#Jameel_Academy_Concrete_Tests

1. University of Duhok
College of Engineering
Civil Department
Concrete Technology – Practical
Concrete Laboratory
A Report About :
Normal Consistency of Hydraulic Cement
Submitted By : Jameel Masoud Jameel
Lab. No. : 1
Group Name : B1
Testing Date : 15 / 10 / 2017
Submitting Date : 22 / 10 / 2017
Supervised By : Youkhanna
2017 – 2018

2. References :
1) ASTM C187-04
2) ASTM C305-99
Introduction :
The standard consistency of hydraulic cement Test is defined as a quantity
of water for a specific quantity of cement which called W/C ratio or
consistency which will permit the vicat plunger to penetrate to a point 5 to
7mm from the bottom of the vicat mould, We do this test to determine the
W/C ratio which is effects on setting times and be very important to do
some other tests of cement Such as (soundness test and Setting time, …)
and it will decide how much of water we need to be mixed with cement .
Purpose :
This test method is intended to be used to determine the amount of water
required to prepare hydraulic cement past for testing of:
1) Initial setting time.
2) Final setting time.
3) Soundness test.

3. Materials :
1) Potable water.
2) Ordinary Portland cement (OPC).
Equipment :
1) Sensitive balance .
2) Graduate cylinder .
3) Vicat apparatus (having plunger 10mm±1mm and 300gm as a total
weight) .
4) Vicat mold .
5) Mixing bowl or pan .
6) Trowel .
7) Glass plate .
8) Hand covers (plastic gloves) .

4. Sketches :
Mixer Sensitive balance
Graduate Cylinder Vicat Apparatus and Vicat mold
G and Glass Plate
`
hand Cover (Plastic Gloves) Trowel

5. Procedures :
1) Prepare a sample of cement of 500 gm.
2) Take several trials of different W/C ratios, then simply determine the amount of
water required for mixing.
3) Mixing is done using a mechanical mixer, and the procedure described in ASTM
C305 are followed as follows:
4) Place the dry paddle and the dry bowl in the mixing position in the mixer. Then
introduce the materials for a batch into the bowl and mix in the following manner:
a) Place all the mixing water in the bowl.
b) Add the cement to the water and allow 30 seconds for the absorption of the
water.
c) Start the mixer and mix at slow speed for 30 seconds.
d) Stop the mixer for 15 seconds and during this time scrape down into the batch
any paste that may have collected on the side of the bowl.
e) Start the mixer at medium speed and mix for 60 seconds.
5) At the completion of, the mixing cycle, the paste shall be removed from the bowl
and pressed into the large end of the Vicat mold. The excess paste at the large end
shall be struck off with trowel, then place the large end down on a glass plate.
6) The excess paste at the small end shall be struck off with a single stroke of the
trowel.
7) During these operations of cutting and smoothing, take care not to compress the
paste.
8) Center the paste confined in the ring, resting on the plate, under the rod, the plunger
and shall be brought in contact with surface of the paste and tighten the set screw.
9) Set the movable indicator to the upper zero mark of the scale and release the rod
immediately.
10) The paste shall be of normal consistency when the rod settles 6 ±1(Iraqi
Standards) mm from bottom of mold in 30 seconds after being released.
11) Draw the relationship between W/C and penetration for all trials. Construct the
best fit line that pass through all points, then at 6 mm penetration, construct a
vertical line that will intersect with the best fit line, then at point of intersection, a
horizontal line is drawn that will intersect with y-axis which represents the standard
consistency of that cement.

6. Calculations and Results :
- We Have 500g of cement and Different W/C ratio For each Groups now we need to
Determine the water Quantity of each groups . Using This Formula :
W/C ratio × Cement Quantity = Water Quantity
Group B1 0.25 × 500g = 125g of Water
Group B2 0.27 × 500g = 135g of Water
Group B3 0.30 × 500g = 150g of water
Group B4 0.33 × 500g = 165g of Water
- After all Procedure done, we got a different Penetration different W/C ratio :
Groups Cement (g) W/C Water (g) Penetration (mm)
B1 500 0.25 125 25
B2 500 0.27 135 9
B3 500 0.30 150 5
B4 500 0.33 165 4
- And the Relationship between the W/C ratio and penetration is :
- After This relationship between W/C ratio and Penetration, The Standard
Consistency of Cement (W/C ratio) at Penetration (6 mm ) is (0. 2875).
0.2
0.21
0.22
0.23
0.24
0.25
0.26
0.27
0.28
0.29
0.3
0.31
0.32
0.33
0.34
0.35
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26
W/C
Penetration (mm)
Relationship between W/C and Penetration

7. Discussion and Conclusion :
In this test we determine the normal consistency of Hydraulic Cement
four Times with the same quantity of cement and different W/C ratio and
finally we will get a result after doing all procedure accurate which is
four different penetrations in mm, our result are ( 25 , 9 , 5 , 4 ) for W/C
ratio of ( 0.25 , 0.27 , 0.30 , 0.33 ) and according to standard we will
choose the best W/C ratio When penetration is (6 mm) and get a ( 0.2875
W/C ratio ), this result show us with increase W/C ratio the penetration
will decrease till it get to zero because with increase W/C ratio the
amount of water will also increases and we will get less density of
cement paste which the plunger can easily go down through the cement
paste in (Vicat mold) ,the penetration in average approximately is
(10.75), if we compare our result with Iraqi standard which is (6 ±1) as
show the our result is greater than the standard it show that in this test
we have some errors which one is the quantity of cement is not 500g
according to Iraqi Standard its less than that, and another one is we didn’t
measure penetration after 30 second when the plunger go down through
the cement paste in (Vicat mold) according to Iraqi Standard , we know
that if we do many tests of consistency we get the average and the result
will be very accurate.
In conclusion the purpose of this test is to determine the normal
consistency of hydraulic cement and compare the result with standard
And finally we measure the penetration and get a best W/C ratio of
cement and we can use a cement paste with our W/C ratio's result and
this paste can be used for construction or another test.