Civil Engineering Tests

CONSISTENCY
The basic aim is to find out the water content required to produce a cement paste of standard consistency as specified by the IS: 4031 (Part 4) – 1988. The principle is that standard consistency of cement is that consistency at which the Vicat plunger penetrates to a point 5-7mm from the bottom of Vicat mould.
Apparatus – Vicat apparatus conforming to IS: 5513 – 1976, Balance, whose permissible variation at a load of 1000g should be +1.0g, Gauging trowel conforming to IS: 10086 – 1982.

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FINENESS
So we need to determine the fineness of cement by dry sieving as per IS: 4031 (Part 1) – 1996.The principle of this is that we determine the proportion of cement whose grain size is larger then specified mesh size.

The apparatus used are 90µm IS Sieve, Balance capable of weighing 10g to the nearest 10mg, A nylon or pure bristle brush, preferably with 25 to 40mm, bristle, for cleaning the sieve.
Sieve shown in pic below is not the actual 90µm seive.Its just for reference.

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