10/28/2018 7 Cement Tests to Justify Its Quality - A Civil Engineer

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7 Cement Tests to Justify Its Quality

15/05/2017 By Liton Biswas — 4 Comments

Updated August 4th, 2017

Producing large quantity of cement with quality is practically impossible.

So when you buy cement there is certain possibility of quality variation in

cement. That is why it is essential to test the cement to know its quality not
only you paid for this but also to forestall the possibility of a failure
through the use of defective material.

The main quali cations demanded of a cement in civil construction are

strength, permanency of structure and a rate of setting suitable to the
demands of the work.
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10/28/2018 7 Cement Tests to Justify Its Quality - A Civil Engineer

To determine these quali cation both chemical and physical tests are done.
A
ButCIVIL
chemical ENGINEER
tests aren’t more important than physical tests. So I’ll discuss
about physical tests here.

7 Cement Tests to Justify Its Quality

The physical tests which are generally performed to determinethe
acceptability of cements are –

1. Fineness Test
2. Consistency Test
3. Setting time Test
4. Soundness Test
5. Strength Test
6. Heat of Hydration Test
7. Speci c Gravity Test

1. Fineness Test
Fineness is the mean size of cement grain. Fineness test is done to measure
the mean size of cement grain.

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10/28/2018 7 Cement Tests to Justify Its Quality - A Civil Engineer

The ner the cement the surface area for hydration will be large and it
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increases the ENGINEER
strength of cement. But the neness varies in di erent types
of cement.

Following three methods are applied to test the neness of cement

Sieve method
Air Permeability method
Sedimentation method

2. Consistency Test
This test is done to estimate the required water quantity to form a normal
consistency cement paste. It is de ned as the percentage of water required
for the cement paste.

3. Setting Time Test

Cement has two types of setting time, one is initial setting time and
another is nal setting.

Initial setting time is the state of cement mortar or concrete when it starts
to become sti en and unworkable.

Final setting time is the state when cement mortar or concrete has become
fully unworkable.

Two methods are used to nd the initial and nal setting time of cement

Vicat needle method, and

Gillmore needle method
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10/28/2018 7 Cement Tests to Justify Its Quality - A Civil Engineer

4. Soundness Test
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Soundness of cement means it doesn’t undergo large volume change after
setting. Large changes in volume produce cracks, disintegration and
distortion, ultimately leading to failure. So it is very important to test the
soundness of cement.

To test the soundness two methods can be applied.

Le-chatelier method
Autoclave method

5. Strength Test
Cement has two types of strength – compressive strength and tensile
strength.

To know the compressive strength and tensile strength of  cement

following tests are performed –

Cement mortar cube test (for compressive strength)

Briqutte test (for tensile strength)

Split tensile test (for tensile strength)

6. Heat of Hydration Test

Cement produce large amount of heat during hydration process. When
large amount of concrete volume is poured the inner temperature is greater
than outer surface of concrete. Because outer surface is exposed to

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10/28/2018 7 Cement Tests to Justify Its Quality - A Civil Engineer

weather. Thus surface shrinks rapidly than the inner and tends to produce
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cracks. ENGINEER
That is why it is important to test the heat of hydration of cement.

Following test is performed to know the heat of hydration of cement

Calorimeter method

7. Speci c Gravity Test

Speci c gravity of cement is a comparison of weight of a cement volume to
the weight of same volume of water.

Le-chaterlier ask is used to test the speci c gravity of cement.

Source: IS-4031

Your Turn
Which test do you think is more important to jusify the cement quality?
Share in comments..

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 Filed Under: Building Materials

Comments
Rahul Ekbote says
12/10/2017 at 11:42 am

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10/28/2018 7 Cement Tests to Justify Its Quality - A Civil Engineer

I think Strength Test is more important because after some time the cracks
A
willCIVIL
appear if ENGINEER
the quality of cement is not good then again you have to use
epoxy materials to repair cracks and all so it’s cost increasing process.

Reply

K constructions says
16/05/2018 at 11:24 pm

All are important because of no one judge by a single paper. If the

importance of construction is less then will go to required tests only

Reply

Kundan says
15/07/2018 at 10:13 am

Important

Reply

Emiku James says

12/08/2018 at 5:02 pm

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10/28/2018 7 Cement Tests to Justify Its Quality - A Civil Engineer

All tests are important because failier in any individual test renders the
AnalCIVIL
product ENGINEER
none e ective.

Reply

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