CES 24 Compulsory

Ethiopian Standard

First Edition
2013

Hollow Concrete Blocks and Beam tiles

ICS:91.100.10
Published by Ethiopian Standards Agency
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Foreword

This Ethiopian Standard has been prepared under the direction of the Technical Committee for Concrete and concrete
products (TC 36) and published by the Ethiopian Standards Agency (ESA).

This Compulsory Ethiopian Standard cancels and replaces ES 82:2001.

Application of this standard is COMPULSORY with respect to clauses 5,7.1,7.2, and 7.3.
A Compulsory Ethiopian Standard shall have the same meaning, interpretation and application of a "Technical
Regulation" as implied in the WTO-TBT Agreement.
Implementation of this standard shall be effective as of 01 October 2013.

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 ETHIOPIAN STANDARD CES 24

1 SCOPE

This standard specifies requirements for hollow concrete blocks and beam tiles manfuctured from
Portland cement and suitable aggregates.
2. DEFINITIONS

In this standard:

2.1 Gross Cross-sectional Area shall mean the to tal area of a section (bxL) parallel to the normal
bedding plane, including the area of cells and re-entrant spaces of concrete block and beam tiles.

2.2 Ne t Cross-sectional Area shall mean gross cross-sectional area minus the area fo the cells and
re entrant spaces measured in the same plane.

2.3 Face shall shall mean the outer walls of a hollow concrete block or beam tile.

2.4 Web shall mean teh cross partitios dividing a hollow concerete block or beam tile into cells.

3. Form

The shape of hollow concrete

concrete blacks and b eam tiles
surfaces. The net cross-sectona
per cent of the cross-sectional a
shall be optional.

blocks and beam tiles shall be as shown in Figures 1 and 2. Hollow

shall respectively have cells perpendicular and parallel to the be aring
l area in a plane parallel to the bearing surface shall be less than 75
rea measured in the same plane. The number and desing of the holes

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4. CLASSIFICATION

4.1 Hollow concrete blocks shall be classified into the following thre classes.

4.1.1 Class A and B, loadbearing units suitable for use as :

- Exteranl walls pointed,pointed,rendered,plastered and the like

- The inner leaf of cavity walls or as backing to brick or stone masonry

- Internal walls or partitions

- Panels in steel framed and reinforced concrete framed buildings.

4.1.2 Class C, non-loadbearing units suitable for use as :

- Non-load bearing walls and partitions, adn

- Non – loadbearing internal panels in steel framed and reinforced concrete framed buildings.

5. DIMENSIONS

5.1 The nominal dimensions of hollow concrete blocks and beam tiles(Figures 1 and 2) shall
be as indicated in tables 1 and 2 respectively.

Table 1. NOMINAL DIMENSIONS OF HOLLOW CONCRETE BLOCKS, mm

Breadth,b Height,h Length,L Face shell,d Web,e

100 200 400 20 20

150 200 400 25 25

200 200 400 30 25

250 200 400 35 30

300 200 400 40 30

TABLE 2 NOMINAL DIMENSIONS OF HOLLOW CONCRETE BEAM TILES, mm

Height, h Breadth,b Length,l Face shell,d Web,e

140 400 200 20 20

180 400 200 25 20

240 400 200 30 25

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 CES 24

5.2 The face shell thickness shall be the average of four distributed measurements at the long s ides
and web thickness shall be the average fo two distributed measurements 6

5.3 The maximum tolerances for the dimensions of hollow concrete blocks and beam tiles shall be ±
5mm of the nominal dimensions indicated in Tables 1 and 2.

6. MATERIALS

6.1 Cement conforming with the requirements of ES 1177 – 1 :2005 shall be used as a cementitious
material.

6.2 Aggregates shall be dense or light weight or a mixture of both types conforming with the
requirements of the relevant Ethipian Standards. The maximum size of the aggregate particles
shall not exceed one-third of the accual thickness of the web or face shell.

6.3 Water shall be free from any deleterious substance which adversely affects the quality and
permanenc e of the concrete blocks or beam tiles.

6.4 Other constituents such as colouring pigments and admixtures shall be sound and added in
quantities so as to meet the requirements spcified under section 7.

7. QUALITY
7.1 General Requirements

Hollow concrete blocks and beam tiles s hall be free from lami nations. Tracks and othe r
defects that would impair the proper setting strength or permanence of the construction. They
shall be well compacted, properly cured and have uniform colour and texture.

7.2 Planeness
Deviation from planeness, when measured by using vernier calipers or other suitable device,shall not
exceed 2.5 per cent of the specified dimension of the sample.

7.3 Comperssive Strength

The minimum compressive strength for each class of hollow concrete blocks shall be as indicated in
Table 3.

TABLE 3. MINIMUM COMPRESSIVE STRENGTH

Average of 6 units Individual units

Class
N/mm2 Kgf/cm2 N/mm2 Kgf/cm2

A 4.2 42 3.8 38

B 4.0 35 3.2 32

C 2.0 20 1.8 18

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8. SAMPLING

8.1 six full size samples shall be taken from a lot of 5000 blocks or fraction there for the
compression tests.if c oncrete blocks are kept in batchs, at least three samples shall
be taken from each batch.

8.2 Each sample shall be properly identified.Scraping samples with sharp tools for marking
purpouses shall not be allowed.

9. TESTING

9.1 Visual inspection

All the samples shall be visually inspected with respect to the requirements given in clause
7.1

9.2 Checking Dimensions

Dimensions shall be me asured with a le ngth measure graduated in millimeters or with a

suitable caliper.each dimension shall be recorded to the nearest millimetere as teh average
of a minimum of four reading.

9.3 Compressive Strength

9.3.1 Preparation of sample

The contact surface of the samples with the testing machine shall be made plane by
capping with 1 :1 mortar. The caps shall be aged for at least 24 hours before the are
tested.

9.3.2 Test procedure

Each sample, placed in a position such that the load is applied in the same direction as in
service, shall be centralized between the pressure surfaces. The c ompressive force shall
then be increased at the rate of 0.2 to 0.5 N/mm2s)until the sample breaks.the maximum
load (load at rupture) shall be noted.

9.3.3 Calulation

The compressive strength shall be calculated by dividing the maximum loas by the groos
cross-sectional area. The results shall be reported separately for each sample and the
average for 6 samples computed to the first decimal place when using newton valuse.

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 Organization and Objectives
The Ethiopian Standards Agency (ESA) is the national standards body of Ethiopia
established in 2010 based on regulation No. 193/2010.ESA is established due to the
restructuring o f Quality and Standards Authority of Ethiopia ( QSAE) w hich was
established in 1998.

ESA’s objectives are:-

 Develop Ethiopian standards and establish a system that enable to

Ethiopian Standards Agency
የኢትዮጵያ የደረጃዎች ኤጀንሲ

check whether goods and services are in compliance with the

required standards,
 Facilitate the country’s technology transfer through the use of
standards,
 Develop national standards for l ocal products and se rvices so as to
make them competitive in the international market.
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