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Standard Practice for Shotcrete


Course Outline

Shotcrete is often used for slope and surface protection, swimming pool construction, tunnel lining, special architectural features, and renovating existing structures. This course provides guidance on the selection, proportioning, and application of shotcrete. Subjects discussed include shotcrete and applications, materials, equipment and crew, preconstruction testing and evaluation, placement, quality control, and quality assurance. This course includes a multiple-choice quiz at the end, which is designed to enhance the understanding of course materials.

Learning Objective

At the conclusion of this course, the student will:

Course Content

Shotcrete has been referred to by such terms as Gunite, formerly a tradename for pneumatically applied mortar or concrete, sprayed concrete, spraycrete, gunned concrete, and others. In some areas "gunite" has been used to denote small-aggregate shotcrete and mortar mixtures, and "shotcrete" to denote large-aggregate mixtures. The preferred term today for all gunned material is shotcrete, regardless of the aggregate size. The purpose of this course is to provide information and guidance on the selection, proportioning, and application of shotcrete as a construction material. You will be directed to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' website to study the following document:

Engineering Manual EM 1110-2-2005: Standard Practice for Shotcrete (1993 edition, 63 pages, 1.9 MB, PDF file format).

Please click on the above underlined hypertext to view, save or print the document for your study. Because of the large file size, we recommend that you first save the file to your computer by right clicking the mouse and choosing "Save Target As ...", and then open the file in Adobe Acrobat Reader.

The following contains the outline of the Engineering Manual EM 1110-2-2005:

Engineering and Design - Standard Practice for Shotcrete

Table of Contents
Chapter 1 - Introduction
Chapter 2 - Types of Shotcrete and Applications
Chapter 3 - Materials, Proportioning, and Properties
Chapter 4 - Equipment and Crew
Chapter 5 - Preconstruction Testing and Evaluation
Chapter 6 - Placement
Chapter 7 - Quality Control
Chapter 8 - Quality Assurance
Appendix A - References
Appendix B - Glossary
Appendix C - Corps of Engineers Projects
Appendix D - Mixture Proportioning Sample Submittal

This manual discusses both the dry-mix process, in which most of the mixing water is added at the nozzle and the wet-mix process, in which all of the materials are mixed before entering the delivery hose. This manual does not provide guidelines for structural analysis of shotcrete applications.

Related Links

For additional technical information related to this subject, please visit the following websites or web pages:

American Shotcrete Association
Commercial & Fisher Shotcrete
Chapter 16 - Shotcrete Support
Shotcrete Overview

Once you finish studying the above course content you need to take a quiz to obtain the PDH credits.

Take a Quiz


DISCLAIMER: The materials contained in the online course are not intended as a representation or warranty on the part of PDHonline.org or any other person/organization named herein. The materials are for general information only. They are not a substitute for competent professional advice. Application of this information to a specific project should be reviewed by a registered professional engineer. Anyone making use of the information set forth herein does so at their own risk and assumes any and all resulting liability arising therefrom.