TEST ON COARSE AGGGREGATE

SPECIFIC GRAVITY
2g of aggregate is washed thoroughly and placed in the wire basket and immersed in
wire basket and immersed in distilled water at a temperature between 22and 32 and a
cover of at least 5cm of water above the top of the basket.
Immediately after immersion the entrapped air is removed from the sample by lifting
the basket containing its 25mm above the base of the tank and allowing it to drop at a
rate of above one dope per second. The basket and aggregate should remain
completely immersed in water for a period of 24hours afterwards.
The basket and the sample are then weighted while suspended in water and allowed
to drain for a few minutes, after which the aggregates are transferred to one of dry
absorbent clothes. The empty basket is then returned to the tank of water jolted 25
times and weighted in water, w2g.
The aggregate is surface dried till no further moisture could be removed by this cloth.
Then the aggregates are transferred to the second dry cloth spread in single layer and
allowed to dry for at least 10 minutes until the aggregate are completely surface dried.
The surface dried aggregate is then weighed, W3g..
The aggregate is placed in a shallow tray and kept in an oven maintained at a
temperature of 110oc for 24 hrs. It is then removed from the oven, cooled in an air
tight container and weighed, W4
AGGREGATE CRUSHING VALUE TEST
The material for the stsndard test consisting of aggregate sized 10mmto12.5mm.
Sieve the oven dried material through 12.5mm and 10mm IS sieves. The aggregates
passing through 12.5mm sieve and retained on 10mm sieve comprise the test
material.
Take about 3.25kg of this material
Pour the aggregate to fill about just more than1/3rd the measuring cylinder.
Compact the material by giving 25 gentle blows with the rounded end of tamping rod.
Add two more layers in similar manner, such that the cylinder is full.
Empty the cylinder and take the weight.
Transfer it to the test mould by filling it in three layers in the same manner as for
cylinder measure. The total depth of the sample is then about 10cm and the surface a
little below the top of the mould.
Level of the surface and place the plunger over it .
Place the assembly on the pedestal of the compression testing machine.
Apply the load at a rate of 4 ton per minute until the total applied load is 40 tonnes.
Release the load.
Take the aggregate out of the cylinder and sieve them through 2.36mm IS sieve.
Weigh this fraction passing through it to an accuracy of 0.1gm. This fraction is a
measure of loss of material due to crushing.
Note down the observations and compute the aggregate crushing value.

AGGREGATE ANGULARITY NUMBER

Calibrate the cylinder by deter mining the amount of water required to fill it so that
no meniscus is pre sieve analysis on the aggregesent above the rim of the container.

 Test sample: The amount of aggregate available should be sufficient to provide, after
separation on the appropriate pair of sieves at least 10kg of predominant size, as
determined by the sieve analysis on the aggregate retained between the appropriate
pair of IS sieves
Select the sample of single-size retained between the specified pair of sieves. Then
dry it in oven at a temperature of 100C to 110C for 24 hours and cool it in an air
tight container.
Fill the scoop and heap it to overflowing with the aggregate. Place the aggregate in
the cylinder by allowing it to slide gently off the scoop from the lowest possible
height.
Compact the aggregate in the cylinder by 100 blows of the tamping rod at the rate of
about 2 blows per second. Apply each blow by holding the tamping rod vertically
with its rounded end 5cm above the surface of aggregate and releasing it so that it
falls vertically and no force is applied on it. The blows 'should be distributed evenly
over the surface.
Repeat the process of filling and tamping with a second and third layer of aggregates.
The third layer should contain only the aggregate required to just fill up the cylinder
level before tamping. After the third layer is tamped, fill the cylinder to overflowing,
and strike the aggregates off level with the top using the tamping rod as the straight
edge.
Add individual pieces of aggregate and roll in to Surface by rolling the tamping rod
across the upper edge of the cylinder, until the aggregates do not lift the rod of. No
downward pressure should be applied on the rod.
Weigh the aggregate with the cylinder to the nearest 5g. Make separate
determinations and calculate the mean weight of the aggregate. If the result of any
one determinations differs from the mean by more than 25g, make three additional
determinations and find the mean of all the six determinations.

PARTICLE SIZE DITERMINATION

Prepare the sample for sieving from the large sample either by quartering or
by a sample
Bring the sample to an aid dry condition and weight it dry.
Sieve the sample successively on . the appropriate clean sieves starting from
the largest
Weigh the aggregate retained on each sieve

BULK DENSITY
Fill put one-third of the container with thoroughly mixed aggregate and tamp with
25 strokes of the rounded end of the tamping rod.
Add a further similar quantity of aggregate and tamp it as before.
Fill the container finally to overflowing, tamp it 25 times and strike off the
surplus aggregates.
Determine the net weight of the aggregate in the measure.

TEST ON FRESH CONCRETE

COMPACTION FACTOR TEST

Generally place the sample of concrete to be tested in the upper hopper, using the
hand scoop.
Fill the hopper up to the brim and open the trap door, so that concrete falls into lower
hopper.
Open the trap door of the lower hopper and allow the concrete to fall into the
cylinder.
Cutoff the excess of concrete remaining above the level of the top of the cylinder.
This is done by holding a trowel in each hand, with the plane of the blades horizontal,
and moving them simultaneously one from each side across the top of the cylinder.
While cutting, the blade should be kept pressed on the top edge of the cylinder.
Weigh the concrete in the cylinder to the nearest l0 gms. This is the weight of
partially compacted concrete.
Refill the cylinder with concrete from the same sample in layers approximately 5 Cm
deep, the layers being heavily rammed or preferably vibrated, so as to obtain full
compaction.
Strike Off and level the top surface of the fully compacted concrete.
Clean Outside of the cylinder and weigh. This gives the weight of fully compacted
concrete.
TEST ON CEMENT

CONSISTANCY TEST
Take 400 gm of cement
Take a weighed quantity of writer m a beaker
Prepare a paste with cement and water.
Fill the Vicat mould with the paste without any air voids and level the top surface.
The mould may be slightly shaken to expel air. The gauging time should not be less
than 3 minutes and should not be more than 5 minutes. Gauging time should be
counted from the time of adding water to dry cement until commencing to fill the
mould.
Place the mould under the Vicat plunger and lower the plunger gently to touch the
surface of the paste. Then quickly release it allowing it to penetrate into the pas under
its own weigh.
Note the penetration of the plunger on the scale provided in the Vicat apparatus. If it
is between 5 to 7mm from the bottom. The water added is correct. Otherwise repeat
the test with different water contents till the required penetration is obtained.

FINESS OF CEMENT
Break down the Iumps in the cement sample with fingers
Weigh accurately 100 gms of cement.
Place it on a standard IS.90 micron sieve. Sieve continuously until no more fine
material passes through it.
Repeat the process for two or more samples.

INITIAL SETTING TIME

Preparation of test block

Prepare a cement paste by mixing 400 gms of cement and 0.85 times the water
Required to give a paste of standard consistency
Start a stop-watch, the moment water is added to the cement.
Fill the Vicat mould completely with the cement paste the mould and smoothen the
surface of the paste making it level with the tap of the mould. The cement block thus
prepared in the mould is the test block
initial setting time
Place the test block under the rod bearing the needle.
Lower the needle gently in order to make contact with the surface of the cement
paste and release quickly, allowing it to penetrate the test block.
Repeat the procedure till the needle fails to pierce the test block to a point 5mm
measured from the bottom of the mould.
The time period elapsing between the time, water is added to the cement and
the time, the needle fails to pierce the test block by 5.0 is 0.5mm measured from the
bottom of the mould, is the initial setting time.

TEST ON FINE AGGREGATE

PARTICLE SIZE DETERMINATION

Prepare the sample for sieving from the large sample either by quartering or by a
sample
Bring the sample to an aid dry condition and weight it dry.
Sieve the sample successively on . the appropriate clean sieves starting from the
largest
Weigh the aggregate retained on each sieve

SPECIFIC GRAVITY DETERMINATION

Clean and dry the pycnometer. Weigh the empty bottle with cap (W 2)
Fill the pycnometer to half of its volume with distilled water and mix it thoroughly
with glass rod. Again fill the bottle completely with distilled water flush with the
hole in the conical cap. Dry the pycnometer from outside and determine the weight
of the bottle and the contents (W3).
Now empty the bottle and thoroughly clean it. Fill the bottle with only distilled water
and weigh it.
Repeat the same process for 2 to 3 times, to take the average reading of it.

120

100

80

%finner

60
% finner
40

20

0
1

10
sieve size