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By William Hirsch
Use our Concrete Round Column Calculator to determine just how much concrete you need to mix for your job. You will never mix the wrong amount of concrete for any job again. Take a few simple measurements, select your units, and our calculator will return the number of cubic yards you will need to finish your job. Estimate concrete volume required for concrete columns Engineering ToolBox - Resources, Tools and Basic Information for Engineering and Design of Technical Applications! - the most efficient way to navigate the Engineering ToolBox!
Concrete pads must be able to withstand hundreds of pounds of force from the supporting structures placed on them. To calculate the load that a concrete pad can support, you need to know its width, length, depth and its strength.
Determine the Concrete's Strength
Determine the Pad's Area
Determine the Pad's Thickness
- Consult the manufacturer for the stress capacity of your specific concrete before use.Reinforcing concrete with rebar will increase its strength.
Not all concrete is the same strength. Before trying to determine how strong a pad is, you must first know how strong the concrete is. This is normally measured as compression strength, measured by pounds per square inch, or psi. A common bag of concrete, for example, may have a compression strength of 4,000 psi, based on a thickness of 2 inches after it has set for 28 days. Other concrete may have a compression strength of only 550 psi.
Measure the length and width of the top surface of the concrete pad in inches and then multiply them to get the pad's area in square inches. For example, the length is 20 inches and the width is 15 inches, the area is 300 square inches.
Knowing a concrete pad's thickness or depth is vital if you need to determine the load it can withstand. If the concrete pad is two-inches thick and the concrete manufacturer's stated compression strength is based on that thickness, then you can simply multiply the area by the stated psi to determine how much weight the pad can bear. If the pad is of a different thickness, you will need to use an engineering table, or learn some complex equations, to calculate the weight it can withstand.
For example, a 6-inch pad with a compression strength of 700 psi can support 1,105 psi. If it was 7 inches thick, it could support 1,194 psi, and if it was 12-inches thick, it could support 1,563 psi.
In this article, you are going to learn
- How to calculate the volume of concrete for Slabs, Beams, Columns, Footings & structural members of the building.
- And how to use an automatic calculator to find quantities of individual constituents of concrete (Cement, Sand, Aggregate & Water)
The procedure for calculating the quantities of cement, sand, aggregate & water is already discussed. If you are not aware of the procedure read here.
If you are here for automatic calculator click here or to calculate the volume of concrete for different structural members follow me:-
In order to calculate quantities of cement, sand, aggregate & water required for any concrete volume. Firstly, we have to work out the volume of concrete and then, quantities of individual ingredients are computed.
Let’s begin with the basics.
Contents
Definition of Volume:-
Volume is an amount of space that occupies. For example, take a glass and fill it with water, the water that occupies the space in the glass is called as the volume of water in the glass.
Same for concrete, take a box of length (1m), breadth,(1m) depth(1m) and fill it with concrete.
The Volume of concrete for below box= Length x Breadth x Depth= 1m x 1m x 1m =1m3
To fill 1m3 of box, 25KN of concrete is required. [1KN = 1000Kgs].
Density of Concrete = 25KN/m3
Volume is the calculation of 3dimensional, which means the three dimensions are multiplied.
The basic definition of the volume = multiplication of the three dimensions = L x B x D
The formula changes as per shape, but methodology remains same to calculate the volume of any shape i.e., the three dimensions should be multiplied. Take an example of the cylinder which doesn’t have length and breadth. To calculate the volume of a cylinder, the area of the circle is calculated and then it is multiplied by the height of the cylinder. (refer below mentioned circular column for cylinder example)
To avoid confusion, consider the below-mentioned formula for concrete volume calculation.
Formulae for Calculating Volume of Concrete:-
The Volume of concrete= Surface Area x Depth
Calculation of Volume of concrete for Slabs:
A slab is in the shape of a rectangle, In order to calculate the volume of concrete required for the slab, find out the surface area of the slab and then multiply it with the depth/thickness of slab as shown in fig.
From the above fig Length = 6m, Breadth = 5m and thickness/depth of the slab = 0.15m
Volume of Concrete = Area of rectangle x Depth
Area of Rectangle = Length x Breadth
The Volume of concrete = Length x Breadth x Depth = 6x5x0.15=4.5m3
Hence, 4.5m3of concrete is required to build an above slab.
The Volume of concrete = Length x Breadth x Depth = 6x5x0.15=4.5m3
Hence, 4.5m3of concrete is required to build an above slab.
Remember, all values should be computed in m.
Calculation of volume of concrete for the column:
The column may be in any shape, either it may be in rectangular or circular or hexagonal etc.
Volume of concrete = Surface Area x Depth
Rectangular column:
From the above fig, Length = 0.6m, Breadth=0.4m, Height of column = 3m
Calculating the top surface area and multiplying it with the depth or height of the column.
Volume of Concrete = 0.6×0.4×3= 0.72m3
Circular column:
From below fig, radius of circle = 0.25m.
Volume of concrete for circular column = Surface Area of Circle x height of column.
Volume of Circular column = πr2 x 3 = 3.14 x 0.252 x3 = 0.58m3
Calculation of volume of concrete for beams:-
Beams are generally in rectangular shape, to calculate the volume of concrete required for beams calculate the top or bottom surface area of beam and multiply with the depth of beams.
Volume of concrete for rectangular beam = Surface area x Depth = length x width x depth = 4×0.5×0.4=0.8m3
Calculation of volume of concrete required for footings:-
To make ease in understanding I am considering the Plain footing.
For calculation purpose, I am dividing the footing into two parts.
Part1: It is in a rectangular shape with the following dimensions length=1.0m, breadth=0.8m and depth=0.4
The volume of 2nd part = 1.0mx0.8×0.4 = 0.32m3
Part 2:-
Volume of concrete = 1.2x1x0.1 = 0.12m3
Total volume of concrete required for footing= 0.32+0.12=0.44m3
Total volume of concrete required for footing= 0.32+0.12=0.44m3
Calculation of Volume of concrete required for Retaining Wall:
The calculation part of retaining wall is similar to slab volume calculation,
From the above fig, Volume of concrete for retaining wall = Surface area x Depth
Automatic calculator to calculate individual ingredients of concrete (Cement, Sand, Aggregate & water):-
How to use the calculator:-
- In the first field of below form, enter required amount of concrete in m3
- To get the individual quantities of ingredients specify the ratio of cement, sand and aggregate. To know the ratio of different grades of concrete refer here.
- Make sure that each and every value you are entering in the below form is in “m” or “metre”. For other units Use google conversion tools to convert into m.
- For finding the quantity of water, Enter the Water/cement ratio as per requirement. It usually ranges from 0.35-0.60
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