Development of Rational Pay Factors Based on Concrete Compressive Strength Data

This research project addresses the opportunity to contain the escalating costs of concrete materials in construction projects. Both statistical process control and rational acceptance criteria show that quality improvement and cost savings can be achieved. The report presents a comprehensive statistical evaluation of the compressive strength of concrete used in various sectors of the transportation infrastructure in Arizona. The proposed methodology is applicable to the concrete materials specified at other industrial sectors such as privately financed construction projects. Several case studies are conducted based on actual field data to show that performance based specification procedures can be used to improve the quality control process while decreasing the overall construction costs. Three sets of compressive data from various construction projects were selected. These data were evaluated by means of statistical process-control tools while state-of-the-art procedures were utilized to evaluate the strength as a measure of quality. Several acceptance criteria based on the percent within limit (PWL) and operational-characteristic curves (OC) are proposed and evaluated. Various pay factor equations are considered and the historical records are evaluated based on hypothetical pay factor equations.

• Record URL:
  • http://apps.azdot.gov/ADOTLibrary/publications/project_reports/PDF/AZ608.pdf
• Corporate Authors:

  Arizona State University, Tempe

  Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, P.O. Box 875306
  Tempe, AZ  United States  85287-5306

  Arizona Department of Transportation

  206 South 17th Avenue
  Phoenix, AZ  United States  85007

  Federal Highway Administration

  1200 New Jersey Avenue, SE
  Washington, DC  United States  20590
• Authors:
  • Laungrungrong, Busaba
  • Mobasher, Barzin
  • Montgomery, Douglas
• Publication Date: 2008-6

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Print
• Edition: Final Report
• Features: Appendices; Figures; References; Tables;
• Pagination: 92p

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Acceptance tests; Compressive strength; Concrete; Concrete structures; Construction projects; Performance based specifications; Quality control
• Uncontrolled Terms: Pay factors; Percent within limits
• Subject Areas: Construction; Highways; Materials; I32: Concrete;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01111152
• Record Type: Publication
• Report/Paper Numbers: FHWA-AZ-08-608
• Contract Numbers: SPR-PL-1(69)608
• Files: TRIS, USDOT, STATEDOT
• Created Date: Sep 24 2008 10:38AM