DOE Methods of Concrete Mix Design

Concrete Mix Design - As easy as it looks

Concrete mix design is the process of finding the proportions of concrete mix in terms of ratios of cement, sand and coarse aggregates

The DOE method of mix design is an improvement over Road Note No. 4 method. This method of concrete mix design or proportioning mainly is based on the extensive field and laboratory experiments carried out by Road Research laboratory U.K. The Road Note 4 method was published for the first time in 1950. This method of mix design was most popular and widely used upto 1970 all over the world.

The DOE method was first published in 1975 and revised in 1988. The DOE method of mix design is applicable to all types of concrete mixes including roads, while Road Note No. 4 was applicable to roads and air fields only. This method can also be used for concrete containing fly ash. DOE method is a standard method of mix design in U.K. now. This method used the relationship between water/cement ratio and compressive strength depending on the type of cement and aggregate used.

The water contents required to give various levels of workability, as very low, low, medium and high expressed in term of slumps or Vee Bee time or compacting factor, are determined for the two types of aggregates as crushed aggregate and gravel. This method is suitable for mix design of normal concrete mixes having 28 days cube compressive strength upto 75 MPa for non-air entrained concrete.