ACI Concrete Mix Design Calculator (Absolute Volume Method)

Compute cement, water, fine and coarse aggregate quantities per unit volume with moisture corrections.

Design inputs
Moisture corrections (optional)

How to use

Enter your unit system, batch size, water content, and w/c ratio. Provide the coarse aggregate fraction and dry-rodded unit weight, then fill specific gravities. Optionally add moisture corrections to estimate batch water.

Methodology

The calculator applies the ACI 211.1 Absolute Volume Method: the sum of absolute volumes of water, cement, air, and aggregates equals one unit volume. Fine aggregate volume is computed by remainder.

Full original guide (expanded)

This tool operationalizes the Absolute Volume Method, using typical ACI water and aggregate guidance. Always verify with project specifications and trial mixes.

Glossary highlights

  • W: Mixing water content per unit concrete.
  • r (w/c): Water–cement ratio by mass.
  • φ: Coarse aggregate bulk volume fraction.
  • G: Specific gravity (SSD) of cement or aggregate.
Formulas
\[ C = \frac{W}{r} \] \[ V_w = \frac{W}{\rho_w},\; V_c = \frac{C}{G_c\rho_w},\; V_a = \frac{a}{100} \] \[ M_{ca}^{OD} = \phi \cdot \gamma_{DRUW} \cdot \{1 \text{ (SI)}; 27 \text{ (US)}\} \] \[ V_{ca} = \frac{M_{ca}^{OD}}{G_{ca}\rho_w} \] \[ V_{fa} = 1 - (V_w + V_c + V_a + V_{ca}) \] \[ M_{fa}^{SSD} = V_{fa} \cdot G_{fa} \cdot \rho_w \] \[ W_{batch} = W - \Delta W \]
Citations

Construction — calcdomain.com: https://calcdomain.com/construction-diy

Concrete Mix Design — calcdomain.com: https://calcdomain.com/concrete-mix

ACI — concrete.org: https://www.concrete.org/

ACI Committee 211 — ACI 211.1 Standard Practice for Selecting Proportions for Normal, Heavyweight, and Mass Concrete.

Changelog
  • 0.1.0-draft — 2026-01-19: Initial audit spec draft generated from HTML extraction (review required). Verify formulas match the calculator engine and convert any text-only formulas to LaTeX. Confirm sources are authoritative and relevant to the calculator methodology.
✓ Verified by Ugo Candido
Last Updated: 2026-01-19
Version 0.1.0-draft