What is Green Building Centre?

In this, we provide information about how ACC’s Green Building Centre works and how you can start your business. We are associate with ACC as machine providers.

The main purpose of ACC’s Green Building Centre is to provide sustainability. According to ACC’s sustainable development 2030 plan, focus on Climate, Circular Economy, Water & Nature, and People & Communities. And for this ACC has developed a model for rural and semi-urban for promoting sustainable construction via a business model that provides affordable and green building materials.
This Green Building Centre, a unique initiative that is supported by ACC, and it provide the best opportunity for rural entrepreneurship and independence. ACC’s Green Building Centre is a sustainable business model that provides a durable and affordable housing solution for rural customers and with that, they can live better.

About the Green Building Centre

This green building center is three in one model to deliver social, environmental and financial performance. This center becomes a one-stop-shop for eco-friendly and high-quality building materials and services and also you can make a partnership with local entrepreneurs. All these available under one roof and operated by ACC’s associates with a franchise-based model. ACC supervises this in layout, safety measures, machine capacity, and design, quality control labs and more.

Products

There are a wide range of products are made with like

• Wall solutions like Fly Ash Bricks, Coloured Bricks, Cellular Light Weight Concrete (CLC) Bricks, Hollow Blocks, Solid Blocks, Pre Cast Walls
• Pavement solutions like Paver Blocks, Chequered Tiles, Kerb Stones, Garden Bench, Cover Blocks
• Concrete Door & Window Frames
• Roofing Solutions

Advantages

With this green building project, all solutions come under one roof and all components are affordable, eco-friendly housing and sanitation for rural and semi-urban India. This provides all manufacturing materials and products and provides services at a single location and this increases customer experience.
This encourages the entrepreneurship of people, creates employment, training and skill development for masons and labors in a rural area. Also, this promotes water harvesting and preservation. There is energy generation while manufacturing eco-friendly cement bricks, blocks, roofing solutions, and aggregates. With this project there are thirty livelihoods are created directly and 120 livelihoods created indirectly.
The goal of this project is to build 1 million affordable houses and toilets in rural India in the next 10 years.
We have successfully installed many machines within this project. We support green building and to work on this more effectively we have a wide range of machines for making various cement products like cement blocks, bricks, hollow and solid blocks, concrete pavers, Kurb stones, CLC blocks, etc.

What is Cellular Concrete?

The cellular cement is a specially engineered concrete manufactured by mixing the Portland cement, sand, fly ash, water, and pre-formed foam in various proportions to form a hardened material having an oven-dry density of 50 pounds per cubic foot (PCF) or less.

As per the definition by ACI, the density of cellular concrete must be lesser than 50 pounds per cubic foot. The cellular concrete has a density of 20 PCF to 120 PCF.

The important characteristic of cellular concrete is its self-compacting property where no compaction is required the concrete flows from the pump to fill the mold. With this property, it can be pumped for long-distance and height.

The specially engineered concrete is also known as foam cement, foamed concrete or lightweight flow-able fill.

Which types of material used in Cellular Concrete?

Cement

The cellular lightweight concrete is a homogeneous combination of Portland cement, cement-silica, cement-pozzolana, lime-pozzolana; lime-silica pastes with having of identical cell structure obtained from gas-forming chemicals or foaming agents at measured levels.

Fly Ash

Fly ash is a by-product of thermal powerplant and its disposal be very expensive. The fly ash is used in the manufacturing of light-weight concrete. fly ash is a key ingredient and at the same time, the disposal problem is also solved.

Foam

In the raw material the foam is used and in the making of cellular concrete is Genfil and its organic substance. The size of the bubbles has differed from o.1 to 1.5 mm in diameter. The foam generator is used to make stable foam using an appropriate agent.

Reference codes of Cellular Concrete

ASTM C 869 – standard specification for Foaming Agents Used in Making Preformed Foam for Cellular Concrete.

The ASTM C 796 – standard test method for foaming agents for use in producing cellular concrete using preformed foam.

ASTM C 495 – standard test method for compressive strength of lightweight insulating concrete.

Types of Cellular Concrete (Density vise)

The cellular concrete is divided into 3 types based on density.

High-Density Cellular Concrete

This is a structural grade concrete having a density of 1200 k/m ³ to 1800 kg/m ³ and it is used in the construction of load-bearing walls, partition walls and in the production of pre-cast blocks for load-bearing brickwork.

Medium Density Cellular Concrete

The density range is 800-1000 kg/m ³ . It is mainly used in the manufacturing of pre-cast blocks for non-load-bearing brickwork.

Light Density Cellular Concrete

Light density cellular concrete has a density range of 4—600 kg/m ³ . The LDCC is ideal for thermal and sound insulations. It is mostly fired resistance, termite and moisture absorbent. It is also used instead of glass wool, wool wool, and thermocol.

Advantage of Cellular Concrete

Lightweight

Having the lightweight is advantageous for building dead loads and craning works.

Fire Resistance

The air pocket in the concrete works as a barrier for fire. The structure made with cellular concrete is non-combustible and can endure fire breakout for hours.

Thermal Insulation

Cellular concrete is a perfect thermal insulator.

Acoustical Insulation

The low density increases acoustical insulation.

Environment-Friendly

Fly-ash based CLC is suitable to use as the fly-ash is the by-product of the thermal power plant.

Cost-Efficient

The cost of the raw material is used in the concrete is decreased as the foam is used in the concrete. The use of waste of thermal plant-like fly ash saves money invested for cement products.

Other Advantage

The cellular light-weight concrete is termite-proof and resistant to freezing issues.

Where are the Cellular Concrete is used?

• The cellular lightweight concrete is used as thermal insulation in the form of bricks and blocks over flat roofs or non-loading walls.
• Bulk filling by applying relatively low strength material for old sewer pipes, wells, unused cellars and basements, storage tanks, tunnels, and subways.
• Production for heat-insulated light wall panel.
• Maintain an Acoustical balance of concrete.
• Manufacture cement and plaster-based light plate.
• For the production of special light heat-resistant ceramic tiles.
• For the soil water drainage purposes.
• Used in the bridge to prevent freezing.
• Used in tunnels and shaft filling and lightweight concrete manufacturing.
• Production in Perlite plaster and Perlite lightweight concrete.

Normal Concrete vs High-Strength Concrete Properties and Differences

Concrete is used as construction material and it is categorized as normal concrete or high strength concrete based on its compressive strength. The compressive strength of normal concrete is between 20 and 40 MPa. The strength of high strength concrete is above 40 MPa.

The high strength concrete has compressive strength between 40 and 140 MPa which is discussed in this article.

As time goes the difference between normal and high strength concrete also changes. 100 years ago the concrete having a compressive strength of 28 MPa was considered as high strength concrete. Now the concrete can get strength greater than 800 MPa and is called reactive powder concrete.

When we talk about the application the normal strength concrete is widely used compared to high strength concrete. The main benefit of high strength concrete is for reducing weight, creep or the permeability issues, for improving the durability of the structure and for special architectural requirements were elements carry smaller loads.

What are the properties of Normal and High Strength Concrete?

Whether it is normal or high strength concrete, it should be mixed having the nature of plastic or semi-fluid that it can mold by hand or by using mechanically.

It is very important that the mixture does not go through bleeding or segregation in handling or transportation. The uniform distribution of aggregates helps the concrete to control the segregation.

Workability factors of Normal and High strength Concrete

The workability factor is the ease where the concrete is placed, compact and finished in its fresh state.

The normal strength concrete possesses having good workability that all concrete ingredients are in proper and accurate proportions. These aggregates must be of a proper gradation.

The high strength concrete mix is often sticky and also found difficult to be handled and placed. This is even if the plasticizes are used. It is due to high cement content in it.

Bleeding Factors for Normal and High Strength Concrete

The bleeding is the settlement of solid particles of cement and the aggregate in the fresh concrete mix which results in the development of a layer of water on the top of the concrete surface. The smaller bleeding does not make any issue but the large-scale bleeding affects the durability and strength of the concrete.

When we compared the normal and hard strength concrete the high strength concrete does not bleed. Which is because the high strength concrete has smaller water content and a high amount of cementitious materials. The air-entrained concrete also has fewer chances to bleed.

Permeability of Normal and High Strength Concrete

The durability problems like corrosion resistance, chemical and creep have a direct relationship with the permeability of the concrete. If the foreign substance enters inside the concrete the damage occurs. It depends on the permeability property and the paste and aggregates present in the concrete.

The decrease in permeability beneficial in

• Improves sulfate and chemical attack resistance
• Resistance to corrosion
• Resistance to chloride penetration

The below table shows the test results of various permeability tests conducted on the different concrete mixes. The table also provides information on normal strength concrete and high strength concrete in water and cement ratio.

The lower water-cement ratio with an adequate curing period helps in having a concrete of lower permeability. For the normal strength concrete, the permeability is found to be in the range of 1 x 10 ^-10 cm/sec.

The additional cementitious materials added in the concrete mix like silica fume, fly ash and GGBFS helps to reduce the permeability of the concrete.

High strength concrete has a lower value of permeability compared to normal strength concrete. which is because the high-strength concrete is designed with a lower water-cement ratio. The silica fume is commonly used in the mix. The high strength concrete has permeability ranges from 1 x 10 ^-11 to 1 x 10 ^-13 cm/sec.

The high strength concrete has low permeability and high resistance to chloride attack which makes it suitable for bridge construction, parking decks and structures are exposed to seawater.

Carbonation of Normal Strength Concrete and High Strength Concrete

The carbonation happens on the surface of the concrete. the carbonation is related to the permeability of the concrete. carbon dioxide of the air reacts with the compounds present in hardened cement paste. This reaction is called calcium carbonates.

The effect of carbonation is mentioned in the permeability factor is less in high strength concrete compared with normal strength concrete.

In both types of concrete mix, the essential amount of protective concrete covers the reinforcement steel which reduces the easy reach to the reinforcement.

Difference between Normal Strength Concrete and High Strength Concrete

The normal strength at 40% of compressive strength value the micro-cracks are formed. These interconnects and propagates reaches 80 to 90% of the strength.

In the normal strength concrete, the fracture surface is very rough. This zone is formed along with the transition zone between the paste matrix and aggregates. The fracture surface in high strength concrete is smooth.

Effects of the Fly Ash on Durability of Concrete

Fly Ash is used as an admixture in concrete. The durability of the concrete with fly ash is discussed here.

The use of concrete in aggressive environmental conditions has been increased substantially. Concrete structures are used to provide support for types of machinery, staff, and products of oil and gas exploration and production.

The concrete structures are used in a nuclear reactor to keep the gases and vapors which released at high temperature and pressure in emergency situations. The fly ash plays an important role.

Effects of Fly Ash on Durability of Concrete

It has effects like

• Permeability of Concrete
• Carbonation of Concrete
• The durability of concrete subjected to repeated cycles of freezing and thawing
• Abrasion and erosion of fly ash concrete
• Sulfate resistance of concrete
• Alkali aggregate reactions in concrete
• Corrosion of steel reinforcement in concrete
• Concrete exposed to seawater

Effect of Fly Ash on Concrete permeability

The permeability of concrete is based on the quantity of hydrated cementitious material at any given time. It is said that the permeability of fly ash was lower than the permeability of controlled concrete after 28 days of curing.

On the other side after six months the fly ash concrete is more impermeable and also achieves substantial imperviousness. The above difference is because of the pozzolanic activity of fly ash and the pozzolanic reaction is low at the beginning.

This is how the fly ash could produce better concrete durability.

Fly ash effect on Carbonation of Concrete

The carbonation is where the carbon dioxide in the air which reacts with calcium hydroxide, calcium silicate and aluminates in hydrates cement and make calcium carbonate.

This process took place in mostly moist situations and the rate of the carbonation of concrete is specified by concrete permeability, saturation degree, and quantity of calcium hydroxide which is ready for the reaction.

The carbonation is the main reason for the steel corrosion resistance. The main focus should be on proportions of concrete mixture, concrete cover and the period of moist curing when a high amount of fly ash is used.

The effect of fly ash on the durability of the concrete with repeated cycles of freezing and thawing

If the concrete is made with exact proportions it has become frost resistance. The fly ash may lead to an increase the number of admixtures that are necessary to obtain the particular level of entrained air and it is also influenced by entrained air stability in fresh concrete.

The research is carried on the effect of the fly ash on the durability of concrete for repeated cycles of freezing and thawing and supports the statement by Larson that Fly ash has no apparent ill effects on the air voids in hardened concrete.

When the proper volume of air is entrained the characteristics of the void system meet the criteria.

Abrasion and Erosion of Fly Ash Concrete

There are many situations where concrete is used for scraping, attrition, sliding of cars, ice, and other items. It has been said that the concrete resistance against abrasion is proportional to its compressive strength.

The low abrasion resistant fly ash concrete might expect unless the concrete is adequately and thoroughly curried. It is proved that concrete with ASTM class F fly ash provider for better abrasion resistance than the ASTM class C or with no fly ash content.

The concrete is eroded when the water flows over the surfaces. With the fixed slump value, the concrete resistance against erosion can be increased by increasing the strength and cement content.

Fly Ash effect on Sulfate Resistance of Concrete

It is proven in research carried out by Dikeou that sulfate resistance of concrete can be improved by using fly ash.

The effect of fly ash on alkali-aggregate reactions on concrete

It is proven that fly ash is very effective in decreasing the detrimental effect of alkali-aggregate reactions (AARs). This effect is only decreased where the siliceous aggregates are involved.

The alkali-aggregate carbonation is one type of AAR that is less responding to fly ash inclusion. But the expansion of alkali-aggregate can be decreased with low calcium fly ash replaces the 25-30 percent and under the condition that alkali is less than four percent.

Effect of the fly ash on the corrosion of steel reinforcement in concrete

There is always a concern of corrosion of steel reinforcement in fly ash concrete. This is happened because of chloride ions from the seawater or de-icing. It has happened when the carbonation depth in concrete reaches the steel reinforcement and if the oxygen and moisture are reached to the surface of the reinforcement the steel bar will corrode.

It will be protected from corrosion if the fly ash concrete cover is sufficient.

Fly Ash effect on concrete exposed to seawater

The concrete used in marine has a danger of wetting and dying, waves, abrasion by debris and sand, freezing and thawing cycles and reinforcement corrosion which are occurred in a chemical medium.

But the entirely submerged concrete is less affected by the above factor. If the fly ash concrete has 25 percent replacement by mass and it is under the condition of water to cementitious materials less than 0.50 have a good performance under freezing and thawing and wetting and drying conditions.

Excon 2019

What is Reinforced Concrete? It’s Uses, Benefits & Advantages

The reinforced concrete is a combination of traditional cement concrete with reinforcements (steel bars). The combination is made to utilize the compressive strength of concrete and tensile strength of steel at the same time to provide maximum strength. The meaning of reinforced is the steel reinforces the concrete and makes it stronger construction material.

The reinforced concrete needs to be specially engineered. If the amount of the reinforced is not enough the concrete can be weak or may have a failure. With many advantages, the reinforced concrete has disadvantages too. The reinforced concrete can be molded and shaped which is a limitation for other materials and also give freedom to create innovative designs.

The reinforced concrete is very popular building material having characteristics like strong, easy to work with, adaptable, versatile, durable and affordable. It is mainly used in the construction of foundations of rooftops of the building, highway construction, precast structures, floating structures, hydro-power tunnels, irrigation canals, drain, and all other conceivable structures.

Advantages of Reinforced Concrete

Strength

It has very good strength in tension as well as compression which makes it one of the best construction materials.

Economical

The concrete constituents are widely available worldwide and also inexpensive. Also, the production cost is very low. It is widely used as the reinforced concrete has less maintenance cost as it has a long-lasting nature of reinforced concrete.

Reinforced concrete has durability, resilience, required low maintenance and energy-efficient. The concrete structures reduce the operating cost of operational energy consumption.

Versatility

The concrete can be placed into various shapes if shuttering or formwork configuration to form desired shapes, form, surface, texture and sizes at the construction site. The concrete is in liquid form when it made which is more suitable for many architectural requirements.

Durability

The reinforced concrete structures are durable. It is having no effect of rainfall, snow and can last up to 100 years.

As concrete has low permeability it can resist chemicals that dissolve in water like sulfates, chloride and carbon dioxide and all these cause corrosions in concrete without serious deterioration.

These make reinforced concrete more suitable for underwater submerged applications like pipelines, dams, canals, linings and other waterfront structures.

Fire Resistance

The concrete does not catch fire or burn. It can be withstanding heat for 2 to 6 hours for rescue operations in a fire. The reinforced concrete buildings are more fire-resistant than other construction materials like steel and wood. The reinforced concrete is suitable for fireproof steel and high-temperature applications.

Ductility

The steel provides ductility to the reinforced concrete structures. The ductility in concrete shows the distress in cracking and deflection if the reinforced concrete having the overloading. This enables the engineers to consider engineers to save it from concrete damages.

Seismic Resistance

It is properly designed for reinforced concrete structures that are resistant to earthquakes.

Ease of Construction

As compared with the steel used in the structure, reinforced concrete requires less skilled labor for the erection of the structure.

Ability to consume and Recycle Waste

There are several industrial wastes and by-products like fly ash, slag known as GGBFS or ground granulated blast-furnaces slag, waste glass and like the ground, tires can be recycled as a substitute for cement or aggregate or supplementary materials. The concrete production reduces environmental impacts due to industrial waste and also improves the characteristics of concrete and consequently, the quality of the structure is not compromised.

The concrete can be recycled as aggregate for the use as sub-base material in roadbeds and parking lots, gabion walls as riprap to protect shorelines or in other applications or granular material with reducing the amount of material which is landfilled and need for virgin materials in new construction.

One of the main advantages of concrete is its ability to use different application methods. Concrete is also hand-applied, poured, pumped, sprayed, grouted and it is also used for application for shotcrete and tunnels.

Disadvantages of Reinforced Concrete

• The Reinforced concrete structures are heavier than others like steel, wood and glass structures.
• The usual concrete building needs massive formwork, centering, shuttering to be fixed which requires lots of site space and labor work.
• Concrete requires time to attain its full strength. So, it is not used immediately after construction. The steel structures are ready to use.
• The main process of using reinforced concrete are mixing, casting and curing. Which all are affects the final strength.
• The price of the forms used for casting RC is high compared to other techniques.
• The shrinkage causes crack development and strength loss.

Applications of Reinforced Concrete

• Buildings
• Bridges
• Flyovers
• Water Tanks
• Roads
• Floating Structures
• Foundations
• Marine Structures
• Pipes and Conduits
• Precast Works
• Chimneys and Towers
• Retaining Walls
• Bunkers and Silos

Tips for Fly Ash Bricks Manufacturing

The fly ash bricks manufacturing business is more and more profitable and fastest-growing business in India. The people in India is started using the Fly Ash Bricks to save earth for the future. There is also a reason for the ban of red clay bricks in some of the states.

Here are some tips that need to be considered before starting of fly ash manufacturing process.

• Land Requirements
• Factory Location
• Water Availability
• Environmental Issues
• Project Cost
• Cement Manufacturers
• Labour Availability
• Profit
• Fly Ash Availability
• Where to purchase a machine?

Land Requirement

To start a fly ash brick manufacturing business required a minimum a half-acre of land. It is suggested that one-acre land is enough for stock and curing the bricks.

Factory Location

Find the location which is near to the 100 km radius of Thermal Power Plant to easily get the fly ash quota from EB.

W ater Availability

The fly ash bricks manufacturing process required lots of water. So it is advisable to establish a factory where the freshwater is easily available.

Environmental Problem

Fly ash required special care while unloading in open space as it is dangerous to the atmosphere. The factory should be not in a residential area as the micro dust particles are harmful to the surrounded people.

Some are using Silos to store fly ash. As it is not necessary for everyone.

Project Cost

The project cost includes plant, machinery and working capital is approximately 30,00,000 Rs. This estimation is based on machinery with the production of 12,000 bricks per shift. (The Diesel power generator is not included).

Cement Manufacturers

The cement manufacturers have installed giant silo’s in thermal power plant to collect the fly ash. They get the majority share of fly ash from thermal power plants. Fly Ash manufacturers have to struggle to get the fly ash.

Labour

If you want to run your business successfully you required labour. As the work with fly ash, there is somewhat dusty so it is hard to get suitable labours. You can attract labours with high pay and also give some incentives.

Profit

The profit is varying from place to place. But in this business, you will definitely make 1 Rs. per brick as profit.

Your profit is depending on the availability of raw material, labour, power supply.

Fly Ash Availability

If you want to succeed in your business, is dependent on the availability of fly ash from the thermal power plant.

If you planning to start a fly ash manufacturing business do proper research for where and how much you can get fly ash. One source is to bought fly ash from the black market, so it is advised to get your fly ash quota to continue to making fly ash bricks.

Where to get Machine?

In the process of fly ash bricks, machine required regular maintenance and tune-ups. This service is only provided by experts who have long experience in this field. The new machine manufacturers give discounts but the machines are not sustainable.

The rotary type hydraulic machines are recommended for new entrepreneurs as it is cost-effective.

Benefits of Prestressed Concrete

What is Prestressed Concrete?

Here we are talking about what is prestressed concrete and why it is widely used these days. We will also see the advantages and where the prestressed concrete is used.

The prestressed concrete has the ability to eliminate the traction forces of the concrete by adding artificial compression tensions before applying exterior loads. And also assure that when it is superimposed, the total permanent tensions should lie between the limits which the material can bear indefinitely. This technique is widely used in modern days to building all the architectural and engineering projects. As this method has many benefits.

There are many advantages of using prestressed concrete which is given below.

Structural Strength

With the use of the prestressed technique in concrete gives the maximum strength by providing an internal compression force which counteracts the traction force produced by loads of the structural elements.

The durability of the Construction

One of the principal benefits of the prestressed beams is it eliminates the crack from all the load stages. There is no crack which means the structure has a greater capacity to withstand loads, impacts, vibration and knocks and minimize the possibility the corrosion in steel which increases the durability of the construction.

Save Money

The tensile concrete allows using of large spans in construction due to the length of pieces which saves material and it is light in weight also. These tensile prestressed beams are using in places like an industrial warehouse which provide better light. It is also used in car parks as these plates allow greater separation. Between loading columns and resulting in saving of material and have large space.

Creative Design

These pieces are easier to use to make any beautiful architectural elements.

Production

The large-scale production of prestressed beams and hollow core slabs provide quality control. High production and minimum production cost which very helps full for large architectural buildings and other projects.

Construction

The construction speed is increased by using prestressed concrete. As the many parts of the building can assemble at the same time. And this helps both economically and also save time.