MODELING AND OPTIMIZATION OF CONCRETE MIX PROPORTIONS FOR ENHANCED SLUMP AND COMPRESSIVE STRENGTH
Traditionally, concrete mixture proportioning (mix design), usually based on a trial-and-error process, cannot objectively determine the best component mix to meet multiple performance criteria simultaneously. Furthermore, the method of trial mixes does not provide a means to obtain prediction equations for the various performance criteria which can be subsequently used to obtain optimal combinations of the concrete constituent mix proportion. A statistical constituent mix design approach provides a useful and cost-effective means of concrete performance optimization. In this work, using four mixture components, namely coarse and fine aggregates, cement and water, the slump and compressive strength of mix proportions were optimized by employing a statistical mixture approach based on IV-optimal and ANOVA design. The key performance criterion used was compressive strength: compressive strength of range 20 – 30N/mm2. Test results from 20 experimental runs were investigated to develop models. The results from verification tests confirmed the expected predictions by the fitted models.
Keywords: Modeling, Optimization, Concrete Mix Proportions, slump, compressive strength