Institut Universitaire et Stratégique de l’Estuaire

(IUEs/Insam)

SPECIALTY: CIVIL ENGINEERING TECHNOLOGY

COURSE: CONSTRUCTION TECHNOLOGY

LECTURER: Mr. Akum Oben T.

LECTTURE 2: General Principles Governing Formwork Design and Construction

Three principles guide formwork design and construction. They include:

• Quality

• Safety and

• Economy.
These three factors are complementary and related that is a form worker knows that it is false economy to
reduce quality and to deliver a safe product requires the usage of superior quality material.

i) Quality

It refers to the quality of the concrete structure being produced. Quality refers to two aspects:

• the accuracy of the concrete shape and

• the quality of the surface. Surface quality refers to texture and can, where specified, include consistency
of colour.

For accuracy in the concrete, the starting point is formwork which must remain acceptably accurate when loaded.
The loads come from the fresh concrete and the work in placing and compacting that concrete. Stiff formwork,
that has a limited and predictable deflection under load, is essential.

Lack of stiffness in the form face can also affect surface quality of the concrete in two ways.

Firstly, flexible form faces will often fluctuate in response to the vibrators used to compact the concrete. The
release agent, applied to the form face to prevent adhesion, may become emulsified and react with the cement.
The result will be unacceptable dark patches on the concrete.

Secondly, formwork that deflects excessively will usually leak at its joints, and this in turn can have two effects:

• Firstly, the moisture loss will result in honey-combing and dark hydration staining of the concrete face.
• Secondly, the escaping grout will fill gaps in the form structure and between the edges of the plywood
sheets of the formface. By effectively locking up these gaps, this grout loss makes stripping of the
formwork more difficult.
ii) Safety
There are a number of regulations relating to workplace safety, use of equipment, personnel protection and
handling of loads etc., which are all relevant to formworking operations.

Construction Design and Management (CDM) regulations seek to ensure that all hazards associated with a
construction operation are identified and that all risks are assessed and reduced as far as is practicable before the
operation commences. This is done in two stages:

1. Worksite policy and procedure concerning all aspects of safety planning is implemented. The client
appoints a single individual or a company as Planning Supervisor. One of the responsibilities of the
Planning Supervisor is the compilation of a Health and Safety Plan which incorporates safety procedures
developed by the various actors on the worksite. This Health and Safety Plan has a permanent role in
determining both how the structure is built and how it should be maintained during its life span.
2. At a more detailed level, a procedure and risk assessment are prepared for each individual operation, such
as ‘concreting second storey floor slab’or particular hazards such as the proximity of live electricity
cables or handling problems caused by the limits of a crane’s lifting capacity.

Following the risk assessment the agreed procedure is then communicated to the formwork team and the
supervisor and operatives must ensure that the procedure is followed and that any necessary amendments are
similarly evaluated before their adoption.

Safety has two major aspects:

✓ the personal safety of people, both the formworkers and the public, and
✓ the safety of the formwork structure.

When the formworkers have finished, steel fixers will place reinforcement and conduits and piping will be placed
by electricians and plumbers.

For efficiency it is necessary that workers feel secure, and be secure, while working on this formwork. To this
end, not only must the general form structure be safe, but the perimeter of the form must have effective guard
rails with toe boards, access ladders and stairs, all secured in position. The formworkers should be equipped with
safety helmets and boots. For special cases on high work. The safety of the formwork structure starts with its
design. This must include the evaluation of all the probable combinations of load at each of the stages of
formwork use. In summary these are:

STAGE 1: Before the placement of the concrete. This can be while it is being built, or while it is being relocated
from another position.

STAGE 2: During the placement of the concrete.

STAGE 3: After the concrete placement when it continues to provide support until the concrete can support
itself.

Structural Requirements of a Safe Formwork

The important aspects to structural safety are: Strength and Stability
 a) Strength

It simply means that the formwork structure must be able to safely carry the anticipated loads. This does not
only mean being safe when all the loads are applied, but also being safe when the structure is only partly
loaded and when the load is progressively increasing.

FORM FULLY LOADED LOADING PROGRESSING

b) Stability
Four cases are examined: Sliding, Overturning, Uplift, and Sidesway.
These problems are most often found in soffit form structures. Sliding is the movement of the total form sideways
This can occur by wind or water action.

Factors Influencing Concrete Pressure on Forms.

Factor Effect

Concrete density All pressures are proportional to the density of the concrete with
normal compacted concrete having a density of 2400 kg/m3
Form height Higher forms have proportionately greater hydrostatic pressure
Vertical pour rate Faster pours lead to less pressure reduction effect from the initial set
of the concrete
Height of discharge Where the concrete is discharged at a height greater than the top of the
form there is an impacting effect from the drop which can increase the
pressures near the top of the form.

Concrete temperature Cement hydration, and therefore concrete setting, takes place more
quickly at higher temperatures. The chemical process generates heat
 and this may be lost too quickly if the air temperature is very low, or
too slowly to prevent cracking if the concrete pour is very thick.

Cement type Cements blended with materials such as fly-ash or slag-ash set slowly
and thus do not limit the pressure as much as early setting pure
cements.
Admixtures Both retarders and superflowing additives slow down cement
hydration and concrete setting, prolonging the period of full
hydrostatic pressure.

.
Note should be taken that, none of these pressure modifying factors are under control of the form worker.
Therefore, the wisest and safest course of action is to assume that the concrete will be placed very quickly and
build the forms to cater for the full height hydrostatic pressure.

Higher pressure can occur in two cases:

✓ The first is, full depth re-vibration. Here the concrete is poured full height without any vibration. The
pour is done very quickly so that initial set of the concrete has not occurred when the vibrators are
inserted full depth into the concrete and then slowly withdrawn. This can result in pressures that are up
to one and one half times the full height hydrostatic pressure. This pressure increase is caused by the
entrapment of the large energy input from the vibrators by the weight of the full height of fluid
concrete above it.
✓ The second case is the pumping of the concrete into the base of the formwork. Here the pressure is far
greater than the hydrostatic pressure expected from the same height of fluid concrete. The pressure
increase comes from resistance to the rise in the concrete level as it is forced past the reinforcement
and from friction between the rising concrete and the form faces.

Pumping up into the formwork

iii) Economy:

It refers to the matters that affect the total cost of formwork and the contribution of this to the total cost of the
concrete structure. In building construction it is usual for the structural frame, even for buildings of only one
storey, to be the most significant cost component and a dominant and critical factor in the time of construction.
When seeking the “best” method of construction the four components of the cost of a concrete structure must
be considered. These are:

✓ Concrete,
✓ Reinforcement,
✓ Formwork and
✓ Time.

Time effects are more than just the total man-hours of fabrication, erection and stripping of the forms. They also
include the cost effects of the total number of days that the formwork activity adds to the whole building program.

This latter aspect includes, often considerable costs, the expenses of site administration, plant hire and the cost
effect on the cash flow of financing the building.

Where formwork is a repetitive activity, such as in the construction of a multi-storey building, a small reduction
in the repetitive cycle time can result in large overall savings.

Release Agents

These are materials that prevent adhesion of concrete to the formwork. All formfaces should be given at least
one coat of release agent.

Functions of Release Agent

✓ Its primary function is to prevent the adhesion of the concrete to the formface.
✓ Its further functions are the sealing of the formface to limit moisture absorption, and as an aid in
preserving the formface and extending its working life.

If adhesion between the formface and the concrete occurs, then one or both of them will be damaged. If, at the
time of stripping, the concrete is weaker than the formface then scaling occurs with parts of the concrete surface
sticking to the form. Scabbing, with some of the formface adhering to the concrete, results when the concrete
strength is greater than that of the form face.

Types of Release Agents

• Mould cream emulsions.
These emulsions of oil in water tend to be removed by rain but are a good general-purpose release agent.
• Chemical release agents.
Consisting of a chemical suspended in a low viscosity oil distillate, they react with the cement to produce a
form of soap at the interface. They are recommended for all high -quality work. Excessive amounts will cause
retardation of the cement hydration. They only require a light spray application.
• Wax emulsions.
This is a stable wax suspension. They dry off completely and this aids their resistance to climatic conditions.
All of these agents have some effect on the concrete, particularly coloured concrete work. Where coloured
concrete work is specified, test panels should be made to check this effect.

the release agent drying out, running down the formface or being washed away by rain. The shorter the time
between application of the release agent and the concrete pour, the better.