Concrete Lining Production in Hydropower Plants

Regarding material viewpoint, concrete itself could be described as a mixture of sand, cement, aggregate, water, admixture and air. Practically speaking, concrete consists a lot of inter-depend task. The basic way to achieve this target is to produce concrete with low water cement ration (W/C).

The use of plasticizer or superplasticiser will allow producing concrete with low W/C by still maintaining suitable workability. Water reducers or high range water reducing and set retarding admixture have been used worldwide in this matter. Sometime due to very high solid content of the water flowing into the structure, it is requested to produce concrete that provide excellent abrasion resistance. In this case the use of silica fume will be recommended. Other benefits when using silica fume are production of watertight, durable, high strength concrete. High strength development will be achieved by using a ultra water reducer.

Seeing that high quality concrete is one of the main requirements from each designer, it will be necessary to keep this objective during all concrete production process. This concept will start by spraying mold release agent* on the formwork surface prior to pour concrete. When concrete has been produced using admixtures cited above, it will be necessary to cure it properly. Antisol range – curing compound – grouping different chemical base will allow protecting concrete from pre water lost and therefore limiting cracks.

More details on concrete production for hydro-power plants will be discussed on next post. More helpful information can be also found on