Workability of the fresh concrete

Workability of the fresh concrete can be defined as the property of concrete to be properly compacted, transported, placed and finished sufficiently easily without segregation. The primary characteristics of workability are consistency (or fluidity) and cohesiveness. Consistency is used to measure the ease of flow of fresh concrete. And cohesiveness is used to describe the ability of fresh concrete to hold all ingredients together without segregation and excessive bleeding. Factors affecting workability include, water content, aggregate mix proportion, maximum aggregate size, aggregate properties, cement, admixtures and ambient temperature and time. Conventional test methods commonly available are 1) slump Test, 2) compacting factor test and 3) Vebe test.

The following table shows the correlation among the workability test results under different degrees of workability for the corresponding concrete applications.

Table: Correlation between workability tests