An NRMCA research paper titled Relating the Electrical Resistance of Fresh Concrete to Mixture Proportion recently received the Advances in Civil Engineering Materials’ Outstanding Article Award for 2018. Advances in Civil Engineering Materials’ (ACEM) is the premier civil engineering journal of ASTM International. The paper was co-authored by NRMCA's Karthik Obla, Rongjin Hong and Stuart Sherman,and Dale Bentz and Scott Jones from the National Institute of Standards (NIST). The award is presented once a year to author(s) of an outstanding full-length paper (research, application, review, interlaboratory report, test procedure or case study) published in ACEM during the previous calendar year. There were 78 papers published in 2018. Each author is recognized by the Society’s Committee on Publications for making a significant contribution toward a particular field of interest to ASTM. The criteria for judgment are that the paper be outstanding in style, clarity and significance of content, with promise of high influence in an area of ASTM interest. Judging is based on quality, original, subject matter and timeliness.
The concrete work discussed in the paper was conducted at the NRMCA Research Laboratory in College Park, MD, and the cement paste work was conducted at NIST laboratory. The paper concluded that, "only measuring the concrete electrical resistance can provide a prediction of the mixture’s paste content or the product water*cement; conversely, when pore solution resistivity is also available, w/c and water content of the concrete mixture can be reasonably assessed.” The full article can be downloaded here.
The NRMCA Research Laboratory conducts applied research and contract testing for the benefit of the concrete industry. Click here for more information.
National Ready Mixed Concrete Association