Setting of concrete is identified as the transition of
fresh concrete from liquid phase to solid phase. It is
important to identify this phase change to plan
transporting and placing of concrete.
Current practice of determining initial setting time of
concrete is based on ASTM C 403[1]. According to this
standard, initial setting time is identified based on the
penetration resistance measured on mortar sieved from a
concrete mixture and it is defined as the time taken to
achieve a penetration resistance of 3.5 MPa (See Figure1).
This specified penetration resistance value is an arbitrary
value and initial setting time measured based on this
definition does not seem realistic (i.e. about 4 hrs for
concrete without any set retarders –Figures 17) since in
practice, concrete sets quicker than that time. Therefore
the main objective of this research is to identify a test
method to obtain a realistic value for the initial setting
time of concrete.The practical situation related to delay in placing concrete
beyond the initial setting time is the formation of cold
joints. Cold joints are formed when the elapsed time
between placing of two consecutive layers of concrete
exceeds the initial setting time of fresh concrete. Cold
joint is a weak joint which can affect the mechanical
properties such as shear strength and tensile strength of
concrete at the joint.
Splitting tensile test is the currently available test method
to check the tensile strength of the concrete. The test is
done using cylindrical concrete specimen and by applying
a diametric compressive force along the length of the
cylinder until failure. This test method was slightly
modified for the investigation of cold joints by previous
researchers