Quality Control of Concrete Piles Based on Historical Data : Machine learning of concrete piles production line

Sammanfattning: This master thesis investigates the parameters influencing the quality of concrete piles produced by NCC in Sweden. Furthermore, the thesis provides an in-depth review of the production and existing issues associated with concrete pile production. By analysing data from the production site at Ucklum, it is observed that the concrete piles produced have a large variation in strength. Production during the winter months results in higher strength and stability compared to the summer months. This may depend on the heat generated by the concrete during the summer which is much higher than during winter and may therefore affect the late strength negatively while it increases the rate of obtaining early age strength. The production uses a slightly higher cement content than what is necessary for the strength class C50/60 throughout the whole year to mainly counteract the tough strength development in the winter and also to increase the rate of strength development in the summer. Particularly when a large order of concrete piles comes in late. Achieving a high strength quickly is desirable so that the piles can be installed early in order to increase the rate of production. In this case, admixtures such as accelerators can be used instead of having a higher cement content. In addition, summer production can be improved by testing different methods presented in this report.