Empirical Relationship between Compressive, Flexural and Splitting Tensile Strengths of Concrete Containing Kuta Gravel as Coarse Aggregate

Abstract

Flexural and tensile strengths of concrete are of great importance in structural engineering. Understanding the flexural strength of concrete helps designers prevent and control development of cracks in concrete elements, ensuring durability. In addition to serviceability, shear, bond failure and flexural capacity in concrete members are directly linked to the tensile strength of the concrete. When compared to flexural and tensile strengths, determination of the compressive strength of concrete is easier to carry out in the field. It is therefore, customary to determine the compressive strength and correlate it to other strength properties. In this study, empirical relationships have been developed to relate the compressive strength to the flexural and splitting tensile strengths of concrete using Kuta river gravel as coarse aggregate. Using varying total aggregate to cement, coarse aggregate to total aggregate and water to cement ratios, 20 mixes were generated using Central Composite Design (CCD) in Minitab 21. The compressive, flexural and splitting tensile strengths of concrete samples from these mixes were determined at 28 days of age. From the strength data obtained, regression equations were developed that relate the strength properties with the aid of regression analysis tool in Microsoft Excel. The empirical models developed to predict the flexural and splitting tensile strengths of concrete from the compressive strength recorded R2 values of 1 for both models, P-values of 5.23 × 10−29 and 4.47 × 10−30, and standard errors of 0.21 and 0.06 respectively. Furthermore, residuals from the values of predicted strength properties show that there is very slight deviation between the experimental and predicted values. It was concluded that the empirical equations developed are significant, have high predictive capabilities and can be used in predicting the flexural and splitting tensile strengths of concrete.