From the material producer and mixer truck to the job site and finished structure, it’s critical to handle large batches of concrete with care. In this blog, we cover 3 ways construction materials testing software can help with concrete placement management.
Concrete placement is defined by the American Concrete Institute (ACI) as “the deposition, distribution, and consolidation of freshly mixed concrete in the place where it is to harden.”
Like all materials used in a construction project, concrete pours need to be tested before, during and after placement – and prepared for and managed following the proper methods.
To do this, field technicians have to take samples and cast cylinders from the placement. For example, if you have 50 trucks pouring concrete in a line for a large placement, you might take a sample from every 10th truck, and cast specimens from each sample for lab testing.
The overall goal of this testing? To help project owners and contractors ensure that the concrete delivered from the mixing truck is what was ordered – and that the final infrastructure is safe.
Concrete placement management is a big part of this. In order to validate concrete strength and overall quality of the project, you need to be able to see the big picture of the project site and relate every individual sample and specimen test to the placement it came from.
In typical construction workflows, this requires a tedious manual lift of compiling and analyzing every single sample report. CMT software makes this easier in three ways.
3 Ways CMT Software Can Help You with Concrete Placement Management
#1. Eliminate manual report compilation workflows
When using a field application powered by CMT software, technicians can pre-define the placement before the trucks actually show up on the job site. That way, when you capture sample data from the placement upon its arrival, you can immediately relate those samples to that placement.
This has two upfront advantages:
- You only have to enter placement data once.
- You can review a single placement report instead of separate sample reports.
This eliminates the need for engineers to manually compile sample reports. Instead, you can automatically view and analyze all samples from one placement in a single report for a snapshot of overall project quality. This leads us to the next two benefits.
#2. Predict material performance in project over time
An individual sample tells you that the given truck is bringing appropriate concrete for a project placement. In other words, a sample represents a spot check. Meanwhile, a placement report represents the quality of concrete from the entire batch.
With a single report from CMT software, it’s much easier to analyze quality and durability of the placement over time.
#3. Meet ACI requirements for analyzing batch performance
ACI has requirements around the performance of concrete over time. By ACI, the average strength of the 28-day cylinders from a sample are considered a single test. But you also need to look at more than just the sample level – the performance of the infrastructure as a whole.
With a single automatic report, CMT software helps you verify ACI compliance by evaluating the performance of concrete at the batch level, instead of just the individual sample level. This also helps you anticipate deficiencies prior to non-compliance to avoid costly remediation.
Conclusion
Concrete placement – and testing the quality and safety of that concrete – is a critical step for any construction project. The data capture, analysis and reporting process around it are just as important to prove that the concrete meets strength specifications and will survive over time.
CMT software makes this job easier – ensuring that you get the outcome you expect with your concrete placement.
Efficiently review multiple plastic properties and strength tests for large placements with a single placement report, with ForneyTools – essential CMT software powered by ForneyVault. See how it works.