FRONTPAGE

CE 49L CONSTRUCTION AND MATERIALS AND TESTING , LAB.

TUESDAY 1:00PM-7:00PM
JUNE 28, 2016

ASSIGNMENT NO. 1

SUBMITTED BY:

SUBMITTED TO:

CAPIRAL, GRACHELLE ANDREA S.

CONSTRUCTION RELATION TO ENGINEERING

Construction engineering
Infrastructure projects, such as bridges, buildings, roads, railways, wharves, mine and natural
resource facilities, dams and waste treatment plants, progress through feasibility, design,
construction, commissioning and handover phases. Construction engineering is about
organising and coordinating the people, equipment and materials so that the construction
work is done efficiently, safely and in an environmentally sensitive and sustainable way.
1.General: Clearing, dredging, excavating, and grading of land and other activity associated with buildings, structures, or
other types of real
property such
as bridges,
dams,
roads.

MATERIALS IN CONSTRUCTION THAT ARE

VERY USED. ALL ELLABORATE EACH.
2) According to the functions of materials, they can be divided into structural materials and
functional materials. Structural Materials: mainly used as load-bearing members, such as the
materials used for beams, plates and columns. Functional Materials: mainly possessing some
special functions in construction, such as waterproof, ornamental and heat-insulating
functions, etc..
Air Hardening Binding Materials
Building Gypsum ..................................................................................... 29 3.2
Gypsum is an air-hardening materials mainly consisting of calcium sulfate. And its products
have many excellent characters, commonly used in construction. There are various kinds of
gypsum binding materials, such as building gypsum, high-strength gypsum, anliydrite cement,
and high-temperature-calcined gypsum.
Compared with other binding materials, building gypsum has . Fast Setting and Hardening,
Micro-expansion, Big Porosity, Poor Water Resistanc, . Good Fire Resistance, AND Large Plastic
Deformation
Lime ............................................................................................................. 35 3.3

Lime is one of the earliest binding materials used in buildings because its raw materials are
rich and widely distributed, the production process is simple and low-cost, and it is easy to
use. The main raw material of lime is natural rock whose major component is calcium
carbonate. The common lime includes limestone, dolomite, and chalk.
Magnesia .................................................................................................... 40 3.4
Magnesia is an air hardening binding material. Its major component is magnesium oxide (MgO)
which is a kind of white or yellow powder, belonging to magnesia cement materials. Its main
raw material comes from natural magnesite (MgC03) and can also be extracted from
serpentine (3Mg0*2Si0~*2H20), dolomite (MgCO3*CaCO3), molten slag produced by smelting
magnesium alloy (the content of MgO is not less than 25%), or seawater.
Soluble Glass ............................................................................................. 42
Soluble glass, also called foam alkali, is an alkali metal air hardening material. In construction,
it is usually used to prepare sodium silicate cement, soluble glass mortar, and soluble glass
concrete. Soluble glass is widely used in the anti-acid and heat-resistant engineering
Cement
Cement is a hydraulic mineral binding material. Blended with water, the pulverous cement can
generate the plastic paste which will turn into hard cement block and bind granulated (or
block) materials togcther after a series of physical and chemical effects. The hardening of
cement paste will happen not only in the air but also in water and also can maintain and
increase its strength.
Concrete
Concrete is a kind of man-made stone which is made by mixing gel materials, granular coarsefine aggregate and water (if necessary, a certain amount of additive and mineral materials are
added) in a proper ratio evenly, and then getting solidified and hardened. It is one of the main
building materials in projects.
Building Mortar
Building mortar is a building material formed by mixing cementing materials, fine aggregates,
mixtures and water in an appropriate proportion. The main difference between mortar and
concrete is that there is no coarse aggregate in the composition of mortar. Thus, building
mortar is also called fine aggregate concrete.
Wall and Roof Materials
Wall Bricks .............................................................................................. 170 7.2
According to different manufacturing techniques, wall bricks include fired bricks and non-fired
bricks. Fired bricks are fired common bricks, fired porous bricks, fired hollow bricks and hollow
blocks (simply called hollow bricks); and non-fired bricks are autoclaved lime-sand bricks, fly
ash bricks, slag bricks, and carbonated lime bricks.
Wall Blocks .............................................................................................. 183
Blocks are the artificial materials used for masonry, bigger than wall bricks. And they are often
the right-angled hexahedron. Based on the dimensions, blocks can be divided into large-sized
blocks (higher than 980rhm), middle-sized blocks (380-98Omm high) and small-sized blocks

(higher than 115mm and lower than 380mm). The height of a block is usually not more than its
length or 6 times of its breadth, and the length is no more than 3 times of its breadth. There
will be blocks in various shapes to meet the actual demands.
Blocks are a kind of new wall material that can make full use of the local materials and
industrial wastes, save clay resource and improve the environment. Their production process
is simple, their raw materials are rich, they are practical and easy to be used, and also they can
improve the function of walls, so blocks develop very fast.
Wall Plates ................................................................................................ 188 7.4
Roof Materials ........................................................................................ 200
Roof Tiles
With the improvement of the hnction requirements of modem buildings and the development
of material technologies, roof tiles have been changed from the traditional fired tiles into the
large cement tiles of various materials and the polymer compound tiles.
Construction Steel
Construction steel refers to various steel materials used in construction projects, including
various materials used for steel structures (such as round steel, angle steel, joint steel, and
steel pipe), plates, and steel bars, steel wires, and strands used in concrete structure. Steel is
the material produced under strict technical conditions, and it has the following advantages:
even materials, stable properties, high strength, certain plasticity and toughness, and the
properties to bear impacts and vibration loads, and can be welded, riveted, or screwed; the
disadvantages are: easy to be corroded and high cost of repairs.
Wood
Wood is used as architectural and decoration material for its several advantages as follows: its
specific strength is intense, and it is light-weight and high-strength; it has great elasticity and
tenacity that it can bear certain grade of bow and shock wave; its thermal conductivity is low
but thermal isolation is good; Being conserved properly, it can be very durable; it is also easy
to process, and it can be made into products in various shapes; the wood is beautiful-grained,
mild-toned, elegant-styled and well-effected in decoration; the combination of its elasticity,
heat isolation and warm tone makes us comfortable; moreover it has high insulating ability
without poison.
Waterproof Materials
Waterproof materials are the materials that can prevent seepage of rain, ground water and
other kinds of water. Waterproof materials are one of the necessarily important materials in
construction. And they are also widely used in irrigation works, roads and bridge buildings.
Waterproof materials, according to their states, can be classified into waterproof paint (such
as high polymer modified petroleum asphalt and Synthesis of polymers), sealing material used
in architecture (such as asphalt jointing ointment and acrylic acidic jointing ointment),
waterproof binding material and waterproof membrane (such as SBS waterproof modified
asphalt waterproof membrane, APP modified petroleum waterproof membrane, EPDM
waterproof membrane, PVC waterproof membrane, etc.); and waterproof materials according
to their structures can also be classified into petroleum asphalt material, watcrproof material

of asphalt basis, modified waterproof asphalt material and synthetic polymer waterproof
materia
Asphalt .................................................................................................... 253 10.2 10.3
Asphalt is a kind of water-repellent organic binding material, and at room temperature, it is a
black or dark browp thick liquid, semisolid or solid.
Waterproof Asphalt Paint
The waterproof asphalt paint is the aqueous waterproof asphalt-based material, which uses
asphalt as the basic material and the mineral colloid as emulsifier. And then the asphalt and
the mineral colloid are blended together and processed through forced mixing.
Building Plastic
Building plastic has the properties of lightweight, high tenacity and multifunction. It follows
the trend in development of modern materials and becomes an ideal new material to replace
the traditional construction materials, such as steel and wood. Most of the countries in the
world are paying much attention to the uses ofplastic in construction
Plastic Doors and Windows Plastic Pipes Plastic Wallpaper Plastic Floor
Heat-insulating Materials
Heat-insulating Materials ..... : ............................................................. 304.
In architecture, the material which prevents the outflow of indoor heat is normally called
adiabator. On the other hand, the material which prevents the inflow of outdoor heat is called
heat insulator. These two are collectively called heat-insulating materials. This kind of material
is mainly used for walls, ceilings, thermal equipments and thermal pipelines.
Finishing Materials
The materials, which are attached to the surface of the buildings to decorate and beautify the
environment, are defined as finishing materials.
Natural Stone and Artificial Ston
Architectural Ceramic
Architectural Glass
Architectural Decorative Paint
Interior Wall Paint
Wooden Decoration

TESTING IN CONSTRUCTION. IDENTIFY THE

TESTS YOU NEED PER MATERIAL
Test One Tests of Materials Basic Properties

1. Density Test
(1) Purposes Density is the dry mass per unit volume of a substance under absolute compact
conditions. The understanding of density is useful for mastering the quality and performance
of materials. And density can be used to calculate the porosity. 2) The average value of the
results of the above two test is the test result of the density. The difference of the two results
should not be greater than 0.02 g/cm2. Or, it should be re-tested
(2) Apparatus and Equipment Lees density bottle (see Test Figure1 .l) (the smallest scale of
O.lmL), balance (sensitivity of 0.0 lg), thermometer, glass container, oven, dryer, ladle and
funnel.
CALCULATING RESULTS
2. Apparent Density Test
(1) Purposes Apparent density is the dry mass per unit volume of a substance under natural
conditions. The strength, thermal conductivity and water absorption can be evaluated by
apparent density; and also it can be used to calculate the porosity, volume, quality and the
structure weight
A balance (weighing of 1 OOOg and division value of 0.1 g), liquid balance (Archimedes
balance, division value of 0.0 1 g), Vernier caliper (accuracy of O.lmm), oven, dryer, paraffin
wax, alcohol height three times at different points in each direction, and calculate their
average a, b, and c, then:
3. Water-absorption Ratio Test
(1) Purposes Water-absorption ratio refers to the ratio of the mass or volume of water to the
dry mass or volume of a material when the material is saturated. The water-absorption ratio
affects the strength, frost resistance, thermal conductivity and other hnctions greatly. The test
of water-absorption ratio is useful for evaluating various functions.
Apparatus and Equipment Balance (lkg, division value of O.lg), sink, oven, dryer, and so on.
CALCULATING RESULTS

Test Two Lime Test ....................................................................................... 349

Factory Inspection
Building quicklime is inspected in batch by the quality supervision departments of factories.
The tested items are all the ones in Table 3.2 of Chapter Three. And the inspected items of
building quicklime are those in Table 3.3 of Chapter Three. The tested items of building
hydrated lime are those in Table 3.4 of Chapter Three.
(2) The Inspected Batch The inspected batch of building quicklime and quicklime powder are:
If the daily output is more than 200t, each batch is less than 200t; If the daily output is less
than 200t, each batch is less than 100t; Ifthe daily output is less than loot, each batch is less
than the daily output. The inspected batch of building hydrated lime is divided according to
the production capacity. lOOt is regarded as a batch, and less than lOOt is still regarded as a
batch.

(3) Sampling
1) The samples of quicklime are taken from different part of the whole batch in
accordance with the regulations. The sampling locations should not be less than 25, and the
sampling amount should not be less than 2kg. The sample should be reduced to 4kg and
packed in sealed containers.
2) The sampling of quicklime powder: the samples of the powder in bulk can be
taken randomly or by the use of automatic sampler. In the sampling of bagged quicklime
powder, 10 bags should be taken randomly from the bulk. And the total sampling amounts
should not be less than 3kg. The samples should be stored in containers during the collection
process. When the
sampling is over, the samples should be reduced to 300g by quartering immediately, installed
in the ground wild-mouth bottle, sealed and labeled: the product name, volume, production
date, frequency, sampling location, and the signature of sampler, and finally sent to the
laboratory.
3) The sampling of hydrated lime powder: 10 bags of samples are taken from each
batch, and lOOg are taken from different points of each bag. The total amount should not be
less than lkg, evenly mixed. The samples should be shrunk by quartering and finally selected
250g for the physical testing and chemical analysis. (
4) Judgment -When all the technical indicators of products have reached the corresponding
technical requirements in Table 3.2, Table 3.3, and Table 3.4 in Chapter Three, the gade of
products can be determined. If there is one index below the qualified grade, the product is not
qualified. (

5) Rechecking When customers have objections to the product quality, the physical indicators
can be rechecked. The product sample that is taken according to the above requirements of
sampling can be sent to quality supervision department for rechecking
CALCULATING RESULTS

Test Three Cement Test ................................................................................ 355

The Conventional Requirements for Cement Test
1) The samples should be taken from the same factory, be produced in the same period, and
belong to the same variety and same strength grade. The cement products with the same
factory codes entering factory at the same time are taken as a batch (namely a sampling unit).
The batch of bulk cement should not be more than 500t in total and that of sacked cement
should not be more than 200t. The samples should be representative and continuous. And
they can be taken from different parts, with the total of over 12kg.
2) Samples should be mixed well. Record the percentage and properties of the screenings left
on the square-hole sieve of 0.9mm.
3) The test water should be clean and fresh water.

4) The temperature of laboratory should be controlled around (20 k 2) C, and the relative
humidity should be more than 50%. The temperature of curing box should be(20 If: 1)"C, and
the relative humidity should exceed 90%.
5) The moisture of cement samples, standard sand, and the mixing water should be the same
with the laboratory.

(1) Determination of Cement Fineness

The fineness of cement is an important index for cement and has great impact on its strength,
soundness, water segregation, energy consumption and production. There are specific surface
area and screen analysis, the two testing methods. The method of specific surface area is
mainly used for Portland cement and screen analysis method is used for the other kinds of
cement. Screen analysis method can also be divided into negative pressure screen analysis,
water screen, and manual dry screening. In the actual testing, if the result tested by negative
pressure screen analysis confronts with the one tested by water screening or manual dry
screening, the former prevails. Manual dry screening can be adopted when there is no
negative pressure sieve and water sieve. The method of negative pressure screen analysis is
mainly introduced here.
(2) Apparatus 1) Negative Press Sieve Analysis Device: is consisted of sieve steadier, negative
pressure sieve, negative pressure source, and dust collective device. Thereinto, the sieve
steadier is consisted of air nozzle with the speed of (30k 2)r/min, negative pressure gage,
control board, micro-motor and shell (See Test Figure 3.1). . 2) Balance (with the largest
weighing of lOOg and the division value of no more than 0.05g).
CALCULATING RESULTS

Test Four Concrete Aggregate Test ........................................................... 370

Sampling Method of Fine Aggregate Fine aggregate---the sand samplings of the same
origins and same specifications should be tested in batch. If it is transported by large
vehicles (such as trains, cargo ships, automobiles), Each batch should not be more than
400m3 or 600 t. if it is transported by small vehicles (such as carriage), every 200m3 or 300t
is a batch.
When samples are taken from stock pile, the sampling parts should be evenly distributed.
Before sampling, the surfaces of these parts should be shoveled, and then 8 similar pieces
of samples will be taken from every part. And the 8 pieces samples, totally 30kg, are ready
for the sieve analysis, apparent density test and bulk density test. The splitting of sand
samples can be conducted by distributor or by manual quartering.
Sampling Method of Coarse Aggregate The sampling method of coarse aggregate is the
same with that of fine aggregate. When samples are taken form stock pile, the sampling
parts should be evenly distributed. Before sampling, the surfaces of these parts should be
shoveled, and then 15 similar pieces of stone samples will be taken from every part
(namely, 15 different parts distributed on the top, the middle, the bottom of the sample

pile). They are ready for the sieve analysis, apparent density test and bulk density test.(if
the size fraction is 4.75-19.0mm, it needs about 140kg sample; if the size fraction is 4.7575.0mm, it needs about 430kg sample). Put sample on slab, mix it evenly in the natural
state; and get the needed quantity by the aforementioned manual quartering
Test Five Tests of the Main Technical Properties
........................................................................................ 381

of

Ordinary

Concrete

Test Six Building Mortar Test .................................................................... 39'1

Test Seven Fired Common Brick Test ...................................................... 397
Test Eight Steel Bar Test .............................................................................. 403
Test Nine Petroleum Asphalt Test ............................................................. 408
Test Ten Test of Elastic (Plastic) Modified Asphalt Waterproof Coiled Materials
............................................................................ 414