Field Tests for Cement

The Following are the Field Tests for Cement that are carried out in order to ascertain the
quality of Cement,
(1) Colour
(2) Physical properties
(3) Presence of lumps
(4) Strength.
(1) Colour: The colour of cement should be uniform. It should be typical cement colour i.e.,
grey colour with a light greenish shade. This is not always a reliable test. But it gives an
indication of excess lime or clay and the degree of burning.
(2) Physical properties: The cement should feel smooth when touched or rubbed in between
fingers. If it is felt rough, it indicates adulteration with sand. If hand is inserted in a bag or heap
of cement, it should feel cool and not warm. If a small quantity of cement is thrown in a bucket
of water, it should sink and should not float on the surface. A thin paste of cement with water
should feel sticky between the fingers. If the cement contains too much of pounded clay and it as
an adulterant, the paste will give an earthy smell.
(3) Presence of lumps: The cement should be free from any hard lumps. The lumps are formed
by the absorption of moisture from the atmosphere. Any bag of cement containing such lumps
should be rejected. This Field tests for cement are carried out to check lumps.
(4) Strength: This Field tests for cement is to check strength of cement and can be roughly
ascertained in the following ways:
(i) The briquettes with a lean or weak mortar are made. The size of briquette may be about 75
mm x 25 mm x 12 mm. The proportion of cement and sand may be 1:6. The briquettes are
immersed in water for a period of 3 days. If cement is of sound quality, such briquettes will not
be broken easily and it will be difficult to convert them into powder form.
(ii) A block of cement 25 mm x 25 mm and 200 mm long is prepared and it is immersed for 7
days in water. It is then placed on supports 150 mm apart and it is loaded with a weight of 340 N.
The block should not show signs of failure.
(iii) A thick paste of cement with water is made on a piece of thick glass and it is kept under
water for 24 hours. It should set and not crack.
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HOW TO CHECK QUALITY OF CEMENT ON SITE?

http://civilblog.org/2015/02/06/how-to-check-quality-of-cement-on-site/
It is necessary to check the quality of cement on site at the time of preliminary inspection. It is
not possible to check all the engineering qualities of cement on site but there exist some field test
which gives us a rough idea of quality of cement. While on site we can perform these field tests
to judge the quality of cement. These field tests are as follows:
1. Date of packing

6. Smell Test

2. Colour

7. Presence of lumps

3. Rubbing

8. Shape Test

4. Hand Insertion

9. Strength Test

5. Float Test

10.

11. How to check quality of cement on site

12.

Field Tests on Cement

13.

1. Date of Packing

14. Date of manufacture should be seen on the bag. It is important because the strength of
cement reduces with age.
15.

2. Colour

16. The cement should be uniform in colour. In general the colour of cement is grey with a
light greenish shade. The colour of cement gives an indication of excess lime or clay and
the degree of burning.

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3. Rubbing

18. Take a pinch of cement between fingers and rub it. It should feel smooth while rubbing. If
it is rough, that means adulteration with sand.
19.

4. Hand Insertion

20. Thrust your hand into the cement bag and it should give cool feeling. It indicates that no
hydration reaction is taking place in the bag.
21.

5. Float test

22. Throw a small quantity of cement in a bucket of water. It should sink and should not float
on the surface.
23.

6. Smell Test

24. Take a pinch of cement and smell it. If the cement contains too much of pounded clay and
silt as an adulterant, the paste will give an earthy smell.
25.

7. Presence of Lumps

26. Open the bag and see that lumps should not be present in the bag. It will ensure that no
setting has taken place.
27.

8. Shape Test

28. Take 100g of cement and make a stiff paste. Prepare a cake with sharp edges and put on
the glass plate. Immerse this plate in water. Observe that the shape shouldnt get
disturbed while settling. It should be able to set and attain strength. Cement is capable of
setting under water also and that is why it is also called Hydraulic Cement.
29.

9. Strength Test

30. A block of cement 25 mm*25 mm and 200 mm long is prepared and it is immersed for 7
days in water. It is then placed on supports 15000 mm apart and it is loaded with a weight
of 340 N. the block should not show any sign of failure.

31.

HOW TO CHECK QUALITY OF SAND IN FIELD?

32. There are some field tests that can be carried out in the field in order to check the quality
of sand used for construction. Following tests may be carried out to ascertain the
properties of sand:

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34. Field test on sand

35.

Field Test on Sand

1. Take a glass of water and add some quantity of sand in it. Then shake it
vigorously and allow it to settle. If clay is present in sand, it will form a
distinct layer at the top of sand.
2. In order to detect presence of organic impurities in sand, add sand to the
solution of sodium hydroxide or caustic soda and then stir it. If colour of
solution changes to brown, it indicates the presence of organic impurities.
3. Take a pinch of sand and taste it. If tasted salty then there exist some salt in
sand.
4. Take sand and rub it against the fingers. If fingers are stained, it indicates
that sand contains earthy matter.
5. The colour of sand will indicate the purity of sand. The size and sharpness of
grains may be examined by touching and observing visually.
6. For knowing fineness, durability, void ratio, etc; the sand should be examined
by mechanical analysis.
36.http://civilblog.org/2014/10/27/how-to-check-quality-of-sand-in-field/

37.
Field Tests Of Building Materials
38.Field test of brick, cement, sand and stone chips are very much essential as
they are the most common construction materials which are used in almost
all of the civil engineering construction from brickwork to floor finishing
everywhere. As a civil engineer, working in a site is the challenging one, as
on the site engineer all the responsibility and liabilities depends upon for
good quality construction. But alone a good supervision is not enough for a
good construction having required properties and durability. A proper quality
control is essential at all the stages, specially at the very start , where we
have to select right materials for a type of construction, as the materials are
the cell of each structure. A Civil Engineer may not always have the facility of
laboratory at the site for the testing of materials so as to ascertain the quality
of a material weather it is bad or good, suitable or not. So a civil engineer
should be able to judge the quality of the basic construction materials such
as Brick, Cement, Sand and Stone Chips by means of Visual Inspection of
those materials, which can be done by doing the Field Test on those
materials. Here Ive listed the different field tests for basic construction
materials which becomes necessary in day to day work.

39.

How To Check If A Brick Is Good? ==>

40.
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43.

BRICK STACK

44.The following field tests are to be performed in order to determine if a Brick is

good :1. A good brick should be of proper shape and standard specified size, the
edges of it should be sharp, there should not be any cracks and fissures on
the brick.
2. The colour of a good brick should be copper red colour. A yellowish tint on
brick indicates that it is under burnt and hence possessing of lower strength,
and if a brick is of dark blackish blue colour then it indicates the brick is over
burnt and is brittle in nature.
3. When a brick is struck by a hammer or against another brick, it should emit a
clear metallic ringing sound, it should not be dull.
4. A freshly fractured brick should show a homogeneous compact structure
without any lumps.
5. If a brick is dropped from about a height of 1m on a hard ground or on
another brick, it should not break.
6. When a brick is scratched with finger nail it should not leave any impression
on the brick.
7. A good brick (1st Class) should not absorb water by not more than 20% of its
own Dry weight when immersed in water for a period of 24 Hours.
45.
46.
47.
48.How To Check If Cement Is Good? ==>

49.
50.CEMENT STACK
51.
52.The following field tests should be performed to determine if the cement is of
good quality :53.

54.The cement should be of Greenish Gray colour for Ordinary Portland Cement,
and Blackish Gray colour for Portland Pozzulana Cement and Whitish Gray
colour for Portland Slag Cement.
55. There should not be any hard lumps on cement, the cement should be finely
powdered. If cement contains hard lumps, then it must be rejected.
56. The cement when rubbed between fingers should feel smooth, it should not
feel granular. If it is granular then it means adulteration with sand.
57. A cement paste should feel sticky in between fingers.
58. When hand is dipped into a heap or into a bag of cement, it should feel cool, not warm.
59. If a hand full of cement is thrown into a bucket of water, the cement should sink, not float as the
Specific Gravity of Cement is greater than that of Water.
60. If a thick cement paste made on a glass and immersed in water should set, not crack.
61. How To Check If Sand Is Good? ==>

62.
63. GOLDEN YELLOW SAND, A SIGN OF GOOD QUALITY SAND
64.
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66.
67. The following tests should be performed to determine the quality of Sand :68. The Sand should be free from organic impurities and mineral salts, The maximum permissible
quantity of organic impurities should be restricted to 5%.
69. The Sand should be of Golden Yellow colour.
70. The Sand particles should be sharp and angular to increase the interlocking property between the
sand particles.
71. The sand should coarse for Concreting and medium sand may be allowed in brickwork and is
preferable for plastering works.
72.
73. How To Check If Stone Chips Are Good? ==>
74.

75.
76. STONE CHIPS STACK
77. The visual tests or field tests for Coarse aggregate, that is stone chips are very limited though
there are many laboratory tests are available. Mainly the following things are observed as for
Field Test :-

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81.

The Stone Chips are to be well graded to increase the mechanical interlocking between them.
Stone Chips should be Angular as far as possible and be porous.
The Stone Chips should not be flaky and elongated.
The Stone Chips should not contain organic and other impurities, as only 5% clay content in
concrete can reduce the strength of the concrete as much as 20%.
82. http://www.technogenome.com/2014/09/field-tests-of-common-building.html
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