Experimental study on the effect of ambient temperature on ready-mix concrete strength. Part 2: Industrial implementation

This paper is the second part of an experimental study about the effect of environmental temperature on the concrete performance, from an industrial perspective. An earlier article on its effect on aggregate, paste, mortar and concrete workability and mechanical properties reported that high temperature had a clearly adverse impact on strength, which can generally be offset with overdoses of both cement and water to maintain the original water/cement ratio. In this second part of the paper the basis of a methodological formulation is presented, with the purpose of carry out the optimization of the overdosage of cement in concrete in hot climates, in order to be industrially implemented in ready mix concrete plants. This proposal has been successfully applied in some ready mix concrete plants of the company Promotora Mediterránea 2, S.A. (PROMSA), considering that the cement content (overdosage) in concrete can be optimized without any adverse effect in its performance, reason why it is possible to reduce the production costs of concrete without reducing its quality.