HO CHI MINH CITY UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY

OFFICE FOR INTERNATIONAL STUDY PROGRAMS

CONSTRUCTION
MATERIALS
ASSIGNMENT REPORT

Instructor: Trần Văn Miền

Class: CC01 --- Semester: 202
Ho Chi Minh City 2021
Student: Đỗ Tấn Kiệt – ID number: 1852490
Contents
 Part A: THEORY..............................................................................................2
Question 1: What is natural rock? Please introduce 5 types of the natural rock
and application of these rocks. ...............................................................................2
Question 2: What is ceramic? Which factors will you use to evaluate quality of
raw materials and ceramic product (such as calcined clay brick, title). ................2
Question 3: - What is Portland cement (PC)? According to your idea, what
should we do to improve properties of PC to satisfy various application of PC
for construction? ....................................................................................................2
- What is PCB40 and its application? ....................................................................2
Question 4: - What is concrete? What concrete type will you apply for
manufacturing structural structures in construction? What are major factors
affecting on properties of this concrete type? ........................................................3
- What requirements will you use to choose ingredients for making concrete? ....3
- Please introduce procedure to make concrete and stages to make concrete
tests? .......................................................................................................................3
Question 5: - What is masonry mortar? Please introduce 2-3 types of masonry
mortar .....................................................................................................................4
Question 6: - What is asphalt concrete? Please introduce some application of
asphalt concrete in construction. ............................................................................4
Question 7: - Please classify and evaluate quality of steel type which is used
popularly in construction. ......................................................................................4
- What is difference between timber and other construction materials? Please
introduce some methods to conserve timber. ........................................................4
 Part B: EXERCISE ...........................................................................................5
Question 1: .............................................................................................................5
Question 2: .............................................................................................................5
Question 3: .............................................................................................................6

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 Part A: THEORY

Question 1: What is natural rock? Please introduce 5 types of the natural rock and
application of these rocks.
- Natural rock is inorganic material consisting of many minerals. Minerals of
rock composes various chemical agents.
Ex: Granite as building stone;
Gravel as laying the foundation of a building;
Limestone as wall covering
Basalt as aggregate of concrete
Sandstone as carving
Question 2: What is ceramic? Which factors will you use to evaluate quality of raw
materials and ceramic product (such as calcined clay brick, title).

- Ceramics are artificial rocks which are made from raw materials such as clay
or kaolin through molding, drying, and burning at high temperature (i.e 900-
1350oC
- Factors use to evaluate quality: feature, water absorption, burning temperature
Question 3: - What is Portland cement (PC)? According to your idea, what should
we do to improve properties of PC to satisfy various application of PC for
construction?
- What is PCB40 and its application?
- Portland cement is a water hardened binder, manufactured by burning a mix
of clay and limestone to form clinker, then clinker is ground together with 3-
5% gypsum to get cement.
- Improve properties of PC: Cement with a higher fineness has a higher
strength, while cement with a lower C3A (tricalcium aluminate) concentration
has a higher sulfate resistance. Mineral content C2S, C4AF is added to lower
the amount of heat generated when cement reacts with water for irrigation
works, dams.
- PCB (Portland Cement Blender) is a mixed Portland cement and is
manufactured from clinker, gypsum and contains no more than 20% additives.

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 Index 40, also known as PCB40 cement, means that only the type with
compressive strength after 28 days of cement samples is determined in units
of N/mm2.
- Application: PCB40 can be used in both civil and industrial projects. Other
applications for this type of cement include traffic, irrigation, infrastructure,
and projects needing great strength and early development. They are
particularly well suited to foundation structures, beams, and columns.
Alternatively, huge concrete blocks with strong compressive, flexural, and
chemical resistance are suitable for Vietnam's climate.
Question 4: - What is concrete? What concrete type will you apply for manufacturing
structural structures in construction? What are major factors affecting on properties of this
concrete type?
- What requirements will you use to choose ingredients for making concrete?
- Please introduce procedure to make concrete and stages to make concrete tests?
- Concrete is a compounded man-made material. Concrete is one of the most
versatile and widely-used construction materials on Earth. It’s strong, durable,
low maintenance, fire-resistant, simple to use. It has 4 primary ingredients:
water, sand (fine aggregate), gravel (coarse aggregate) and cement. We use
Prestressed Concrete (PSC) for manufacturing structural structures in
construction. Major factors affected on properties of PSC are internal stresses
and tensile stress. Pre Stressed concrete is basically concrete in which internal
stresses of a suitable magnitude and distribution are introduced so that the pre-
compressive stress in concrete will balance the tensile stress produced in
concrete due to external loads.
- We use to choose components (Water - sand - gravel and cement) reasonable
rate for making concrete.
- To create concrete, the main components of construction systems are gravel,
cement, water, sand and a concrete mixer to blend all the materials. Gravel or
small stone is the major and biggest component needed and accounts for 50%
among all materials. There are, however, some other materials like the sand
which is mainly used and comes in the second place and is accounted halved
from gravel, followed by cement and water. The cement accounts for 15%
compared to among all materials used to construct a new real construction. All
the material is mixed together by a concrete mixer.
- To make concrete test, we will test for consistency of cement (slump test)

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 (1) Fill the mold with fresh concrete in three layers. Each layer should
be tamped uniformly, 25 times using the rounded end steel rod.
(2) Once the cone is full, level the top by removing any excess concrete
from the top of the cone.
(3) Hold the handles found at the base of the mold and carefully lift the
cone vertically.
(4) The resulting unsupported concrete will therefore slump and the
decrease in height should be measured.
Question 5: - What is masonry mortar? Please introduce 2-3 types of masonry
mortar
- Mortar masonry is a homogeneous mixture produced by the union of sand,
water and an inorganic conglomerate, which can be lime, plaster or cement.
- Types of masonry mortar: Cement mortars masonry, lime mortars masonry,
bastard mortars masonry
Question 6: - What is asphalt concrete? Please introduce some application of asphalt
concrete in construction.
- Asphalt concrete is basically a mixture of asphalt cement, aggregates and
mineral powders. Asphalt concrete is hot-mixed in an asphalt plant and then
hot-laid to form the surface course of flexible pavement
- Some application: used for surface of highway roads, surface in airport,
racetracks, used as an environmental liner for landfills, reservoirs.
Question 7: - Please classify and evaluate quality of steel type which is used popularly in
construction.
- What is difference between timber and other construction materials? Please
introduce some methods to conserve timber.
- Steel used in construction is often classified into 4 group: carbon, alloy,
stainless and tool
- To evaluate the quality of steel, we can test it in laboratory and field tests.
+ Alloy steel: has higher strength and durability
+ Construction steel (reinforced concrete): strength, toughness and ductility,
easy welding, bending

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 - Timber shrinks and swells, is light in comparison to other building materials
like concrete and steel, and is simple to carry and handle. Concrete has a low
tensile and is hard in nature, but timber is tensile and resists bending. Timber
drying is a method of reducing the moisture content of wood, preventing rot,
increasing strength, and limiting size change throughout usage, as well as
painting or spraying chemical agents to protect timber from insects and fungal
attack.

 Part B: EXERCISE
Question 1:
A dried stone sample has weight G = 10000g. After finishing sieve analysis, the
sieving results are shown in the table below. Let’s fill in the blank and determine
Dmax, Dmin of this stone?

Sieve i Individual retaining Individual retaining ai Accumulated

(mm) content mi (g) (%) retaining Ai (%)
32 450 ………4.5……… ………4.5………
25 ………1250……… 12.5 ………17………
20 ………1120……… ………11.2……… 28,2
12.5 2572 ………25.72……… ………53.92………
10 ………3912……… 39.12 ………93.04………
5 ………696……… ………4.96……… 100
 Dmax = 10mm ; Dmin = 32mm
Question 2:
A concrete mix proportion has N/X = 0.4 then compression strength is 55 MPa. Let’s
determine the compression strength of this concrete when N/X is 0.55. The Bolomey
– Skramtaev formulation is used to design concrete mix proportion.
𝑁 𝑋 𝑁′ 𝑋′ 20
= 0.4 => = 2.5 = 0.55 => =
𝑋 𝑁 𝑋 𝑁 11
X 55
Rb = ARx*( − 0.5) => ARx = X = 27.5
𝑁 ( −0,5)
N

𝑁′ X′
 Strength when = 0.55 is R’=ARx*( − 0.5)
𝑋 N
20
 R’ =27.5 * ( − 0.5)= 36.25 MPa
11

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Question 3:
Concrete mixture of M300 is as:
Cement = 350 kg; Sand = 567 kg; Coarse aggregate = 1071 kg; Water = 175l
At construction site, they use a container of 18l to balance materials. We know that
all concrete ingredients are dried stage. Bulk densities of sand and coarse aggregates
are 0cát =1.5 g/cm3; 0đá = 1.7 g/cm3 respectively. They use 2 bags of cement for
every concrete batching. Let’s determine the number of the containers of the sand and
the coarse aggregate needed to use for every concrete batching?
One bag of cement = 50kg => Two bags of cement = 100 kg
Ratio of mass of materials from given:
C : S : G : W = 350 : 567 : 1071 : 175
Ratio of mass of material when we use 2 bags of cement
C : S : G : W = 100 : 162 : 306 : 50
𝑚𝑆 162
Volume of the sand we use: Vs = = = 108 ( l )
𝛾0 𝑆 1.5
𝑚𝐺 306
Volume of the coarse aggregate we use: Vg = = = 180 ( l )
𝛾0𝐺 1.7
108
The number of container of Sand we need: NS = = 6 (containers)
18
180
The number of container of Coarse aggregate we need: NG = = 10 (containers)
18