PRC Lab Introduction

PLAIN & REINFORCED CONCRETE PRC-II LAB APPARATUS:

1) COMPRESSION TESTING MACHINE
2) WEIGHING BALANCE
3) CONCRETE CONSTRUCTION MARERIALS
4) LE-CHATELIER APPARATUS
5) WARMING POT
6) BLAINE AIR APPARATUS
7) CONCRETE PERMEABILITY APPARATUS
8) CONCRETE MOULDS
9) COMPECTING FACTOR TESTER
10) DRYING OVEN
11) SLUMP CONES
12) CURING TANK
13) BRINELL/ROCKWELL HARDNESS TEST
14) CONCRETE CUTTER
15) SEIVES
16) SEIVE SHAKER
17) VIBRATING TABLE FOR COMPECTION
18) VICKET APPARATUS
19) PVC PIPES
20) WOOD SAMPLES
21) TILES
22) WATER TANK
 Introduction
1. Vicat apparatus
A device for determining the normal consistency and time of setting of portland cements that
consists of a rod weighing 300 grams, having a needle in each end, and supported in a frame with
a graduated scale to measure the distance to which the needle penetrates the cement.

2. PVC PIPES
It’s the white plastic pipe commonly used for plumbing and drainage. PVC stands for polyvinyl
chloride, and it’s become a common replacement for metal piping. PVC’s strength, durability, easy
installation, and low cost have made it one of the most widely used plastics in the world.
3. WOOD FLOORING
Wood flooring is any product manufactured from timber that is designed for use as flooring, either
structural or aesthetic. Wood is a common choice as a flooring material and can come in various
styles, colors, cuts, and species.

TILEs
A tile is a thin object usually square or rectangular in shape. Tile is a manufactured piece of hard-
wearing material such as ceramic, stone, metal, baked clay, even glass, generally used for covering
roofs, floors, walls, or other objects such as tabletops.
There are 2 types of tiles available in lab.

 National tiles
 Ceramic tiles
4. DRYING OVEN
Drying Ovens, also referred to as Dryers, are typically used for the removal of moisture from
water-based coatings and adhesives. Drying Ovens are also used for removing water from the
surface or interior of certain products or substrates.

5. BRINELL/ROCKWEE HARDNESS TEST

Hardness testing methods vary based on the material a Heat treatment chosen. It’s important that
engineers specify hardness testing methods correctly to ensure timely heat Treatment and avoid
costly delays.
 I. Brinell Hardness Test:
Curing of concrete is defined as providing adequate moisture, temperature, and time to
allow the concrete to achieve the desired properties for its intended use. And the tank used
to cure the concrete is called curing tank or van.

II. Rockwell Hardness Test:

This method tests the hardness of steel parts by applying loads to parts via either a tungsten
carbide ball or a sphere-conical diamond indenter. A part’s testing surface and seating
surface must be properly prepared prior to testing. Inadequate surface preparation can lead
to failed tests or false readings

6. CONCRETE CUTTER:
A concrete saw is a power tool used for cutting concrete, masonry, brick, asphalt, tile, and other
solid materials. There are many types ranging from small hand-held saws, chop-saw models, and
big walk-behind saws or other styles, and it may be powered by gasoline, hydraulic or pneumatic
pressure, or an electric motor. The saw blades used on concrete saws are often diamond saw blades
to cut concrete, asphalt, stone, etc. Abrasive cut-off wheels can also be used on cut-off saws to cut
stone and steel.
7. SIEVE SHAKER
Sieve shakers are used for separation and size determination of particles. A typical sieve shaker
separates particles by passing them through a series of chambers with mesh filters and agitating
the sample in order to obtain complete separation. Depending on the equipment, there are options
for sieving both solid and liquid samples. Equipment can differ in the type of sieving, the maximum
and minimum particle size that can be processed, and level of automation.

8. SEIVES
A seive is a device for separating wanted elements from unwanted material or for characterizing
the particle size distribution of a sample, typically using a woven screen such as a mesh or net or
metal.
9. VIBRATING TABLE FOR COMPECTION
This vibrator has a powerful vibrating unit on its rigid table. It is used mainly to load and deform
freshly mixed concrete for U-shaped grooves, boundary blocks, segments, PC plates, and other
secondary concrete products.

10. WATER STORAGE TANK

Water storage tank contains the storage of water of testing purpose.
11. COMPECTION FACTOR TEST MACHINE
Compaction factor test is the workability test for concrete conducted in laboratory. The compaction
ratio of weights of partially compacted to fully compacted concrete. It was developed by Road
Research Laboratory in United Kingdom and is used to determine the workability of concrete

12. CONCRETE MOULDS

Moulds are used for making cylinders, cubes and some slump cones.
They can be of following types:

I. Circular
II. Square
III. Rectangular
13. BLAINE AIR APPARATUS
The Blaine Air Permeability Apparatus determines the fineness of Portland cement in terms of
specific surface area expressed as the total surface area in square centimeters per gram of mortar
or cement. The Blaine works by drawing a definite quantity of air through of bed of cement
exhibiting a definitive porosity value.

14. CONCRETE PERMEABILITY APPARATUS

Concrete Permeability Apparatus is used for testing the water permeability of concrete. High
pressure permeability test are conducted on various sizes of specimens by different cells.
15. CONCRETE CONSTUCTION MATERIAL
Concrete is formed by the mixture of following materials

I. CEMENT

II. SAND

III. AGGREGATE

CEMENT:
Cement is a binder, a substance used for construction that sets, hardens, and adheres
to other materials to bind them together. Cement is seldom use on its own, but rather to bind sand
and gravel together.

SAND:
A loose granular substance, typically pale yellowish brown, resulting from the erosion of siliceous
and other rocks and forming a major constituent of beaches, river beds, the seabed, and deserts.
AGGREGATE:
Construction aggregate, or simply "aggregate", is a broad category of coarse to medium
grained particulate material used in construction, including sand, gravel, crushed stone, slag,
recycled concrete and geo-synthetic aggregates.

16. LE-CHATELIER APPARATUS

Cement is said to be unsound if it is subjected to delayed destructive expansion. Unsoundness of
cement is due to presence of excessive amount of hard-burned free lime or magnesia. The test
used for determining soundness of cement is known as “Le-Chatelier apparatus test”.
17. COMPRESSION TESTING MACHINE
Compression Test machines are universal specially configured to evaluate static compressive
strength characteristics of materials, products, and components. Compression test machines
measure characteristics such as ultimate compression strength, yield strength, deflection and
modulus.

18. CURING TANK

Curing of concrete is defined as providing adequate moisture, temperature, and time to allow the
concrete to achieve the desired properties for its intended use. And the tank used to cure the
concrete is called curing tank or van.
19. SLUMP CONES
The concrete slump test measures the consistency of fresh concrete before it sets. It is performed
to check the workability of freshly made concrete, and therefore the ease with which concrete
flows. It can also be used as an indicator of an improperly batch.
JOB NO. 1
INTRODUCTION TO CONCRETE:
“Concrete is a mixture of coarse aggregate, fine aggregate/fillers, cement and water.”

Concrete is a very strong and versatile mouldable construction material. It consists of cement, sand
and aggregate (e.g., gravel or crushed rock) mixed with water. The cement and water form a paste
or gel which coats the sand and aggregate. When the cement has chemically reacted with the water
(hydrated), it hardens and binds the whole mix together. The initial hardening reaction usually
occurs within a few hours. It takes some weeks for concrete to reach full hardness and strength.

1. INGREDIENTS:
The following are the ingredients of concrete,

a. Binding Material
This is the component that holds primarily the coarse aggregate particles together.
All the particles in concrete are held together by this component. The function of binding material
can be defined as it provides confinement to coarse and fine aggregate particles. In case of
concrete confinement is of utmost importance. But if the aggregates are tried to be tested
without the mold, it would be very difficult to hold them at their location. Before the machine can
apply the load the coarse aggregate particles will drop down. Hence, for testing coarse aggregates
these should be put in some mold.

i. Types
The most commonly used binding material in concrete is Portland cement (ordinary cement) and
the resulting concrete is called, ordinary Portland cement (OPC)
There are different types of cement,
Type-I (Normal strength cement)
Type-II (Moderate sulfate resistant cement)
Type-III (High early strength cement)
Type-IV (Low heat of hydration cement)

Type-V (Sulfate resistant cement)

ii. Hydration
“The chemical reaction between cement and water is known as hydration
of cement. “
 The addition of water to dry cement powder results in a thin cement slurry that can be
easily manipulated and cast into different shapes. In time, the slurry sets and develops strength
through a series of hydration reactions. Hydration of cement is not linear through time, it proceeds
very slowly at first, allowing the thin mixture to be properly placed before hardening. The chemical
reactions that cause the delay in hardening are not completely understood; however, they are
critical to developing a rational methodology for the control of cement setting.

b. Aggregates
The following are the types of aggregates
i. Coarse aggregate:
Coarse aggregates are particulates that are greater than
4.75mm. The usual range employed is between 9.5mm and 37.5mm in diameter.

ii. Fine aggregate:

Fine aggregates are particulates that are lesser than
4.75mm in size.
 c. Water:
Water is a very important constituent of concrete. It is provided for two
main reasons, first one is the hydration process and second one is the workability
concrete. Water is required for the hydration process. It reacts with cement and
forms calcium hydrate silicate gel that provides the binding property. Further it
acts as a lubricant between different particles present in concrete and allows them
to move while in fresh state. This makes it possible to pour concrete in the form
work.

d. Admixtures:
Admixtures are the ingredients that are used to change
properties like workability, flow, setting time etc. These are mostly mixed with water and added
to concrete at a later stage of mixing (in high strength concrete these are usually added in the
second step to form a paste with powdered substances).
Some common types of admixtures are,

Water Reducing Admixtures (plasticizers and super plasticizers):

These are used for increasing workability with constant amount of water. The excessive amount
of water can render the concrete weak as after the evaporation of extra water voids are left
behind that cause serious reduction in strength by two main processes. First one is the direct effect
on compressive strength due to reduction in area of concrete available at a section. Secondly the
voids allow the entrance of harmful chemicals that can either affect the cement or aggregates
or cause corrosion of steel present in form of tensile reinforcement.

Retarding admixtures:
Retarding admixtures are used to delay the setting time of cement. This provides extra
time to use concrete especially in those construction projects where concrete batching plants
are installed at a large distance from the site. In such projects transportation takes a lot of time.
Concrete cannot be used after the initial setting time of cement. So in order to delay this initial
setting time of cement retarders are used.

Accelerating Admixtures:
Accelerators are used to reduce the setting time of cement. This type of admixtures is usually
used while concreting in cold regions where the setting of cement occurs at a slow rate. This
may also be used to speed up the construction process in order to use the same formwork on
upper stories or to open a project earlier for public (e.g. repair or new construction of a bridge).
Corrosion inhibiting admixtures:
Corrosion inhibiting admixtures are added to avoid the corrosion of steel. Corrosion of steel
affects the strength of reinforced cement concrete in two ways. By reducing the area of
steel required to resist the applied tensile stresses and by reducing the grip of concrete over
steel that ensures the transfer of tensile stresses from concrete to steel.

e. Additives:
These are the substances used to increase the strength of concrete. These can be pozzolanic
materials like silica fumes, fly ash or other materials like matakaolin or even powdered
fillers like quartz powder that fill in the gaps between binder particles. These are usually
added in dry state along with the other binding materials like cement.
f. Workability of Concrete:
“The amount of work needed to produce full compaction”
Measurement of Workability:
Workability can be measured by different tests such as,
i. Slump Test.
ii. Compacting Factor Test.
iii. VB Test.
iv. Flow Table Test.
v. Slump Flow Test.
vi. Degree of compactability test.

2. Types of Concrete
Fresh Concrete:
Fresh concrete is that stage of concrete in which concrete can be moulded and it is
in plastic state. The potential strength and durability of concrete of a given mix
proportion is very dependent on the degree of its compaction. The initial setting
time of concrete is normally between 2 to 6 hours and the final setting time can be
anywhere from 4 to 12 hours.
Hardened Concrete:
Hardened concrete is a product of binding and hardening of the concrete mixture
which contains ingredients quantified in the appropriate proportions: binder
(cement), coarse aggregate (gravel), fine aggregate (sand, fraction <2mm), water and
optional additives (> 5% by weight of binder) and admixtures (<5% by weight of
the binder).
JOB NO.2
Test Method for The Compressive Strength of Cylindrical & Cubical
Concrete Specimens.
Scope: To perform the compressive strength on the concrete specimen after curing.

Related theory:
Compressive strength: Compressive strength or compression strength is the capacity of a material
or structure to withstand loads tending to reduce size, as opposed to tensile strength, which
withstands loads tending to elongate. In other words, compressive strength resists compression,
whereas tensile strength resists tension.
Units of measurement: The compressive strength is calculated from the failure load divided by
the cross-sectional area resisting the load and reported in units of pound-force per square inch (psi)
in US Customary units or megapascals (MPa) in SI units.

Temperature: Maximum Concrete Temperature. Q.: Some concrete specifications contain a

maximum temperature for the freshly mixed concrete as delivered. Typical values are between 80°
and 95° F as measured by ASTM C 1064-86.

Apparatus:

 Moulds
 Compression testing machine
 Weighing balance

Procedure:

 Estimate the cement, coarse and fine aggregates with water content.
 Prepare the material according to the estimations done for the specimens.
 Completely wash and clean the internal surface of mould before casting.
 Cast the material in the mould just after mixing.
 Put the specimens in the curing tank for specific number of days.
 Take out the specimens after completion of the curing period and dry the surface.
 Determine the mass, density and dimensions of the specimens.
 Determine the 3/7/14/21/28 days strength on the compression testing machine.
Types of failure:
ASTM C39/C39M − 15a, “Standard Test Method for Compressive Strength of Cylindrical
Concrete Specimens,” has discussed six different types of compressive strength test fracture modes
for the specimens.

Type 1 failure actually never occurs, the usual shape is type 2 if the cylinder is simply placed into
the crushing machine, and there is normal friction between the concrete and the steel plates.

On the other hand if this friction can be eliminated, then type 3 can be expected. In normal cases
between these (type 2 and 3) two failure shapes should be the obtained one, depending on the
friction.
Type 4 indicates a problem during concreting, type 5 and 6 indicates a problem with the plainness
of the top and bottom surfaces. The results obtained in such latter 3 cases should not be accepted.
Observation and Calculations

Lo Area Streng Avg.

Mix Proportion

Date of Casting
w/c Ratio Age ad th Strength
Ty
pe

Sample Weight (ton) (lb.) (in2) (psi) (ps (Mp

(days) No. (kg) i) a)

7
Cube

14

21

28

7
Cylinder

14

21

28

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