In this experiment, the amount of cement used is 400g of Portland cement. From the graph, percentage of water is proportional with the penetration of the cement. Penetration increase when percentage of water used increase until the cement reached its optimum penetration. For the first test, the amount of water used is 120ml, recorded the penetration of 2mm. The amount of water for test 2 is raised by 10ml to 130ml, recorded the penetration of 9mm in the tested cement. Test 3 recorded the penetration of 16mm with 140ml of water used. In test 4, when 150ml of water is used, percentage of water is 27.8 %, the initial Vicat reading is 39 and the final reading is 0. This marked that the cement had achieved its optimum penetration (39mm). The amount of water required for normal consistency for the cement tested is 150ml.
Questions
1. What is the important of Vicat Test?
Vicat Test are important in cement manufacturing industry and construction industry to test and measure the setting time of cement.
2. Beside Vicat Test, name the other test to test the cement. Explain it.
The concrete slump test is an empirical test that measures the workability of fresh concrete. More specifically, it measures the consistency of the concrete in that specific batch. This test is performed to check the consistency of freshly made concrete. Consistency is a term very closely related to workability. It is a term which describes the state of fresh concrete. It refers to the ease with which the concrete flows. It is used to indicate the degree of wetness. Workability of concrete is mainly affected by consistency i.e. wetter mixes will be more workable than drier mixes, but concrete of the same consistency may vary in workability. It is also used to determine consistency between individual batches.
Conclusions
The cement had achieved its optimum penetration (39mm). The amount of water required for normal consistency for the cement tested is 150ml.