SURNAME rauzela

INITIALS ambesa
STUDENT NO 214178811
SUBJECT CONSTRUCTION MATERIALS I
SUBJECT CODE COS11P1
PRACTICAL DATE 18-05-2018
PRAC DUE DATE 26-05-2018
PRAC numbers 7, 8, 9, & 10
LAB NAME CONCRETE LAB
SUPERVISOR MR M.B KWABABA

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Table of contents
1. CONCRETE MIX DESIGN
1.1. Determination of w:c ratio
1.2. Determination of Water content
1.3. Determination of Cement content
1.4. Determination of Stone content
1.5. Determination of content of sand
1.6. Mix per bag
2. SLUMP TEST
2.1. Introduction
2.2. Apparatus
2.3. Procedure
2.4. Results
2.5. Conclusion
3. CUBE MAKING
3.1. Introduction
3.2. Apparatus
3.3. Procedure
3.4. Results
3.5. Conclusion
4. CONCRETE CUBE CURING
4.1. Introduction
4.2. Apparatus
4.3. Procedure
4.4. Results
4.5. Conclusion
5. DETERMINATION OF CONCRETE STREGNTH
5.1. Introduction
5.2. Apparatus
5.3. Procedure
5.4. Results
5.5. Conclusion

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 CONCRETE MIX DESIGN
 Aim : To determine proportions of ingredients that would produce a
workable concrete mix that is durable, and of required strength at a
minimum cost

 Cement
1. RD=2.860
2. Type = CEM I 42.5

 Sand
1. Type = Natural sand
2. Particle shape = Average
3. FM =1.926
4. RD =2.700

 Stone
1. RD = 2.952
2. CBD = 1.730 kg/m3
3. Size = 13.2mm
 Strength = 25MPa
 Slump = 75mm
 Degree of compaction = Moderate Vibration
 w/c1=0.683 w/c2=0.740

Constituents Kg/m3 L/m3 Kg/bag Kg/1/4bag

Water 220 220 35.600 8.900
Cement 308.989 108.038 50 12.5
Stone 1.333 0.451 0.216 0.054
Sand 1813.080 671.511 293.389 73.347
W/c ratio….0.712

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 SLUMP TEST

INTODUCTION
For a concrete to be workable, it must have certain properties, of which one of
those properties is consistency. Consistency is defined as the fluidity of the
concrete. The sloppiness of the concrete is determined by doing slump test.
Slump test controls the quantity of water used in the mix.
 Slump is the height from the highest of the concrete to the underside of
the tamping rod

APPARATUS
 A Standard mould –Clean and dump
 A tamping rods - one or both end must be rounded and one with
squared ends
 A non-absorbent rigid surface – steel which must rest flat and firmly on
the ground

PROCEDURE
 We mixed the following concrete constituents:
 12.5 kg of cement
 21.75 kg of sand
 46.75 kg of stone
 Used 13mm stone
 We placed the mould in the centre of the steel base plate
 We held the mould firmly by placing the feet on foot pieces
 The mould was filled in three layers of approximate equal height giving
each layer 38 blows of the square ended rod, applied uniformly all over
the area of each layer
 Bottom layer was tamped throughout its depth and when tamping other
layers, the rod just penetrated the below layer.
 The last layer overfilled the mould and tamped before removing excess
concrete using a sawing and rolling action of the rounded tamping rod.
 Excess concrete was cleaned around the mould

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  The pressure was transferred from the foot piece to the handles and the
mould was slowly and steadily removed from the concrete
 We turned the mould upside down just next to the slumped concrete
 We placed the tamping rod across the top of the mould and measured
the slump to the nearest 5 mm.
RESULTS
We measured a slump of 85 mm
CONCLUSION
The allowable amount of slump is 1/3 above (100mm) or below (50mm) the
required slump (75mm). So in this case we wanted a slump of 75mm but got
85mm slump which is also allowable. I can therefore conclude and say the mix
was too runny: The runny the mix the higher the slump.

CUBE MAKING

INTRODUCTION
After testing the consistency of the mix we had to test the strength of the
concrete. We had to make concrete cubes by the same concrete. Cube making
will assist the concrete to be well packed and gain strength for required
number of days before being tested for strength.

APPARATUS
 150mm steel cube mould with steel base plate
 A rounded end square tamping rod
 A trowel and steel float
 Steel brush, a container with grease and a paint brush

PROCEDURE
 The moulds were made clean, tightened and greased.
 We placed the moulds on a firm, level surface
 Each mould was filled with a concrete in three even layers

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  We tamped each layer with a squared tamping rod for at least 45
times uniformly and evenly.
 By tamping the concrete we were removing air particles inside the
concrete because the air reduces the ability of a concrete to resist
compression.
 The last layer was made to overflow the mould and it was then
tamped
 We used the steel float to strike off the surface of the concrete so
that it is level with the top of the mould, the we finished off the
top layer
 We then labelled our cubes before cleaning our work stations and
apparatus.
 We left the cubes to be dried

CUBE CURING

INTRODUCTION
Cubes must be cured before they are tested. Curing involves putting the cubes
into water after 24H so that they can gain strength. The purpose of putting
cubes into water is to avoid cracking because when the cube dries before
gaining strength it crack, therefore curing aids in hydration.

APPARATUS
 Curing tank

PROCEDURE
 We demoulded the cubes by taking the mould parts apart
completely
 Took the cube with care to the curing tank
 We cleaned the cube before taking them into curing tank
 We then cleaned the parts of the mould before rejoining the
mould again

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 CUBE TESTING
INTRODUCTION
Cube testing is the determination of concrete strength after some certain
period, which is usually after 28 days. After the doing concrete mix design, we
have to check if whether or not the concrete meet the minimum required
strength before putting the concrete into work. Therefore we have to expose
the cube under compressive pressure and observe its behaviour towards that
pressure.
Compressive Strength: Measure of maximum resistance of a concrete
specimen to a compressive axial load. It is the most important property of
hardened concrete.

APPARATUS
Testing Machine

PROCEDURE
 We took two cubes from the curing tank and dried them
 We measured the mass of each cube to nearest 10g.
 Placed each cube centrally in platen (jaws) of testing machine.
 The trowelled face was made vertical and NOT in contact with either
platen.
 We Applied the load at a constant rate of 15MPa/minute until no further
load can be carried by the cube
 Observe how the cube fails- a horizontal crack (next slide) means that
the cube was placed eccentrically in testing machine.

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 DETERMINATION OF STRENGTH

Cube1 Cube2
Area = 150×150 Area = 150×150
= 22 500 mm2 = 22 500 mm2
Mass = 8.054 kg Mass = 7.922 kg
Maximum load = 676.700 Maximum load = 714.7
Compressive strength Compressive strength
= 0.030 KN/mm2 = 0.032 KN/mm2
= 30.000 N/mm2 = 32 N/ mm2
Average strength = 31 MPa

𝑀𝑎𝑥𝑖𝑚𝑢𝑚 𝑙𝑜𝑎𝑑 (𝐾𝑁)

𝑐𝑜𝑚𝑝𝑟𝑒𝑠𝑠𝑖𝑣𝑒 𝑠𝑡𝑟𝑒𝑛𝑔𝑡ℎ =
𝐶𝑟𝑜𝑠𝑠 𝑠𝑒𝑐𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛𝑎𝑙 𝑎𝑟𝑒𝑎(𝑚𝑚 × 𝑚𝑚)

CONCLUSION
The concrete has got a medium strength concrete (25 MPa – 40 MPa) there it
can be used for beams, foundations, e.t.c

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