Guide for Selecting Proportions for High-Strength Concrete Using Portland Cement and Other Cementitious Materials

Description

ACI 211.1 describes methods for selecting proportions for normal-strength concrete in the range of 2000 to 6000 psi. This guide supplements ACI 211.1 by presenting several methods for selecting mixture proportions for high-strength concrete and for optimizing these proportions on the basis of trial batches. Usually, for high-strength concrete mixtures specially selected cementitious materials and chemical admixtures are used, and achieving a low water-cementitious material ratio (w/cm) is considered essential. Many trial mixtures are often required to generate the data necessary to identify optimum mixture proportions.

Discussion in this guide is limited to high-strength concrete produced using conventional materials and production methods. While high-strength concrete is defined in ACI 363.2R as concrete that has a specified compressive strength fc′ of8000 psi or greater, this guide provides methods for selecting mixture proportions for fc′ greater than 6000 psi. The following recommendations are based on accepted ACI 211.1 methods, current practice, and information from contractors, concrete suppliers, and engineers who have been involved in projects dealing with high-strength concrete. The reader may refer to ACI 363R for a more complete list of publications and references available on this topic.