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CEMENTITIOUS MATERIALS/AGGREGATES
Concrete applications using GGBS
Denis Higgins of the Cementitious Slag
Makers Association outlines some recent
examples using high levels of ground-
granulated blast-furnace slag (GGBS).
H
anson Cement has recently been involved with
four projects where the cementitious content
of the concrete has comprised 70%, or more, of
GGBS. These have ranged from a pedestrian footbridge,
to the Tyne Tunnel, to a storage facility for nuclear-
waste products, to the highest building in Europe.
The company assisted with the design and
construction of the Bourg pedestrian bridge in
Aylesbury town centre. The single-span cable-stay
bridge spanning the gap from the bus station to the
Friars Square shopping centre was part of a major
development to promote sustainable transport links in
and around Aylesbury. The engineer Jacobs wanted to
enhance the visual appearance of the bridge and also
the sustainability of the construction materials. A70%
GGBS mix was selected to give the mast its aesthetically
pleasing lighter colour and to reduce the greenhouse
gas emissions associated with the concrete.
Afurther technical requirement for the concrete
was that it had to be self-compacting, to assist in the
construction of the 35m-high reinforced concrete mast.
Test panels of the proposed concrete were prepared for
colour matching and calculations were done to ensure
that the heat evolution in the nearly 3m-thick plinth and
base was adequately low to avoid cracking. Hanson was
involved at various points of the design and specification
process and was frequently on-site for trial panels and
technical control tests.
TyneTunnel
The new Tyne Tunnel is due to open in February 2011
and is the third vehicle tunnel in the UK to be built
using the immersed-tube technique. The 1.5km-Iong
tunnel runs parallel to the existing Tyne Tunnel and
will create a dual carriageway between East Howdon in
north Tyneside and Jarrow in south Tyneside.
GGBS has been extensively used in the tunnel's
construction, in slurry cut-off walls, in he precast
tunnel segments and in the diaphragm walls. The four
immersed tubes were precast concrete sections 90m
long x 8m high x 15m wide and required a total of
14,400m3 of70% GGBS concrete, which was supplied by
Bardon Concrete.
Using its database of previous temperature studies,
Hanson was able to provide Bardon Concrete with the
data and information needed to progress the mix design
for these tunnel sections, where the concern was to
control the early-age temperature rise and avoid thermal
cracking.
A70% GGBS mix was also used in diaphragm walls
that were up to 35m deep and in the north approach
base and roof slabs. The concrete for these was supplied
by Tarmac and as Dave Dobson, Tarmac's technical
manager, says, "The area surrounding the diaphragm
walls had been used for shipbuilding and the concrete
is up against some nasty chemicals in places." The
exposure classes determined by the ground conditions
led to the use of 70% GGBS in order to protect the
concrete from adverse chemical reactions. To speed
up formwork striking times for the roof slab, Hanson
Cement lent Tarmac its temperature-matched curing
apparatus and trained Tarmac's staff to use it. This
apparatus cures test cubes at the same temperature as
that achieved in the concrete structure and provided an
accurate method of determining the actual strength in
the roof slab.
The test cubes were tested at Tarmac's laboratory.
Downloading the temperature data and preparing
maturity graphs enabled the concreting subcontractor,
Dunne, to decide when it was safe to remove the
supporting props.
Sellafield
Aspecially produced GGBS is used by Sellafield Ltd
in grouts for the encapsulation of waste from nuclear
power stations; these have a high GGBS:cement ratio, up
to 9:1. As well as the provision
of grouts, Hanson reviewed and
commented on the 30-page
handbook that Sellafield has
produced to provide best-
practice guidance for the
production and use of concrete
across the whole Sellafield
site. One current project is the
construction of a 23m-high,
football pitch-sized, additional
'encapsulated product store' for
intermediate-level waste.
The 32,000m3 of concrete
needed for the construction
of this store is being supplied
from an on-site ready-mixed
plant situated inside the
Sellafield complex. The
concretes contain up to 70%
GGBS and were developed by
Sellafield, in conjunction with
Hanson Concrete and Laing
O'Rourke, specifically for this
challenging application.
The Shard
In April, Hanson Cement supplied thousands of tonnes A 70% GGBS mix supplied
of GGBS to London Concrete for 5000m3 of 75% by Hanson was used as
cement replacement on
GGBS concrete in the base slab for the London Bridge Bourg Bridge in Aylesbury.
Tower. Nicknamed 'The Shard of Glass', this tower is
designed by the Italian architect Renzo Piano and is
being constructed over a working underground station.
Standing at 310m tall, it is destined to be the tallest
building in Europe. At the bottom is the redevelopment
of London Bridge station's concourse and there will be
public areas on floors 1-3. Above these will be 27 floors
of offices and then a luxury hotel on floors 34-52 and
finally ten floors of flats with panoramic views over
London.
This is one of several jobs where Hanson has worked
with structural designer WSP Group and concrete
contractor Byrne Bros. With the designer aiming to set
new sustainability standards for tall buildings, the use of
high-percentage GGBS in the base slab not only reduced
the propensity for early-age thermal movement and
cracking but also provided a sustainable solution to a
complex engineering problem.•
www.concrete.org.uk JUNE 2010 concrete 55