ABSTRACT

Concrete is chief construction material. Its use has ever been increasing due to development in all over the world. Efforts are continuously being made to study the effect of various factors on the performance of concrete. The main ingredients of concrete are cement, aggregates and water. The quality and source of these ingredients affect significantly the performance of concrete. For good concrete mix, trial mixes are always advised to examine the quality of all these ingredients of prior to the mix design. For good concrete, potable water (drinkable water) is considered to be suitable for mixing and curing purpose. Also the depletion of natural resources of aggregates and water has compelled the construction industry to explore the alternate resources. This study is focused to investigate experimentally the effect of ground water as mix ingredient of concrete during mixing and curing. Four sites are selected to collect the ground water from locations in the vicinity of Nawabshah and Daur city. The effect of underground water is investigated in terms of setting time of cement, workability, compressive and splitting tensile strength of concrete. Properties of ground water obtained from all locations are also analysed. The results are compared with potable water by using it in concrete as mix ingredient. The results revealed a wide variation in properties of underground water obtained from different locations. The properties of underground water shows a considerable deviation with those of potable water and standard values highlighted by Pakistan.
National Environment Quality Standards. The properties of cement and concrete reflected the pronounced effect of water quality. Results also revealed that quality of water must be investigated prior to its use in concrete for mixing and curing.