Splitting strength and abrasion resistance of concrete paving blocks as a function of dry bulk specific gravity and ultrasonic pulse velocity

Abstract

Artificial Portland cement concrete paving blocks are widely used in many countries. These paving blocks come in a variety of designs with names such as "Interlocking" and "Italian Flower", and are manufactured with special machinery using rather high quality concrete having a compressive strength of about 50 MPa. Concrete blocks are employed instead of natural cobble stones for essentially economic reasons. The laboratoiy equipment required to measure paving block splitting strength and abrasion resistance, two of the chief properties to be tested in quality checks, is costly and the tests are time-consuming and labour-intensive. The present paper reports on a detailed experimental study performed to relate the splitting strength and abrasion resistance of concrete paving blocks to "dry bulk specific gravity" (DBSG) and "ultrasonic pulse velocity" (UPV), respectively. Statistically significant regression equations describing the dependence of splitting strength on DBSG and abrasion resistance on UPV were obtained with data from random samples of material provided by seven different manufacturers.