Why Is Consistency Of Cement Important To Be Determined Before Construction?

 

Testing the quality of materials before embarking on construction is as important as the process itself. As the materials play an imperative role in determining the overall strength, longevity and safety of the structures, it becomes a factor not to be compromised with at all costs.     

Cement is one of the most important materials utilized in construction and is an essential strength as well as durability imparting element of the structure. Owing to the significance of cement in construction projects, it becomes utmost important to utilize the standard prescribed and best quality cement.   

What is consistency of cement?   

Let us try to understand consistency of cement in the simplest way.

Addition of water to cement starts the hydration of the material and makes the powdered cement adorn a paste like texture. Excessive volumes of water increase the water - cement ratio and too little water content decreases the same. Both conditions make the cement paste lose its strength.  

The minimum or exact water quantity that will initiate the reactions to form a cement paste is known as consistency of cement. The consistency of cement helps achieve the sufficient viscosity of the cement paste that results in desired strength for structural works.  

How do we test the consistency of cement?  

Determination of the optimum water-cement ratio to ensure standard consistency is what is achieved by a cement consistency test. “Standard Consistency” also known as normal consistency is an exact ratio that will generate balanced flowability (viscosity), setting time as well as ultimate strength from the cement paste.  

Consistency test of cement is a laboratory testing procedure conducted with use of a Vicat Apparatus. The required water levels for achieving an optimum cement paste can be determined at the point where the apparatus plunger penetrates the cement paste about 5mm to 7mm from the bottom of Vicat Mould. This consistency will be the standard or normal consistency of the sample being tested.

While cement follows a universally standardized procedure of preparation, there arise variations in each and every batch. The normal or standard consistency of cement varies due to the weather conditions, humidity levels, temperature, cement fineness as well as silica composition. The laboratory for construction materials testing Noida precisely determines the exact concentration of a cement sample so as to help derive ultimate strength from the same.

The importance of cement consistency test  

The overall strength of concrete or cement mortar depends on the water-cement ratio. In order to determine the exact consistency of cement, the building material testing service Noida from QA Testing Laboratories helps identify the water levels to be added in formation of cement paste that will yield the prescribed balances of cement strength as well as workability.   

As strength of cement is dependent on its consistency, thus it becomes imperative to calculate the same.