Title: Design of Concrete Pumping Circuit

Author(s): Denis Kaplan, Francois de Larrard, and Thierry Sedran

Publication: Materials Journal

Volume: 102

Issue: 2

Appears on pages(s): 110-117

Keywords: cylinder; pumping; test

DOI: 10.14359/14304

Date: 3/1/2005

Abstract:
Pumping is a common process to transport fresh concrete. To date, however, there is no rigorous, scientifically based method to design a pumping circuit that is to predict the relationship between pressure and flow rate as a function of circuit dimensions and fresh concrete behavior. Such a method was developed and is presented in this paper. A 150 m-long experimental pumping circuit was mounted that permitted a number of full-scale pumping tests to be carried out. In addition, the fresh concrete rheological and steel-concrete interface behaviors were measured in the laboratory with a rheometer equipped with accessories. Finally, an analytical model using the Bingham constants (yield stress and plastic viscosity) and the interface constants could be validated. A further validation was acquired on two real job sites. A complete set of tools (guide, laboratory devices, and software) is now available to apply this method in practice.