International Research Journal of Engineering and Technology (IRJET) e-ISSN: 2395 -0056 Volume: 02 Issue: 04 | July-2015 www.irjet.net p-ISSN: 2395-0072 © 2015, IRJET.NET- All Rights Reserved Page 782 Comparative study of M35 and M40 grades of concrete by ACI, DOE, USBR and BIS methods of mix design using rounded aggregate Munish Garg 1 , Satwinder Singh 2 , Sharandeep Singh 3 1 2 3 PG Student, CIVIL Engineering, NITTTR, Chandigarh, India ---------------------------------------------------------------------***--------------------------------------------------------------------- Abstract - As the demand of the concrete is increasing day by day and it has become the largest consumption material now a days. The constituents of the concrete are selected on the basis of availability, economic, feasibility of the work for which it is to be used. But sometimes the requirements of the material is altered (i.e. aggregate) due to various reasons, so in that case to maintain the particular standards, it is must to know the best method in terms of strength and economy. There are various methods for concrete designing which are being adopted by different countries i.e. Bureau of Indian standard method, British mix method, United States bureau of reclamation. So therefore, similarities and differences between the design mixes should be studied, as these will help in selecting the best method for different condition. These methods are mostly based on empirical relations, charts, graphs, and tables developed through extensive experiments and investigations using locally available materials. The main objective of present work is to compare different methods of concrete mix design for economy, locally available material and also for the properties of concrete with different aggregates. Key Words: Mix design methods, types of aggregates, feasibility. 1. INTRODUCTION In its simplest form, concrete is a mixture of paste and aggregates. The paste, composed of Portland cement and water, coats the surface of the fine and coarse aggregates. Through a chemical reaction called hydration, the paste hardens and gains strength to form the rock-like mass known as concrete. Within this process lies the key to a remarkable characteristic of concrete: it is plastic and malleable when freshly mixed, strong and durable when hardened. The key to achieving a strong, durable concrete rests in the careful selection and proportioning of its constituent ingredients. The properties and proportion of these ingredients plays a vital role in deciding the physical and chemical properties. Design mix methods helps in deciding the proportions, thus helps in promoting the best method. All the four methods (ACI, DOE, USBR and BIS) are proportionate ingredients according to standard procedure, empirical relations, charts, graphs, and tables developed through extensive experiments. By designing the same design mixes, these methods can be compared completely, in terms of strength and also deviation can be determined. From this process, best method will be projected and to carry out this procedure some methodology has to be applied, as the variation in the aggregate is included. So the interpretation between these samples has to be compared for various parameters i.e. strength, economy. The compressive strength of hardened concrete which is generally considered to be an index of its other properties, depends upon many factors, e.g. quality and quantity of cement, water and aggregates; batching and mixing; placing, compaction and curing. The cost of concrete is made up of the cost of materials, plant and labour. The variations in the cost of materials arise from the fact that the cement is several times costly than the aggregate, thus the aim is to produce as lean a mix as possible. Some time site conditions often restrict the quality and quantity of ingredient materials. Concrete mix design offers a lot of flexibility on type of aggregates to be used in mix design. Mix design can give an economical solution based on the available materials if they meet the basic IS requirements. This can lead to saving in transportation costs from longer distances. The actual cost of concrete is related to the cost of materials required for producing a minimum mean strength called characteristic strength that is specified by the designer of the structure. 2. LITERATURE REVIEW K. Baskaran et.al. (2013) [1] A comparative study on both ACI and DOE mix design methods, to select the initial mix proportion for the paving blocks was carried out. Quantities of constituents were estimated for characteristic compressive strengths (cylinder strength for ACI method and cube strength for DOE method), from 15 N/mm 2 to 50 N/mm 2 . Based on the estimated proportions, trial mixes were cast and tested for compression at 7 and 28 days. When paving blocks are mix proportioned as per ACI mix design method, the achieved compressive strengths are higher than the compressive strength requirements of Sri Lankan Standard for paving blocks. Whereas a correlation being observed between the achieved compressive strength of paving blocks and the grade designation. Similarly, when paving blocks are mix