Shotcrete is a mortar that you can deposit by jetting at high velocity. Shotcrete offers many advantages over traditional concrete due to fewer formwork requirements. It only requires a portable plant for manufacture and thus is easy to apply. Connect it to a long hose and you can get easy access to the areas that were otherwise hard to reach.
There are two types of shotcrete that you can define based on the time. Here are two different types:
Dry Mix Process
You create dry mix shotcrete by adding water to the nozzle. It requires the mixing of cement and wet aggregates at the required proportion before supplying it to the shotcreting device. You can later place the mix on the device hopper. During shotcreting, the mix is taken from the hopper to the nozzle through the delivery hose of the equipment while being under the action of compressed air.
Soon the dry mix reaches the nozzle, there is a spray of water under high pressure to the mix through a perforated ring that is attached to the equipment. Spraying wets the dry mix and hence you get the dry mix shotcrete. You can now start jetting this dry mix shotcrete on the surface with more velocity.
Either the nozzleman or placing operator controls the amount of water that you need to add for the dry-mix shotcrete process and the water-cement ratio is in the range of 0.33 and 0.50. Usually, water is controlled by employing a valve present in the device. It can transmit the material to a distance of 300 to 500 m horizontally and 45 to 100 m vertically.
Wet Mix Process
In this process, you mix all the ingredients to form mortar or concrete with the required water content before putting it into a shotcreting device. Either a positive displacement type or a pneumatic–feed type of delivery equipment you can use. It involves forcing the wet mix to the nozzle through the delivery hose with the help of compressed air. You can later jet this wet mix concrete at a high velocity. There are no placing operators and the nozzleman controls the rate and amount of compressed air that you can introduce. Moreover, nozzleman has no direct control over the concrete properties, and also wet mix prepared requires transportation facilities. It offers the gear capability of placing concrete at the rate of 3 to 9 m3/hour.
Application of Shotcrete
Shotcrete finds a huge application in different construction like thin overhead vertical or horizontal surfaces, particularly the curved or folded sections. For example, you can use it for the canal, reservoir, and tunnel lining, swimming pools, water retaining structures, and prestressed tanks.
Conclusion
Shotcrete is capable of excellent bonding with different materials and hence is ideal for many projects. Moreover, you can easily apply it in any direction, and it is also feasible to customize. Take the help of an expert at http://www.proshotcretebrisbane.com/ for its ideal application on almost any concrete application project
