.49 172.5 57.5 691.1 1451.92 0.115

4. CONTROL OF HEAT OF HYDRATION

There are basically four method of control of heat of hydration in practice, any or all of
which may be used for particular mass concrete Projects:

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 1. Cementatious material content control
2. Pre-cooling
3. Post Cooling
4. Construction Management.

In Chameliya HEP, out of four method of control of heat of hydration, Method No. 1 and
4 were applied for dam and stilling basin mass concrete. Method No. 3 was applied in
mass concreting for plugging work for Work Adit 1,2 and 3 and headrace tunnel. OPC
cement was used along with the pozzolans, the percentage of Pozzolans was upto 30%
by weight of cement, and admixture was used 0.05% of cement. Other measures
applied to control head of hydration including:

 Lift height is limited to maximum upto 2m.

 Concrete was placed in sequence as shown in Fig. 1.
 Careful selection of aggregate grading and use of large size aggregate (80 mm) in
efficient with low cement content
 Use of admixture to make better concrete in fresh and hardened stage
 Use of appropriate block dimension for placement (whole dam has been divided into
8 construction block, maximum length of block was 16 m and minimum length of
block was 7 m. as shown in Fig. 2.
 Placing frequencies and lift height were adjusted time to time to suit the site condition
and environment.
 The evaporating cooling of surface through water curing
 Concreting was done at night during summer season.

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 Fig. 1: Sequence of Concreting within a lift

Fig. 2: Size of Construction block

Fig. 3: Section of Over flow and Non Overflow of Dam.

5. INSTRUMENTATION
Instruments have been installed in dam body both in overflow and non over flow section
to monitor the stress, strain, and temperature, movement of joints and seismic behavior
of dam. The readings from respective equipments have been continuously observing by
Contractor and Engineer to study the behavior of concrete dam. Temperature of mass

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 concrete at time of placement to cool it to normal temperature has been recorded and
stress and strain developed due to heat of hydration has also been taken. The typical
instrumentation plan for Chameliya HEP dam is shown in fig. 4.

ELEVATION AS PER THE 3rd LIFT

SEE DETAILA

? ? ? ? ? ? 1500mm?

Fig. 4: Typical Instrumentation Plan

6. RESULT AND CONCLUSION

Mass concrete was started for dam on April 10, 2010 and completed with delay due to
several reasons on April 2013. Minor cracks have been observed in lean concrete

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 portion of dam. The formation of cracks has been control by limiting the lift height and
replacing the cement by pazzolans. The minor cracks have been grouted by Epoxy to
make section water tight. Analysis of the crack formation in lean concrete is beyond the
scope of this article. After 72 hours of last concreting, concreting for new lift is executed.
Curing was done by river water for seven days.

Mass concreting in Chameliya Dam is not a big quantity compare to big dam around
world. Total quantity of concrete in dam, stilling basin and intake was about 80,000 m3.
Peak production of concrete per hour was 35~40 m3 . Proper site management, supply
of materials like cement, aggregate, proper arrangement of manpower and equipments
are the key point of mass concreting.

References:

1. ACI 207.1R.05 GUIDE TO MASS CONCRETE

2. SPECIFICATIONS, CHAMELIYA HEP

3. US ARMY CORP OF ENGINEER, MASS CONCRETE APPLICATION

4. IS 14591:1999, TEMPERATURE CONTROL OF MASS CONCRETE IN DAM