INDUSTRIAL FIELD VISIT ON THE ELS PRE-CAST YARD AT SOORIYAWEWA

(10th Feb 2012)

Name Reg No Date

: Bandara K.A. J.M. : RU/E/2008/014 : 29/03/2012

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT I take this opportunity to thank everybody those who helped me in various ways. First and foremost I would like to thank the Engineering laboratory services (ELS), to organizing and arranging such an event in order to get knowledge.

Especially I express my sincere gratitude to faculty of Engineering University of Ruhuna for giving me such an opportunity. Also its my duty to thank Dr. G.S.Y. De Silva for organizing such an event to improve the knowledge and giving us a great opportunity to visit the location.

Last but not least I would like dedicate my special thanks to my colleagues and family members for the tremendous support and encouragement given and to all those who made this possible.

CONTENT Page ACKNOWLEDGEMENT 1.0 INTRODUCTIONS 2.0 PRECAST REINFORCED CONCRETE PILE 2.1 CONSTRUCTION STEP 3.0 ELECTRIC POLES 3.1 ADVANTAGES OF PRESTRESSING 3.2 TEST OF STRAIGHTNESS OF POLE 4.0 HUME PIPE CONSTRUCTION 5.0 INTERLOCKING BLOCKS 6.0 MASONRY BLOCKS 7.0 PRE-STRESSED CONCRETE SLEEPERS 8.0 OTHER PRODUCTS DISCUSSION 01 03 04 04 06 07 08 08 09 09 10 11 12

1.0 INTRODUCTIONS The industrial field visit to Sooriyawewa was organized by the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering under faculty Of Engineering, Hapugala, in order to accustom knowledge about the pre stress concrete structures and other construction process. The time duration being one day from 10th Feb 2012 was spend to study at Sooriyawewa pre-cast yard of ELS construction (pvt) Ltd. The ELS Construction (pvt) Ltd is proudly announce to all esteemed Professionals, Consultants and Contractors involved in the Construction Industry of the establishment of a well-equipped material testing and quality control laboratory to meet all such requirements of the construction industry in the new millennium. This yard produced several engineering construction produces. Mainly electrical poles, pavement block, precast pile and also bridge beam and road components. Poles (CEB) Reinforcement Concrete Piles Hume Pipes Sleepers Slab system Fence Post Building Products Boundary Wall Products Hollow Blocks RC Bridge Components Drain Elements (U Flumes) Road Work Elements

METHODOLOGIES AND TECHNOLOGY 2.0 PRECAST REINFORCED CONCRETE PILE The most common pile type in many parts of the world is the precast concrete pile. Precast concrete piles are commonly manufactured in this yard is square and ranging from about 250 mm to about 450 mm, with a maximum section length of up to about 10 m.

Figure 2.1 7m precast pile

The piles have generally been driven with a drop hammer of 3 to 4 tons. Maximum allowable axial loads can be up to about 1 000 kN. The length of pile sections is often dictated by practical considerations including transportation, handling problems in sites on restricted area and facilities at the casting yard sot that were produced 7m length pile. Precast concrete piles are not suitable for soil deposits containing a significant amount of boulders. In such cases, the pile may be equipped with a pile shoe, which protects the pile tip during hard driving.

2.1 CONSTRUCTION STEP The moulds, joined together in rows, are individually formed and separated between each row. After casting and initial curing the rams operated the cams enabling the moulds to flex for easy stripping or striking of the pile.

Figure 2.2 Reinforcement precast pile

Figure 2.3 Hydraulic vibrate

All piles are reinforced full length with cages made from high tensile steel coil fed through a purpose built computer controlled fabricating and welding robot. The fully automatic robot wraps hard drawn stirrup wire around the main bars and welds every metal-to-metal joint to produce an exceptionally rigid cage. The cages are placed in the special moulds ready for casting the perfectly symmetrically square section piles. Pile sections incorporate full-length chamfered corners and a domed head, which dispenses with reinforcement bands needed for driving conventional flat-topped piles.

Main-Bar and shear-steel reinforcement have been caged which are both fabricated and positioned very accurately over the full length of the pile section. Use of a concrete with an appropriate mix design(50Grade) provided by an approved ready-mix plant that is fully integrated into the production process.

Figure 2.4 Steams chamber

Figure 2.4 Coconut steams boiler

The boiler that is provided steam for steam curing is run by using diesel or coconut shells. Using of coconut shells is cheaper than using of diesel. Piles are entered into a room and door of the room is closed. Then steam is provided into the room by using pipes which comes from the boiler. Piles are vibrated before entering the room to prevent honey cones and gain maximum strength itself. A surface vibrator is used for the vibration. Five or six piles are vibrated as once and entered into the curing room.

Figure 2.5 Raw material of coconut

Figure 2.6 Diesel steams boiler

3.0 ELECTRIC POLES

There are 2 types of electric poles such as solids and hollow. All poles are constructed according to the CEB specifications and requirement. They are manufactured in a wide range of strengths and sizes to fill most requirements in MV and LV lines. Steel reinforcement used for the CEB poles and High tensile steel wire used for pre-stressing normally 12.5mm diameter wire used for pre-stressing. Ordinary Portland cement used as cement and 50 N/mm2 strength ready-mix concrete used.

Figure 3.1 Reinforcement of pole

Figure 3.2 Mould of pole

High tension reinforcement wire that is imported by India are used to pre stressed electric poles. Lock cut are join to 2 sides of the reinforcement. One side is jack and the other side is fixed. A force of 140 bars is provided to high tension reinforcement. 10 electric poles can be casted in one bed. After 7 days of concreting the reinforcements are released and the excessive parts of there reinforcement wires are cut. Then anti corroded paint is applied at both end of the poles.

Figure 3.3 Reinforcement wires end

Figure 3.4 Curing processes of poles

3.1 ADVANTAGES OF PRESTRESSING The use of pre-stressed concrete offers distinct advantages over ordinary reinforced concrete. These advantages can be briefly listed as follows: Pre-stressing minimizes cracking by holding the concrete in a state of compression. Pre-stressing allows reduced beam depths to be achieved for equivalent design strengths. Pre-stressed concrete is resilient and will recover from the effects of a greater degree of overload than any other structural material. If the pre-stressed unit is subjected to overloading, cracks which might develop will close as soon as the overloading ceases. Pre-stressing enables both structural elements and entire structures to be formed from several precast units, e.g. segmented and modular construction. Pre-stressing permits the use of longer spanning members with high strength-to-weight characteristics. The ability to control deflections in pre-stressed beams and slabs permits the use of longer spans. Pre-stressing permits a more efficient usage of high-tensile steel and high strength concrete.

3.2 TEST OF STRAIGHTNESS OF POLE For measuring uprightness or straightness of a pole, it shall be placed lengthwise (with smaller crosssection side parallel to rigid surface) on a rigid straight surface. Then using a measuring steel scale at graduated in mm, measure the distance (deviation) of pole surface from the rigid surface at several locations along the length of the pole. At least two measuring in each one meter length of the pole should be taken. The largest value of the measured distance shall be taken for determine uprightness. Similar measurement should be taken on the pole laid with larger cross-section side parallel to the rigid surface.

4.0 HUME PIPE CONSTRUCTION There are several sizes of Hume pipes in different diameters like 100, 200, 3001200mm etc. The construction method of Hume pipes is as bellow. Hume pipe are casted according to the centrifugal method by using a dry concrete. Thickness of the pipe and the quality is maintained. Pipes are casted according to SLS certificate. 10mm main bar is used to construction. Auto feeding concrete machine is used to apply concrete to the casting. Cover blocks are used to maintain the thickness of the pipe.

Figure 4.1 Hume pipe mould

Figure 4.1 Reinforcement of Hume pipe

First the reinforcement net placed inside the shutter and then it was placed on the wheels and the mortar was started, the shutter was allowed to rotate sometimes. Then while rotating concrete was added from both sides of the shutter. Then time to time concrete was diffused by using a stick. Also sand and water should be added to keep the mixer uniformly throughout the shutter. After concreting process finished the pipes kept about 3 days and then the shutter was removed. Then the pipes were kept in a tank to give a sufficient curing. The 3 edge bearing test is done for the cylinder in load for linear meter. There are required load according to ISO certificate. The check for cracking is done at the bottom and the top. Here the crack widhth and the depth should be satisfy. The crack width should be 4 -2 mm. then the ultimate load is supplied.

5.0 INTERLOCKING BLOCKS There is a high trend to use interlocking blocks for road construction and sustainable building construction due to their low cost and thermal comfort. ELS (Pvt) Ltd has its own patent for interlocking block casting machine and quarry dust, river sand and ordinary Portland cement were used to cast to brick with 7-8 Mpa compressive strength. There are more types of bricks according to their shape and task.

Figure 5.1 A type of blocks

Figure 5.2 Mixing machine of mortar

6.0 MASONRY BLOCKS There are hollow and solid type masonry blocks. The most economical and easiest one is hollow blocks. A one story building can be made by using hollow blocks within one month. Plaster is no need for hollow block constructions. 18kg of Cement and 140kg of Corry dusts are used to made masonry blocks. If we use interlocking hollow blocks the foundation should be flat and the finishing is better than using of other masonry blocks.

Figure 6.1 compressive machine

Figure 6.2 Produced masonry blocks

7.0 PRE-STRESSED CONCRETE SLEEPERS Production method of pre-stressed concrete sleepers Concrete sleepers is same as the construction method of reinforcement piles. Pre-stressed mechanism will be described in construction of electric poles.

Figure 7.1 Pre-stressed concrete sleepers The test for the sleepers is done for the fastness of the sleepers. A load applies to pull out the fastness and find out the pull out capacity. Center positive bending capacity test and negative bending capacity tests are done for the sleepers.

8.0 OTHER PRODUCTS There are some other products such as flower vases, Hand rails, bridge components, Slabs, Beams and etc. Some of them are under the condition of researching. Constructing of some of them is temporary stopped because of the rare of the requesting of the field. Some of them such as slabs and beams are prestress while the other is pre cast items.

Figure 8.1 concrete roof tiles

Figure 8.2 concrete slabs

Figure 8.1 Bridge components

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DISCUSSION Once heard thing may be forgotten but once visited thing never forgotten. This main purpose of field trip conducted by Department knowledge requires for engineers in industrial field is fulfilled in this visit.

The subject concrete and structural is really one of the most important subjects for civil engineer. Finally it will be better to say that if there had not been any field visit, we would not have learnt a lot of this information as theoretical knowledge is not enough for field work. So this information helped a lot us for study and later on during field works.

So I recommend ELS precast yard at Sooriyawewa is a very good location to visit as an undergraduate who are mainly involve in that section. Not only it helps to develop the knowledge, gives us a great practice too. Nowadays people tend to use new findings rather than old conventional things. ELS is a place, which has higher influence in new innovations. So I think it is a very good place to visit and get some idea about their findings and creations also well.

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