How Much Water Is Required to Make 380 Cubic Meters of Concrete?

How Much Concrete

• The average cement mixer truck can carry about 10 cubic meters or yards of ready mixed concrete, so 380 cubic meters will be almost 40 cement truck loads of concrete. The volume of materials required for a job this size means the concrete would probably be mixed at a ready mix plant and transported to the location where it will be poured and used.

Concrete Materials

• Mixing concrete requires cement -- typically Portland type cement -- aggregate and water. Aggregate can be fine aggregate which is sand and coarse aggregate composed of pebbles and stones. All-in or combination aggregate is a pre-mixed aggregate including material of a range of sizes to give the concrete the correct properties. Water is added in a specific amount to allow the cement particles to be coated with liquid and fill in the spaces between aggregate particles when the concrete is poured.

Volume of Concrete Components

• To mix one cubic meter of concrete requires 320 to 360 kg of cement. The single cubic meter of concrete requires approximately 1.3 cubic meters of dry aggregate. The amount of water required varies from 200 to 220 liters per cubic meter, with a slightly larger amount of water required to mix a smaller batch of concrete. The typical concrete calculators use a figure of 210 liters of water per cubic meter of concrete.

Calculating Water Requirements

• Using the average of 210 liters of water per cubic meter of concrete, a 380 cubic meter concrete mixture would require 79,800 liters of water. This much water is the capacity of two 18-wheel tanker trucks plus. The volume of water gives an idea of how large is a batch of 380 cubic meters of concrete.