Nowadays, cement is an important material in the construction industry. It is primarily employed in masonry and concrete construction. The key portion of a structure’s strength largely depends on the standard of cement.
But once you purchase cement there’s a precise risk of quality variations in cement. That’s why it’s essential to check the cement to understand its quality not solely to make sure you’re obtaining what you paid for however conjointly to forestall the chance of a structural failure through the utilization of defective materials.
Strength, permanency of structure, and rate of setting of cement as per the demand of work are the basic attributes of cement we have to keep in mind while purchasing cement.
In this article, I am going to discuss some of the most important Quality tests on cement which are carried out in the laboratory.
Table of Contents
The most important quality tests on cement which are carried out in the laboratory are:
- Fineness Test
- Consistency Test
- Setting time Test
- Soundness Test
- Strength Test
- Heat of Hydration Test
- Specific Gravity Test
1. Fineness test of Cement
- Sieve method
- Air Permeability method
- Sedimentation method
2. Consistency Test of Cement
The standard consistency of a cement paste is defined as that consistency which will permit the Vicat plunger to penetrate in the cement paste to a point 5 to 7mm from the bottom of the Vicat mould. This test is performed to determine the quantity of water needed to produce a cement paste of standard consistency as per IS: 4031 (Part 4) – 1988.
3. Setting time Test of Cement
- Initial Setting Time
- Final setting Time
Initial Setting Time of Cement:
Final Setting Time of Cement:
Final Setting time of cement is the time at which the cement paste completely loses its plasticity and becomes hard. The final setting time for Ordinary Portland Cement is 10 hours (600 minutes).
The tests performed to measure the setting time of cement are:
- Vicat penetration test, and
- Gillmore needle method
4. Soundness Test of Cement
- Le-Chatelier method, and
- Autoclave method.
5. Strength Test of Cement
- Cement mortar cube test ( For Compressive strength)
- Briquette test ( For Tensile Strength)
- Split tensile test (For Tensile Strength)
6. Heat of Hydration Test of Cement
- Calorimeter method.
7. Specific Gravity Test of Cement
- Le Chatelier’s Flask method