UNIVERSITY OF CIVIL ENGINEERING, ARCHITECTURE AND GEODESY

FACULTY of CIVIL ENGINEERING

Department of Building Materials and Insulations"

Problems of production of ready-mixed

concrete in Bulgaria based on the
requirements of the EN 206-1 a critical
review of concrete production in Bulgaria
Prof. Dr. Eng. Dimitar Nazarski
Assoc. Prof. Dr. Eng. Ivan Rostovsky
UNIVERSITY OF CIVIL ENGINEERING, ARCHITECTURE AND
GEODESY
FACULTY of CIVIL ENGINEERING

Department of Building Materials and Insulations"

INTERNATIONAL SIMPOSIUM
Innovative Concrete Technology

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UNIVERSITY OF CIVIL ENGINEERING, ARCHITECTURE AND GEODESY

FACULTY of CIVIL ENGINEERING

Department of Building Materials and Insulations"

Part 1. The status of the production of concrete mixes

and concrete before the implementation of EN 206-1
Production of ready mixed concrete in Bulgaria up to the
middle of 1990s
In large towns:

Prefab building components plants;

Large state/owned construction companies.
In small settlements:

Public works enterprises (BKS)

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UNIVERSITY OF CIVIL ENGINEERING, ARCHITECTURE AND GEODESY

FACULTY of CIVIL ENGINEERING

Department of Building Materials and Insulations"

Production equipment:
Larger mixing plants / 1 or 2 machines with batch volume of 1 m3
(45 60 m3/h)
In the smaller settlements / mixers with batch volume of 0.33 or
0.5 m3 (20 30 m3/h).

The annual production of concrete in the region of Sofia did not

exceed 400 450 000 m3, excluding the prefab building
components plants.
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UNIVERSITY OF CIVIL ENGINEERING, ARCHITECTURE AND GEODESY

FACULTY of CIVIL ENGINEERING

Department of Building Materials and Insulations"

The main standards being in force at the middle of 1990s

BDS* 7268/83 Concrete. Classification and main
technical requirements.
BDS 505/84 Plain Concrete. Test methods.
BDS 9673/84 Concrete. Control and assessment of
strength.

*BDS Bulgarian National Standard

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UNIVERSITY OF CIVIL ENGINEERING, ARCHITECTURE AND GEODESY

FACULTY of CIVIL ENGINEERING

Department of Building Materials and Insulations"

Concrete mix consistency classes:

1 with cone slump S = 0 2 cm
2 / with cone slump S = 2 8 cm
3 / with cone slump S = 8 14 cm
4 / with cone slump / S > 14 cm

Hardened concrete compressive strength classes,

according to the characteristic cube strength with a
confidence level of 95% :
7.5; 10; 12,5; 15; 20; : 60.
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UNIVERSITY OF CIVIL ENGINEERING, ARCHITECTURE AND GEODESY

FACULTY of CIVIL ENGINEERING

Department of Building Materials and Insulations"

Groups of concrete, depending on the exposure conditions:

Group I concrete not having direct contact with water and is
protected from the direct impact of the atmospheric conditions;
Group II concrete which is permanently under water or has direct
contact with water, and is not exposed to the direct impact of the
atmospheric conditions;
Group III concrete which is situated outdoor, under the direct impact
of the atmospheric conditions;
Group IV concrete which has direct contact with water (subject to
alternating wetting and drying, freezing and thawing) and is exposed
to the direct impact of the atmospheric conditions.

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UNIVERSITY OF CIVIL ENGINEERING, ARCHITECTURE AND GEODESY

FACULTY of CIVIL ENGINEERING

Department of Building Materials and Insulations"

Frequency of sampling for strength control one sample in every 100

batches of a certain concrete class but not less than 3 test samples
per working shift.

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UNIVERSITY OF CIVIL ENGINEERING, ARCHITECTURE AND GEODESY

FACULTY of CIVIL ENGINEERING

Department of Building Materials and Insulations"

Part II Introduction of EN 206/1 and change of ownership

of the production facilities related to concrete production
The introduction of EN 206/1 as a national standard and the
change of ownership over the production facilities occurred in the
same period of time.

/ One significant part of the mixing plants fell into the hands of
former and present middle and low level employees of the state/
owned construction companies mechanics, electricians, operators
of concrete pumps, etc.
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UNIVERSITY OF CIVIL ENGINEERING, ARCHITECTURE AND GEODESY

FACULTY of CIVIL ENGINEERING

Department of Building Materials and Insulations"

/ Another significant part was got by resourceful persons, some

of them having a bad reputation.

/ Both types of owners regarded as useless waste of money

hiring qualified engineering staff, which should observe the
technology and supervise the input/output control.

+ The production facilities were significantly renovated and

modernized. A number of automated mixing plants were introduced,
their batches being 3 / 4 m3.

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UNIVERSITY OF CIVIL ENGINEERING, ARCHITECTURE AND GEODESY

FACULTY of CIVIL ENGINEERING

Department of Building Materials and Insulations"

Part III Production problems after the introduction of EN 206/1.

/ Unfortunately, the new standard EN 206/1 turned to be too
complicated for the level of the new producers. For most of them,
terms like exposure classes, production control, initial
production, continuous production, independent results, non/
covering results, etc. sound abstractly.
/ The freedom and the new opportunities provided by EN 206/1 were
interpreted as anarchy and lack of rules. Firstly, its worth mentioning
the reduction, even full lack of control, part of the merit going to the
state institutions.
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UNIVERSITY OF CIVIL ENGINEERING, ARCHITECTURE AND GEODESY

FACULTY of CIVIL ENGINEERING

Department of Building Materials and Insulations"

+ The number of producers grew significantly, / while

maintaining own laboratories for control was deemed inefficient from
financial point of view.
/ The trend towards reduction of expenditures and increasing the
profit practically eliminated the entry control of materials.
/ Everybody along the chain used data from the previous supplier
the producer of concrete accepted uncritically data submitted by
the producers of cement and admixtures, the builders data from
the exit control unit of the mixing plant.
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UNIVERSITY OF CIVIL ENGINEERING, ARCHITECTURE AND GEODESY

FACULTY of CIVIL ENGINEERING

Department of Building Materials and Insulations"

Another major point, which is a weakness not so much of the

producers but rather of designers in the Constructions part,
is the insufficient knowledge on the regulations, and more
specifically, its section related to the exposure classes.
Currently, with a few exceptions, the whole information for
concrete in the investment projects is reduced to the
compressive strength class.
This fact has a negative effect on the durability and the
chemical resistance of concrete and reinforced concrete
structures. Often, emergency repairs of buildings and
structures are necessary, although they are newly/built, with
less than 5 years in operation.
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UNIVERSITY OF CIVIL ENGINEERING, ARCHITECTURE AND GEODESY

FACULTY of CIVIL ENGINEERING

Department of Building Materials and Insulations"

Positive events also occurred during this period:

New types and sub/types of cement were produced. This allowed the
concrete compositions to be optimized with regard to cement quantity,
compressive strength, prime cost and operational conditions.
The increased number of producers tensed the competition between
them. The use of chemical admixtures was turned from exception to
mass practice, although the reasons for this were rather
financial/economic than engineering/technical.
In the regions where thermal power plants are available, initially
timidly and afterwards on a mass scale the fly ash for concrete use
was introduced.
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UNIVERSITY OF CIVIL ENGINEERING, ARCHITECTURE AND GEODESY

FACULTY of CIVIL ENGINEERING

Department of Building Materials and Insulations"

Part IV National application to EN 206/1 evolution or ahead

to the past
+ As in the other EU member states and in Bulgaria in a later stage
(in 2008) a national annex (NA) to the main standard (EN 206/1) was
adopted. At that time, countries like Germany and Great Britain had
already issued a second edition of their NA.
/ As most of the specialists in the field know, the above/mentioned
national annexes DIN 1045/2 and BS 8500/1,2 are spacious
regulations which to a great extent play the role of guides. We, in
Bulgaria, missed the chance to use the rich experience in the field of
the countries which had already made the same way.
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UNIVERSITY OF CIVIL ENGINEERING, ARCHITECTURE AND GEODESY

FACULTY of CIVIL ENGINEERING

Department of Building Materials and Insulations"

The NA of Bulgaria reproduced to a great extent the withdrawn

standard BDS 7268/83, actually without taking into account the
changes occurred in a period of 25 years, from 1983 to 2008.
In its part related to the control of conformity of the compressive
strength, the NA literally reproduced the withdrawn 25/year standard.
For every one hundred batches of a certain composition, it is necessary
a test sample to be taken but not less than three test bodies per
working shift. Besides, no difference is made between initial and
continuous production.
Such conditions put the producers in non/equal situation. For example,
those who possess larger mixing facilities with a batch volume of 3 4
m3, take samples with 10 12 times less frequency.
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UNIVERSITY OF CIVIL ENGINEERING, ARCHITECTURE AND GEODESY

FACULTY of CIVIL ENGINEERING

Department of Building Materials and Insulations"

In the Bulgarian NA, in contrast to the above mentioned ones, no

instructions are given for selection of cement in the determination of
the concrete composition depending on the exploitation conditions.
This fact does not contribute for the better quality of the hardened
concrete and the durability of the building structures.

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UNIVERSITY OF CIVIL ENGINEERING, ARCHITECTURE AND GEODESY

FACULTY of CIVIL ENGINEERING

Department of Building Materials and Insulations"

Part V The influence of the economic crisis on the concrete

production in Bulgaria
/ The sharp decrease of the market led to sharp reduction of prices
and dumping in 2010/2011 in Sofia, concrete of class 25 ( 20/25)
could be delivered at the unbelievable price of 66 BGN (equal to 33.5
EUR) per cubic meter, including transport to 5km.
The concrete production began to utilize materials which, under normal conditions,
should have not been supplied to the market for example non/washed crushed
sand containing 20% powder impurities. The fly ash, which only several years ago
was not used, began to be used unscrupulously in large quantities, independently
of the application of concrete.
The lack of control additionally favored these inadmissible phenomena.
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UNIVERSITY OF CIVIL ENGINEERING, ARCHITECTURE AND GEODESY

FACULTY of CIVIL ENGINEERING

Department of Building Materials and Insulations"

Manufacturing and sales of chemical admixtures logically

followed the path of the concrete mixes and concrete. It is not
forcedly to say that at the moment in Bulgaria there is only market
for low/price admixtures, based on ligno/sulphonates,
naphthalene/sulphonates, or their mixtures.
Besides, the additives should be produced in Bulgaria or in the
region as to reduce the transport costs. The final price of such
additives is 0.40/0.45 EUR per kilogram.
The polycarboxylates have a limited application, in case of
preliminary specified high requirements to concrete.
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UNIVERSITY OF CIVIL ENGINEERING, ARCHITECTURE AND GEODESY

FACULTY of CIVIL ENGINEERING

Department of Building Materials and Insulations"

As a conclusion, one might say that at the moment in

Bulgaria concrete with strength up to 70 80 N/mm2
can be produced under a strict control exerted by the
builder and the investor.
It is strongly recommendable prescribed/by/experts
concrete compositions to be used, with preliminary/
proven properties in a specialized construction
laboratory.

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UNIVERSITY OF CIVIL ENGINEERING, ARCHITECTURE AND GEODESY

FACULTY of CIVIL ENGINEERING

Department of Building Materials and Insulations"

THANK YOU
FOR YOUR ATTENTION !!!

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