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ABSTRACT
The rate and speed with which computer and computer application software is fast taking over every sphere of human endeavor and walks of life are becoming increasingly attractive, with the construction industry not an exception to these developments. Before now, the methods of design followed a tedious use of design tables, charts, graphs and, of course, services of manipulation and calculations to arrive at a required proportion of concrete ingredients, including water, that will produce the desired concrete compressive strength in a stipulated period, usually 28 days. Although these applications (software) make work faster and easier, their integrity, reliability and performance must be tested before actual field application. In this work, an application software, Eigen A+, for the mix design was given all the required inputs and raw data of the properties of the ingredients of the concrete to be used for the purpose as obtained in the laboratory. An output was immediately received comprising of cement, fine, coarse aggregate and the water proportions; a trial mix of these concrete constituents was conducted and tested for its compressive strength in 7, 14 and 28th days. The result shows that the application was of proven integrity and reliability with a strength of 38.52N/mm2, 40.39N/mm2 and 47.67N/mm2 at 50-50 (20/10mm) coarse aggregate, respectively and at 60-40 coarse aggregates (20/10mm), strengths of 41.77N/mm2, 48.10N/mm2 and 50.86N/mm2 were obtained respectively. Some factors above the design target strength, making the software of proven integrity. Therefore, all application software design output and modeling results should be tested in the laboratory with the actual components in place and the testing machines to arrive at the certainty of purpose.
Keywords: Mix Design, Concrete, Compressive Strength, Concrete Batching
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