Bulking of Sand Although cement and lime have consistent volumes, sand used on site will vary in Its

volume due to the amount of water contained within it. Dry sand and saturated sand have the same volume, but when sand is only damp It occupies a greater volume, that is, the sand swells up or bulks. This is due to fine water droplets holding the grains of sand apart.

A simple site test can be carried out to fi nd the percentage bulking of damp sand. The materials required are a glass jar, a sample of sand, water and a tape measure. The procedure is as follows: Fill the glass jar with 100mm of damp sand. Cover the sand with water and stir. Allow the contents to settle and measure the depth of saturated sand (having the same volume as dry sand). Measure the difference in millimetres, this will be the percentage bulked.
Formula for calculation of the actual bulking percentage of the sand sample: (h h)/ hx 100% Therefore if the measured difference in height of sand was 6mm, the height of the sand after compaction due to saturation would be 94mm and the calculation would therefore be: (100 94) x 100% = 6.38% bulking 94 This percentage must be allowed for when calculating the amount of water required in a weightbatched mix. If using volume batching, it is much more diffi cult to allow for this percentage accurately, and this often results in poorly batched mortar with a defi ciency of sand.

Water/cement ratio The strength of mortar can be affected by the ratio of the weight of water in the mix to the weight of the cement. Water/cement ratio = Weight of water in the mix / Weight of cement in the mix If a mortar mix has 50kg of cement, and the total water does not exceed 25 litres (1 litre = 1kg), the ratio will be: 25kg = 0.5 50kg The water content should not exceed 0.5 or the strength of the mix will suffer. However, Due to poor site practice, the specifi ed ratio often rises too high through careless addition of water to speed up mixing. Example: If the ratio of a mix is specified as 0.45, then the quantity of water required for each 25kg bag of cement added to the mix will be: 25 x 0.45 = 11.25 litres (11.25kg)

Composition of Concrete

Air-entrained

Non-air-entrained

Cement Water Air Fine Aggregate Course Aggregate

15% 18% 8% 28% 31%

15% 21% 3% 30% 31%

Note: All values are approximate

Composition of Concrete
11% Cement (usually Portland)

16% Water 6% Air 26% Sand 41% Gravel or Crushed Stone