Commonly used Indian Standard Codes (IS codes) for civil engineers

IS stands for Indian standard. Each country possesses their own code book identical to that India contains IS code book for RCC, steel structure. The IS codes includes numerous standards and methodology for construction, raw material used, structural analaysis and other provisions.

It comprises of some data based on which a civil engineer design the structure. It contains some pre defined formulae and data.

Civil engineers who perform construction activities of big projects generally should be well versed with a wide array of IS codes since such projects require different types of construction materials in several structures like buildings, roads, steel structures, all sorts of foundations etc.

Given below, detailed lists of some IS codes which are extensively used by construction engineers.

IS 456:2000: Plain and Reinforced Concrete - Code of Practice (Download link bit.ly)

IS 383:1970: Specifications for fine & coarse aggregate from natural sources for concrete (Download link drive.google.com)

IS 2386 (Part I) 1963: Methods of Test for Aggregates for Concrete, Part I: Particle Size and Shape (Download link drive.google.com)

IS 2386 (Part II) 1963: Methods of test for aggregates for concrete, Part II: Estimation of deleterious materials and organic impurities (Download link drive.google.com)

IS 2386 (Part III) 1963: Methods of test for aggregates for concrete, Part 3: Specific gravity, density, voids, absorption and bulking (Download link drive.google.com)

IS 2386 (Part IV) 1963: Methods of test for aggregates for concrete, Part 4: Mechanical properties (Download link drive.google.com)

IS 2386 (Part V) 1963: Methods of Test for Aggregates for Concrete, Part V: Soundness (Download link drive.google.com)

IS 2386 (Part VI) 1963: Methods of test for aggregates for concrete, Part 6: Measuring mortar making properties of fine aggregates (Download link drive.google.com)

IS 2386 (Part VII) 1963: Methods of Test for Aggregates for Concrete, Part VII: Alkali Aggregate Reactivity (Download link drive.google.com

IS 2386 (Part VIII) 1963: Methods of Test for Aggregates for Concrete, Part VIII: Petrographic Examination (Download link drive.google.com)

IS 2430-1986: Methods for Sampling of Aggregates for Concrete (Download link drive.google.com)

IS 4082-1996: Recommendations on stacking and storage of construction materials and components at site (Download link drive.google.com/)

IS 2116-1980: Sand for masonry mortars – Specifications (Download link drive.google.com)

IS 269-1989: Specification for Ordinary Portland Cement, 33 Grade (Download link drive.google.com)

IS 8112-2013: Specification for 43 grade ordinary Portland cement (Download link drive.google.com)

IS 12269-1987: Specification for 53 grade ordinary Portland cement (BI-LINGUAL) (Download link drive.google.com)

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Some vital instructions to make your boundary walls stronger

Substandard foundations, poor design, scarcity of expansion joints and piers (support pillars) generally lead to cracks in masonry boundary walls.

If a subsisting wall is inclined, unsteady or contains severe cracks, then proper remedies should be taken immediately.

Given below, some vital guidelines while setting up a new boundary wall:

1. The design of the wall: Besides, adhering to local by-laws concerning height restrictions and set-backs on street corners, proper engineering principles should also be applied to the design of any freestanding wall.

Both the thickness of the wall and the spacing of piers control the maximum height of the wall over ground level.

2. Foundations: While creating the design of the foundations, soil conditions and slopes should be considered. Steel reinforcement of the foundations and of the wall itself are vital components. A general rule of thumb is that the foundation should be broader and deeper so that the support of the wall becomes more stable.

3. Retaining walls: When the boundary wall functions as a retaining wall and is susceptible to water and soil thrust, then the foundation footing should be expanded more beneath the upper side of the wall to make sure that the weight of the chosen soil further firm ups the foundation structure.

4. Adequate expansion joints and piers: If expansion joints are not set up perfectly without adequate piers, the walls can be cracked easily.

If there are cavities in the piers of freestanding walls (along with hollow units), they should be filled with concrete instantly.

5. Drainage: If the boundary wall is located on a slope, then sufficient weep holes should be installed to dispose of accumulated storm water.

When the wall also functions as a retaining wall, there should proper arrangement of sub-soil drainage. NHBRC (Part 3. 3:24) indicates that weep holes should be set up in all retaining walls at a height not greater than 300mm over the lower ground level at centres not surpassing1.5 metres. Weep holes should be created with a 50mm plastic pipe covered on the non-exposed end with a geofabric.

6. Damp: Boundary walls are generally freestanding as these walls do not usually build section of a structure (like a house), where the connected walls are self-bracing. Since the freestanding walls are not supported by a structure of other walls, boundary walls are normally constructed exclusive of a damp proof course (DPC), plastic membrane so as to make the bond stronger among the freestanding wall and its foundation.

A DPC can rupture the bond among wall and foundation that leads to instability. Without DPC, mounting damp is frequently found on plastered and painted boundary walls. To get rid of this issue, the harder (less porous) bricks should be used for the lower courses (first 150mm) and make sure that the plaster does not expand to the level of the soil, else the plaster will function as a wick and allow water going from the ground to wick upwards.

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Features and benefits of sulphate resistant cement

Sulphate Resisting Cement belongs to a type of Portland Cement in which the amount of tricalcium aluminate (C3A) is limited to remain under 5% and (2C 3A +C4AF) under 25%, that lessens the development of sulphate salts.

The lessening of sulphate salts reduces the scope of sulphate attack on the concrete.

This construction article provides detail information on the composition, properties, features, applications, pros and cons of sulphate resisting cement.

Composition of Sulphate Resisting Cement: As sulphate resisting cement contains fewer amount of tricalcium aluminate, so a very small amount of calcium aluminate is produced on hydration. The development of calcium sulpho- aluminates which formed due to reaction of calcium sulpho-aluminates which formed due to reaction of calcium sulphoaluminate and sulphate salts is considerably reduced with use of sulphate resisting cement.

The sulphate aluminates are extremely broad in nature and leads to utmost damage to the concrete.

Properties of Sulphate Resisting Cement: Given below, the properties of sulphate resisting cement -

Features of Sulphate Resisting Cement:

1. This cement offers greater resistance to chloride ions as a result the risk of corrosion of reinforced steel is minimized significantly.
2. It also offers superior level of concrete performance and structural continuity in extremely aggressive sulphate and acidic environments.
3. It also offers greater workability and pumpability.
4. This cement contains considerably better later-age concrete strengths.

Applications of Sulphate Resisting Cement: Sulphate Resisting Cement is suitable for the following type of constructions -

1. Foundations.
2. Piling works.
3. Construction adjacent to soils or ground water containing in excess of 0.2% or 0.3 % g/l sulphate salts correspondingly.
4. Concrete surfaces dependent on alternate wetting and drying like bridge piers, concrete surface in tidal zone, apron etc.
5. Effluent treatment plans.
6. Chimney, cooling towers.
7. Coastal protective works like sea walls, break waters, tetrapods etc.
8. Building adjacent to seacoast.
9. Chemical industries, water storage, sumps, drainage works.
10. Perfect for underground works where Sulphate exists in the Soil and water.

Benefits of Sulphate Resisting Cement:

1. The application of sulphate resisting cement offers sound protection against the creation of sulpho-aluminates and subsequent resistance to concrete from sulphate attack.
2. It offers greater compressive strength with inexpensive concrete mix design.
3. Due to very low heat of hydration, shrinkage cracks can be avoided easily.
4. Enhances life and longevity of structures under aggressive conditions.
5. The corrosion resistance strength of steel is improved due to prevention of sulphate attack.



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Basic differences among AAC Blocks and Red Bricks

Red Bricks are mostly recognized materials for building all through the world since they are inexpensive, long-lasting as well as simple to deal and work with.

The other vital features of red bricks range from superior stability and strength, low weight and greater ecological green features.

AAC Blocks and Red Bricks both are essential building materials for constructing walls. Red bricks & AAC blocks are utilized in walls according to their properties, accessibility and cost. Given below, the basic differences among red bricks and AAC blocks.

01. GENERAL: Red Bricks

• A Red brick stands for a block, or a single unit of a ceramic material that is applied in masonry construction, normally amassed collectively or placed with different types of mortar to retain the bricks jointly and develop a permanent structure.
• Bricks are generally formed in common or standard sizes in mass quantities.

AAC Blocks

• The weight of AAC Blocks is light and they are cut into masonry blocks or developed larger planks and panels.
• AAC Block is comparatively homogeneous with reference to other wall unit and does not include coarse aggregate phase.

02. RAW MATERIAL: Red Bricks

• The red bricks are produced by amalgamating clay(alumina), sand, Lime, iron oxide and Magnesia.
• Natural soil is utilized for making Bricks. So, it is totally based on the quality of local soil, i.e. Top soil of Earth Crust.

AAC Blocks

• It is produced from the mixture of fly ash, cement, lime, gypsum and an aeration agent.
• The Fly ash employed in AAC Blocks production is environment friendly & cement is applied in very small amount.
• The difficulty of fly ash usage is resolved with the use of fly-ash in AAC Block.

03. Applications: Red Bricks

01. As a Structural Unit:

Red bricks are sturdy, solid, long-lasting, so, they are utilized as a structural material in various structures as given below :-

• Buildings
• Bridges
• Foundations
• Arches and cornices
• Pavements

02. As an Elegant and Finish Surface:

Bricks are utilized according to its various colours, sizes and orientations to produce diverse surface designs. As an elegant material brick is applied for the following purposes :-

• As Facing Bricks
• Architectural Purposes
• Exposed practice work

AAC Blocks

• AAC Block is applied to develop internal and external walls.
• It can also be applied as load bearing and non load bearing walls.

To get more details about other points of variations, go through the following link gharpedia.com




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Process for creating design of Seismic Tie Beams

Tie beams are constructed to support the differential settlement among the isolated footings other than the vertical loads of the block works.

With reference to ACI 318-08 section 21.12.3.2, grade beams which are built up to function as horizontal ties among pile caps or footings should be proportioned in such a way so that the smallest cross-sectional dimension is identical to or exceeding the clear spacing among associated columns divided by 20 but should not be over 18 inches. Closed ties should be arranged at a gapping not surpassing the lesser of one half the lowest orthogonal cross-sectional dimension and 12 inches.”

But, it becomes difficult to understand that what force these tie beams are required. In this regard, IBC 2009 section plays an important role.

IBC2009 section 1809.13 for shallow foundations and 1810.3.13 for deep foundations.

For SDC C, D, E or F, ties have the capacity to bear, in tension or compression, a force similar to the smaller of the product of the larger pile cap or column design gravity load times the seismic coefficient, Sds, divided by 10, and 25 percent of the smaller pile or column design gravity load.

In brief, Tie beam force; FT = Larger of ( Pu_large x Sds /10 , Pu_small x 25%)

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How to measure steel for pier, pile and circular column with circular ties

This construction video offers detailed guidelines for measuring the steel quantity in circular column, piers, and piles.

Some vital information on circular column, pier and pile :-

Circular columns are uniform about any centroidal axis. The circular column contains a smaller cross section area (0.785 times the square column) but greater second moment of area (1.178 times the square column). There is less susceptibility for Circular column to buckling and it needs little more reinforcement to bear the identical load like a square column. Besides, circular sections contain unvarying torsion characteristics. Least number of bars necessary in a circular column is 6. There does not exist any weak corners as well as stress concentration in circular columns.

A pier refers to an elevated structure usually supported with well-spaced foundation system. The foundation system ranges from a Pile, Caisson or simple brick pillar that is formed on the basis of the sub-soil condition. The Pile and Caisson are set of deep foundations.

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Learn the step-by-step processes for bore piling

A Bored Pile stands for a nondisplacement form of foundation and bored piling is a system that is applied for boring a spherical hole into the ground as well as setting up steel reinforcement and filling the bore hole by concrete to develop a pile. Boring is executed to the design depth with the use of a crane mounted or a track mounted hydraulic drilling rigs.

Bored piling is useful for withstanding heavy vertical loads generated in high building. Bored pile is a cast-in-place concrete pile that is casted on construction site.

Usually bored piling is undertaken on those high buildings or enormous industrial complexes, for which foundation should be strong enough to carry the load of thousands of tons, particularly in unsteady or tough soil conditions. Bored piling machine that contains specially designed drilling tools, buckets and grabs is used to cast bored piling. It is applied to take out the soil and rock. Generally it can drill into 50metres depth of soil.

Benefits of Bored Piling

• Capability to bear very high load / shear / moment capacity
• Inferior noise and vibration
• Ground is “visible” throughout construction that allows validation of design assumptions
• Capacity to deal with unfavorable ground along with natural or artificial obstacles
• Ability to drill into hard rock
• Can be built up to tight tolerances

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ADAPT-Builder Suite – A useful construction software for designing conventionally reinforced concrete structures

ADAPT Corporation has developed ADAPT-Builder Suite that is used to make complete analysis of concrete buildings. This construction program is useful for General Structural Analysis, Analysis of Plates, Analysis of Frames, Analysis of Beams, Concrete Design, Analysis of Columns, Wind Loading, Foundations.

It contains Edge, Floor Pro and MAT etc. Edge makes analysis of complete building model for lateral and gravity load. Floor Pro is applied to make the comprehensive design of any concrete floor system with or without post-tensioning. MAT is used for producing the innovative design of foundations. There is also an optional column design module that provides support with a well-organized workflow for creating the cohesive design of vertical elements in a structure.

A robust and easily adoptable 3D finite element engine makes the Builder an exceptional construction software to perform the modeling and analysis of any concrete building efficiently.

Builder’s modules are compatible with an extensive range of international codes. Besides, they are well suited with simplified BIM workflows and can be easily incorporated with Revit Structure and other structural analysis packages.

To get more information, visit 

www.adaptsoft.com

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A position is vacant for Assistant Staff Project Manager - Construction Materials Testing

An award-winning consulting firm that provides geotechnical engineering, construction materials testing and environmental and facilities consulting services and has been ranked as one of the top 100 engineering and environmental firms by ENR, is seeking an assistant staff project manager for construction materials testing.

Duties and Responsibilities: 

Mainly perform with management of construction materials testing projects. The candidate has to take liabilities for testing of soils, foundations, reinforced and post-tensioned concrete, masonry, structural steel, fire proofing and asphalt pavement. Besides, there are other project management liabilities which range from application of technical support, day-to-day assessment of field reports, checking progression of project for performance and budgetary conditions, support with collection efforts, planning for proposals and invoicing, participating with project site meetings and providing support with the resolution to technical and administrative problems.

Functionalities:

• Analysis of soils, foundations, reinforced and post-tensioned concrete, masonry, structural steel, fireproofing and asphalt pavement.

• Laboratory tests.

• Day-to-day field reports.

• Project meeting and providing support in project resolutions.

• Scheduling, training and oversight of field technicians.

• Special inspections of structural components.

• Development of proposals.

Qualifications: 

• BSCE from an ABET recommended college/university required; knowledge with MS Geotechnical Engineering will be an added advantage.

• 0-2 years working experience with associated field.

• EIT certification desired. Possibility for acquiring a PE license is essential for career development.

• Outstanding oral and written communication skills.

• Interest in project management and the ability to work effectively in teams, with clients, peers and subordinates, as required.

Notes: Please specify your compensation expectations [$$/hour] while sending application for this post otherwise your application will be disqualified. This position is non-exempt under FSLA. This position is not eligible for visa sponsorship.

Link for application

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What is Segregation of Concrete?

Segregation of concrete means parting of components of concrete from each other. A superior quality concrete contains various aggregates which are uniformly coated with sand and cement paste and develops a uniform mass. While dealing, transporting and arranging concrete, the cement and sands are parted from coarse aggregate because of jolts and vibrations. If concrete is separated throughout transportation, it must be remixed correctly prior to deposit. It is recommended not to use a concrete if initial setting time of it is ended.

Segregation of Concrete occurs due to following reasons:

1) Applying high water-cement ratio in concrete. This may occur if the concrete is blended at      jobsite by inexperienced workers.

2) Too much vibration of concrete with mechanical needle vibrators result in placing heavier      particles at bottom and lighter cement sand paste arrives on top.

3) If concreting is performed from height for underground foundations and rafts, it may              cause concrete to separate

How to get rid of Segregation of Concrete:

When depth of concreting is over 1.5 meters, it should be arranged through temporary inclined chutes. The angle of inclination should be maintained between 1:3 and 1:2 in oder that concrete from top of chutes moves easily to bottom. Applying small amount of free water from top at intermissions allows in lubricating the path of flow of concrete to bottom easily. The delivery end of chute must be closer to the point of deposit.

Segregation in deep foundations and rafts of thickness over 1 meter may cause segregation of concrete near bottom or in center. In this case, proper observation should be taken. To identify this type of segregation, ultrasonic testing process can be used. To clear any confusion, random ultrasonic testing method is applied. This type of segregation is corrected by pressure grouting with special chemical compounds. If any fault is corrected by pressure grouting, core test is done to make sure that the strength of concrete is achieved with optimal level.

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