14/12/2010

DOE Mix Design Method

Dr Yousif Hummaida Ahmed
Ref: Kong & Evans Reinforced and prestressed
concrete
Neville, A. M. Properties of concrete
Durocrete (an Indian company) Mix Design
Manual

Introduction
• Mix design has been influenced by a paper
authored by Dr A R Collins and published in
October 1939 and later famously known as Road
Note No.4. Method.
• There are different methods, the most famous
are the British Department of Environment
(DOE), the American Concrete Institute (ACI) and
the Indian Standard (IS) methods...etc.
• Mix design is not unique and based on emprical
formulae and is dependent on quality of
concrete ingredients.

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We will study the DOE method

• According to the DOE method a w/c ratio is first
chosen to meet the requirements for strength
and durability.
• Note that the durability requirement of the
structural codes imposes another ceiling on the
w/c ratio and for structural concrete it is
advisable that w/c should be < 0.65 irrespective
of strength requirement (see Table 2).
• Also if the concrete member will be exposed to
freezing while it is wet then w/c must be < 0.45.

Step1: target mean strength

• First determine the target mean strength (T.M.S)
which is dependent on degree of quality control.
• How to calculate the TMS:
1. Either use a specified margin or calculate a margin for a given
proportion of defectives and statistical standard deviation.
2. Obtain the target mean strength by adding the margin to the required
characteristic strength.
3. The characteristic strength (fck) is the cube strength below which not
more than 5% of the test results may fall. Thus TMS=
4. target mean strength= fck+1.64σ, in absence of data see Fig 1 as a guide
line for determining σ .

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Fig (1) Relationship between standard deviation (N/mm2)and characteristic

strength (sorry the skew is due to scanning misalignment)

Step2: Determination of W/C ratio

• Knowing the type of aggregates and cement,
use data from TABLE 1 to obtain the
compressive strength, at a specified age, that
corresponds to a free W/C =0.5

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Table 1

Step2: Determination of W/C ratio

• Problem: Suppose we are using OPC, uncrushed
aggregates to design a concrete mix of a TMS
(compressive) of 45MPa @28 days. The designated
purpose of concrete is normal to heavy reinforced
concrete (therefore slump is 10-25mm-see Table 3), use
maximum aggregate size of 20mm and the and exposure
condition is mild.
• Solution: the pair of data corresponding to OPC and
uncrushed aggregate from Table 1 is 42MPa at 28 days.
• The pair of data from the above step will be used to locate
the appropriate strength -W/C curve (dashed black line)
from Fig 2 (adapted from DOE chart 1988 ) as follows:

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Fig 2: W/C ratio and compressive strength

(DOE 1988)
Subjective and not taken account of aggregate type, shape, . Sorry the skew is due to
scanning misalignment.

Starting line using

data from Table 1

How to use Fig 2

• Follow the starting line (blue curve) (i.e.
W/C=0.5) to locate the curve that passes
through the point (42MPa and W/C=0.5)
(green arrow), in this case it is somewhere
between the 3rd and 4th curve from top
(dotted black curve).
• Using the dotted black curve to obtain
45MPa requires W/C of 0.48 (red line).

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Step 2: Determination of W/C ratio

Checking of obtained w/c against specification of durability

• If the W/C ratio obtained from this step (step

2) exceeds the maximum w/c specified for
durability (see Table 2) , then adopt the
lowest of the two, i.e.
• W/C= Minimum of (W/Cstep2 & W/CTable2)
• As exposure condition is mild, W/CTable2
<0.65, therefore we adopt the lowest, i.e.
0.48

Table2:Durability requirement BS8110:Clause 3.3.3.

(adapted from Kong & Evans Table 2.5-7 p.39)

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Sudan speciality
• In Sudan , it is rare to exceed 30MPa (ref
Faculty of Engineering, Concrete Lab Data )
with natural uncrushed aggregate. Only
crushed aggregate will give higher strength.
This is similar to India (see Indian Institute of
Technology, Delhi, youtube.com lecture
about mix design).

Remark on the IS code procedure for selecting the appropriate curve from
FIG2

• The IS recommends trial mix for selecting the curve

from the Indian set of curves (see Fig 2) which have
been established using aggregates of inferior quality
compared to Fig1 of the DOE.
• However, the previous step is recommended if you
are using an aggregate and cement sources for first
time as the identified curve can be used for future
reference.
• As we are far from the aggregate winning practices
used in in Britain. However, for the explanation let us
continue with the DOE as it has been adopted in
Sudan.

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Fig 3: W/C ratio and compressive strength

(Indian code)
A for 31.9-36.8, B for 36.8-41.7,

Fig 1 and Fig2 can be transformed to equations

• As we studied in a previous lecture that

• f concrete = A*B-w/c. (Abram’s law)
• Then
w
ln( fconcrete ) = ln( A) − ln( B )
c
• By taking any two simple points on each curve to
compute ln A and ln B, the curves can be transformed
into equations.
• good for programming mix design- e.g.microsoft
excel

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Step3: Determination of Water

content
• Knowing W/C from step 2 and given degree of
consistence (if not given estimate it from Table
3 subject to type of construction), determine the
water content from Table 4 as a function of
degree of consistence, maximum aggregate size
(m.s.a) and type of aggregates (crushed or
uncrushed)
• In our problem, m.s.a = 20mm, slump 10-25mm,
then water content from Table 4 = 160 kg/m3

Table 3: Degree of consistence (formerly workability) and its suitability for

construction types

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Table 4: Approximate water demand for different degrees of consistence

Step3: Determination of Water content: special case aggregate types are

different

• If the fine aggregate type is different from the

coarse aggregate size, say crushed and
uncrushed, then use table 4 to determine two
water content corresponding to the two type of
aggregates and take the final water content as
• ⅔Water content for fine+⅓water content for
coarse aggregate
Why? Because the fine aggregates demand more
water.

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Step 4:Determining the cement content

• Having calculated the water content then the

cement content, =
water content(fromstep3)
cementcontent(kg / m3) =
w
(fromstep2)
c
• For our problem cement content =
160/0.48=333.33≈333.5 kg/m3

Step 4: Determination of cement content

Checking of obtained cement content against specification of durability

• Check the cement content against any maximum

or minimum specified cement content.
• If the cement content obtained from step4 is
less than the minimum cement specified for
durability (see Table 2) , then adopt the highest
of the two, i.e.
• Cement content = Maximum of (cement
contentstep4 & minimum cement contentTable2)
• For our problem , the exposure condition is
mild, the minimum cement content = 275 kg/m3,
therefore we adopt the 333.5 kg/m3

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Step 4: Determination of cement content

Checking of obtained cement content against specification of durability

• If the obtained cement content is higher than

the specified maximum cement content, then
the specified strength and workability cannot
be met simultaneously with the selected
materials.
• Solution: try changing the type of cement
and , the type of aggregate and the maximum
size of aggregate (msa)

STEP 5:Determining the aggregate content

• Having calculated the water content and cement

content, the wet density of concrete can be
obtained from Fig 4 (use estimated density of
aggregates as shown in Fig 4).
• For our problem the wet density of concrete is
2400kg/m3 and we know that
• Total aggregate content (kg)= total mass of
concrete –cement content (kg)-water content
(kg).
• For our problem , the aggregate content =2400-
333.5 kg/m3- 160 kg/m3= 1906.5kg/m3

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Wet density of fully compacted concrete for various aggregate densities

STEP 5:Determining the aggregate content from

first principles
• However, the aggregates content can be calculated
from first principles. For each cubic metre of fully
compacted fresh concrete
• Volume occupied by the aggregate = 1- cement
content/ρcement –water content/ρ water
• Where ρ cement = 3150 kg/m3 and ρwater = 1000 kg/m3
• And therefore total aggregate content = ρaggregate x
(Volume occupied by the aggregate)
• where ρaggregate =2700 kg/m3 for crushed aggregate
and 2600 kg/m3 for uncrushed provided no
information is given otherwise use the given data
(1908.73 kg/m3)

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STEP 6:Determining the fine aggregate proportion

• This is determined from DOE charts (see Fig 5-a1, Fig

5-a2, Fig5-b1, Fig5-b2, Fig5-c1 and Fig5-c2) as a
function of %age of fine aggregate passed sieve
600µm, m.s.a., consistence degree and W/C
• For our problem assume we have 28% passed sieve
600µm, first determine the curve based slump 10-
25mm, m.s.a =20mm and W/C=0.48 . The curve of Fig
5-b1 is identified and interpolated corresponding to
28% (dotted green line) is used in conjunction with
w/c ratio of 0.48 (dotted blue line) to get the fine
aggregate percentage of 40 (dotted red line).
• Therefore, the coarse aggregate proportion
=0.6*1906.5= 1143.9 kg and fine aggregate
=0.4*1906.5 =762.6 kg

Fig 5-a1
Recommended proportions of fine aggregate passing a 600μ sieve.
Max size 40mm / label of horizontal axis is “free w/c”
label of vertical axis is “proportion of fine aggregate (%)”

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Fig 5-a2
Recommended proportions of fine aggregate passing a 600μ sieve.
Max size 40mm / label of horizontal axis is “free w/c”
label of vertical axis is “proportion of fine aggregate (%)”

Fig 5-b1
Recommended proportions of fine aggregate passing a 600μ sieve.
Max size 20mm / label of horizontal axis is “free w/c”
label of vertical axis is “proportion of fine aggregate (%)”

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Fig 15-b2
Recommended proportions of fine aggregate passing a 600μ sieve.
Max size 20mm / label of horizontal axis is “free w/c”
label of vertical axis is “proportion of fine aggregate (%)”

Fig 5-c1
Recommended proportions of fine aggregate passing a 600μ sieve.
Max size 10mm / label of horizontal axis is “free w/c”
label of vertical axis is “proportion of fine aggregate (%)”

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Fig 5-c2
Recommended proportions of fine aggregate passing a 600μ sieve.
Max size 10mm / label of horizontal axis is “free w/c”
label of vertical axis is “proportion of fine aggregate (%)”

ACI Method is much easier and allows for air-ntraned

concrete design, however, the construction industry in
Sudan use the DOE method

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Summary
• Different mix design methods give empirical
relations to find the water demand.
• The DOE has major 6 steps summarised as
follows
• Trial mixes are necessary to validate foreign
charts and empirical formulae used by
different code, e.g. DOE, ACI, IS etc.
• It is our duty to develop national code, needs
a final year project to address this issue.

Summary
• Different mix design methods give empirical
relations to find the water demand.
• The DOE has major 6 steps summarised as
follows:
1. Determination of TMS
2. Determination of W/C
3. Determination of free water content
4. Determination of cement content
5. Determination of total aggregate content
6. Determination of fine aggregate proportions

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