Er. Kaushal Kishore

By
KAUSHAL KISHORE
Materials Engineer, Roorkee

Most of our construction sites do not have field-testing laboratory. In this paper simple test methods of construction materials are described which could be performed without any machine or special equipments.

1. TEST FOR ORGANIC IMPURITIES IN FINE AGGREGATE
The aggregate must be checked for organic impurities such as decayed vegetations, humus, and coal dust, etc. Colour test is a reliable indicator of the presence of harmful organic matter in aggregates except in areas where there are deposits of lignite.

Procedure:
a) Fill a 350 ml clear glass medicine bottle upto 75 ml mark with a 3% solution of caustic soda or sodium hydroxide.
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By
KAUSHAL KISHORE
Materials Engineer, Roorkee

The time lag (usually 3 to 28 days) between concrete placement and the evaluation of cube strength is a primary deficiency of the current quality control method used in concrete construction. The development of accelerated curing techniques have reduced the lag time to 24 to 48 hours. But even the 24 hours time is sufficient to allow the concrete to set and harden in the form prior to the testing of the accelerated cubes. This paper describes the method for determination of water-cement ratio of the mix discharged from the mixer and conjunction with air-content tests can predict 28-days strength of concrete in 15 minutes, so that any mix found sub-standard should not be allowed for placement.

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By
KAUSHAL KISHORE
Materials Engineer, Roorkee

Determination of compressive strength of concrete, either accelerated or normal 28-days, takes such a long time that remedial action for defective concrete cannot be under-taken at an early stage. By the time cube strength results indicate low strength, it is too late to do any remedy for the defective concrete which has already set in the form, Further in whole day of concreting work, cubes are filled from only a few batches of concrete which do not actually represent the strength of the entire concrete mass being used in the construction. This shows the limitations of cube strength test for the quality control of concrete.

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By
KAUSHAL KISHORE
Materials Engineer, Roorkee

UPPER AND LOWER GANGES CANAL
The upper ganges canal is the original ganges canal, which starts at the Bhimgoda Barrage near Har Ki Puri at Haridwar, running at the centre of Roorkee, at right bank of canal is Roorkee city and at left bank is Civil Lines, IIT, Roorkee, Bengal Sappers and Minors, traverses Meerut and Bulandshahr and continues to Nanu in Aligarh district, where it bifurcates into the Kanpur and Etawah branches.

A channel from a barrage at Narora intersects the canal system 48 km downstream from Nanu, and continues past the sengar river and Sersa River past Shikohabad in Mainpuri district to become the Bhognipur branch which was uponed in 1880. This Bhognipur branch, together with the Kanpur and Etawah branches, is known as the lower ganges canal. The canal is administratively divided into the upper Ganges canal from Haridwar to Aligarh, with some branches, and the lower Ganges Canal which constitutes several branches below Aligarh.

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By
KAUSHAL KISHORE
Materials Engineer, Roorkee

It is supposed that concrete should give satisfactory service to its entire life. However problems arises, if care is not taken during construction blemish appears on the surface of a concrete slab, it will likely to be one of these: bilisters, cracking, crazing, curling, delamination, discoloration. DUSTING, efflorescence, low spots, popouts, scaling or spelling. This paper will give the details about dusting.

DUSTING
Formation of loose powder resulting from disintegration of surface of hardened concrete is called dusting or chalking and this is composed of water, cement and fine particles. The concrete surface powder under any kind of traffic, and also surface can be easily scratched with nail or even by sweeping.
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By
KAUSHAL KISHORE
Materials Engineer, Roorkee

CAPPING THE CYLINDERS
It is required that the cylinders ends must be plane within 0.050 mm. The most common way of achieving this planeness requirement is to cap the ends of the cylinder as per ASTM C617⁶ with suitable materials. Three different capping materials are permitted (a) A thin layer of stiff Portland cement paste may be used on freshly molded specimens. (b) on hardened cylinders, either high-strength gypsum plaster or sulfur mortar may be used (c) A third method is, an elastomeric pad is placed within a metal retaining ring, and the assembly is then placed over the specimen end. The pad conforms to the shape of the cylinder end, but is prevented from spreading laterally by the metal retaining ring. This provides a uniform load across the specimen ends.

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By
KAUSHAL KISHORE
Materials Engineer, Roorkee

Fundamental principle
A pulse of longitudinal vibrations is produced by an electro-acoustical transducer, which is held in contact with one surface of the concrete under test. When the pulse generated is transmitted into the concrete from the transducer using a liquid coupling material such as grease or cellulose paste, it undergoes multiple reflections at the boundaries of the different material phases within the concrete. A complex system of stress waves develops, which include both longitudinal and shear waves, and propagates through the concrete. The first waves to reach the receiving transducer are the longitudinal waves, which are converted into an electrical signal by a second transducer. Electronic timing circuits enable the transit time T of the pulse to be measured.

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By
KAUSHAL KISHORE
Materials Engineer, Roorkee

The examination and compression testing of cores cut from hardened concrete is a well – established method, enabling visual inspection of the interior regions of a member to be coupled with strength estimation. Other properties which can be measured is also given in this paper.

IS: 456-2000 specified that the points from which cores are to be taken and the number of cores required shall be at the discretin of the engineer-in-charge and shall be representative of the whole of concrete concerned in no case, however, shall fewer than three cores be tested. Core shall be prepared and tested as described in IS: 516.

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By
KAUSHAL KISHORE
Materials Engineer, Roorkee

Concrete mix design is the process of choosing suitable ingredient of concrete and determining their relative quantities with the object of producing as economically as possible concrete of certain minimum properties, notable workability, strength and durability. It should be explained that an exact determination of mix proportions by means of table or computer data is generally not possible. The materials used are essentially variable and many of their properties cannot be assessed truly quantitatively. A Laboratory trial mix does not provide the final answer even when the moisture condition of aggregates are taken into account. Only a mix made and used on the site can guarantee that all properties of the concrete are satisfactory in every detail for the particular job in hand. In fact mix selection requires a knowledge of the properties of concrete and experimental data, and above all the experience of the expert who conduct the mix design. The selection of mix proportions is an art as much as a science. It is not enough to select a suitable concrete mix; it is also necessary to ensure a proper execution of all the operation involved in concreting. It cannot be stated too strongly that, competently used, concrete is a very successful construction material but, in the literal service of the word, concrete is not fool proof. The mix proportions once chosen, cannot expected to remain entirely immutable because the properties of the ingredients (cement, sand, aggregate, water and admixture) may vary from time to time.
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By
Er. KAUSHAL KISHORE
Materials Engineer, Roorkee

Ferrocement as a construction material has now gained acceptance in different applications, namely : housing, agriculture, marine, water supply, sanitation, water proofing treatment etc. Numerous studies published have built up confidence in the material resulting its wider application,

Traditional methods of roof water proofing by lime concrete and mud phuska with thin burnt clay tiles are very cumbersome, time consuming involved high labor cost and also due to non availability of traditional skills and good materials these methods of water proofing are now not very popular. Though bitumen felts are also provided for water proofing their life is less than five years and need frequent replacement.

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