Soran University

Faculty Of Engineering

Civil Department-3rd Stage

Construction Materials Laboratory

Experiment No. 5

Determination of Initial Setting Time of Cement with

Vicat’s Apparatus (ASTM C191 – 04b).

Student Name: Zahim Ihsan , Rebar Mirza

Group:B

Exp. Date: 18/ Nov/2021

Submission Date: 2/ Dec/ 2021

 INTRODUCTION

When working with cement in any form, i.e. cement mortar, cement concrete etc.
time is required for all process like mixing, transporting, placing, compacting and
finishing. During this process cement mortar/ cement concrete must be in the
plastic stage so that every process can be done easily. i.e. If It should not set and
gain strength because after that it is difficult to work on it. While preparing and
placing cement mortar/ cement concreting you have to complete all such
processes in minimum of 30 minutes, after this time cement mortar/cement
concrete starting to lose its plasticity which is called initial setting time of cement.

Once cement mortar/cement concrete is placed, it should completely lose its

plasticity. So that external agencies may not harm it. This time should not be more
than 10 hours (600 minutes) which called final setting time of cement.

The Initial setting time of cement is the time when the cement paste starts losing
its plasticity and final setting time of cement is the time when the cement paste
completely loses its plasticity. Setting time is essential that cement set neither too
rapidly nor too slowly. For Ordinary Portland Cement, usually the value of initial
setting time is 30 minutes and final setting time is 10 hours.

Initial setting time of cement is important, to know when the cement is starting to
lose its plasticity. It is helpful in determining the time needed for the concreting
process, i.e. transportation, placing and compaction of concrete.

Final setting time of cement is important to know when the cement would be set.
This testing of cement is helpful to determine safe removal time of side of form
1 (not vertical support) or scaffolding of concrete.

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 OBJECTIVE OF TEST

 The objective of this experiment is to determine the initial setting time of

cement.

 To interpret the result and compare them with the specification to decide
the suitability of the given cement sample.

 To find whether cement set at rate suitable for a particular work or not.

 The knowledge of the setting time of the cement is always helpful in

deciding the time duration to mix, transport, place and compact the
concrete effectively.

 During this time cement paste, mortar, or concrete should be in plastic

condition.

Scale

Needle

Vicat mould
2 Glass plate

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 APPARATUS:

1. Vicat’s Apparatus.

A. a removable Needle (1mm) in diameter for find initial setting time.

B. Needle (5mm) in diameter for finding final setting time.

2. Digital balance

3. Mixing plate

4. Glass Graduate (cylindrical shapes)

5. glass plate with adequate dimension for mixing water and paste

6. trowel

7. bottle of drop water.

8. stopwatch (by phone)

9. lab coat

10.gloves

11.notebook.

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 Apparatus Picture:-
Digital balance
1 mm diameter

5 mm diameter

Mixing plate Glass Graduate glass plate

Trowel Bottle of dropped water Stop watch timer

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 TEST PROCEDURE: -
We did test based on ASTM standard requirements of specification C191-04b

1. At the beginning we were weighing 350g of cement for our test. And put it on
the mixing plate.

2. Later, we put the cement into an empty pond on the plate and added the amount
of water we had already received to the cement.(The percentage of water
obtained from normal consistency test).

3. After we added water to the cement, we stopped for 30 seconds, for absorption
of water.

4. Later we will start mixing fast and strong. We do this mix by hand for 1.5
minutes.

5. We have to be very careful during the mixing process and not allow any part of
the cement to be wasted.

6. Mix Cement paste into a shape of a ball, with gloved hands, toss ball six times
through a free path of about 150 mm apart from hand to another.

7. Later, We Press ball into the large end Vicat ring and completely filling with
Paste.

8. Later, We remove any excess paste at the larger end. Place the ring on its larger
5 end on the base of the plate and remove the excess paste at the smaller end and
smooth the top of the specimen. but never compress the paste during these
operations.

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9. We center the ring under the rod such that the 1 mm needle is in contact with the
paste surface. This must not exceed 30 seconds after completion of mixing.

10. Release the plunger immediately after setting the scale to zero reading. We Take
the reading after 30 sec of release of the rod & read the penetration of the scale.

11. After that we repeat process every 15 min until initial set is achieved (until a
penetration of 25mm or less is obtained).

12. Each penetration trial should be more than 5 mm away from the others and more
than 10 mm from the sides of the ring. We record the results of all penetration,
then determine the time when a penetration of 25 mm is obtained. this is the
initial setting time.

13. After that we set the 5mm diameter needle on the lower end of the rod. Determine
the Vicat final time of setting in point to be the first penetration measurement
that does not mark the specimen surface with a complete circular impression.

14. The elapsed time between the initial contact of cement and water and the end
point determination above is the Vicat final time of setting.

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 Take sample from cement bag Take 350g of cement
Measured quantity of water
ent

recording penetration during time (0+15minutes) Turn the material at the outer edge into
the carter within 30 sec with a trowel

Procedure

Absorb water for 30 sec

Release the plunger immediately.

Make a ball shape, toss six times

Press theUniversity
ball into |conical Hand mixing
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 DATA SHEET:

Test No:- 5 Date:- 18/Nov/2021

Title Of The Test:- Determination of Initial Setting Time of Cement with

Vicat’s Apparatus

Name:- Zahim Ihsan, Rebar Mirza

Class:- 3rd Stage

Group:- B

(lab information)

Weight of cement used (g) 350.03 g

% of water by weight of cement

28.857 %
(normal consistency)

Recording penetration during time(min)

Time (min) Penetration(mm)

0 40

15 40

30 40

45 40

60 40

75 40

90 35

8 105 26

120 19

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 CALCULATIONS:
 Find quantity of water used (g): -
𝑊𝑎𝑡𝑒𝑟(𝑔)
∗ 100% = 𝑐𝑜𝑛𝑠𝑖𝑠𝑡𝑒𝑛𝑐𝑦(%)
𝐶𝑒𝑚𝑒𝑛𝑡(𝑔)
𝑊𝑎𝑡𝑒𝑟(𝑔)
∗ 100 % = 28.857 % → 𝑤𝑎𝑡𝑒𝑟(𝑔) = 0.28857 ∗ 350.03𝑔
350.03𝑔

𝑤𝑎𝑡𝑒𝑟 𝑞𝑢𝑎𝑛𝑡𝑖𝑡𝑦 = 101.008 𝑔

 Find the initial setting time when pentration is 25 mm

𝐻−𝐸
(( ) ∗ (𝐶 − 25)) + 𝐸
𝐶−𝐷

Where

E = Time in Minutes Of Last Pentration Greater Than 25mm

C = Pentration Reading At time E.

H = Time in Minutes Of first Pentration less Than 25mm

D= Pentration Reading At time H.

Time (min ) pentration (mm)

E = 105 min 0 40
C = 26 mm 15 40

H=120 min 30 40

D= 19 mm 45 40
60 40
75 40
(𝐶 )𝑝𝑒𝑛𝑡𝑟𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 > 25
𝐸 90 35
9
105 26

𝐻 120 19
(𝐷 )𝑝𝑒𝑛𝑡𝑟𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 < 25

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 120 𝑚𝑖𝑛−105 𝑚𝑖𝑛
Setting time for 25 mm of pentration = ((
26 𝑚𝑚−19 𝑚𝑚
) ∗ (26 𝑚𝑚 − 25 𝑚𝑚)) + 105 𝑚𝑖𝑛

Setting time for 25 mm of pentration = 107.143 min

(scatter Graph of setting time ) (scatter with smooth line )

intial setting time of cement

45

40

35

30
pentration (mm)

25

(107.143, 25)
20

15

10

0
0 20 40 60 80 100 107.143 120 140
time (min)

10 Setting time at 25 mm of pentration = 107.143 min or we can say the we

need the 107.143 min to get pentration of 25 mm

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 TABLE OF CALCULATING:

Initial setting time of cement (based ASTM C191 – 04b ) standard

Wight of cement used (g) 350.03 g

Lab Normal consistency %28.857

information

Wight of water used (g) 101.008 g

Time (min) 0 15 30 45 60 75 90 105 120

Recording
pentration
of cement
during
time(min) Pentration
40 40 40 40 40 40 35 26 19
(mm)

E 105 minutes

C 26 mm
Result
from
H 120 minutes
calculation
& graph
D 19 mm

Setting time for 25 mm of pentration 107.143 min

11

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 DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION:
We can ask ourselves why this test is so important? And why do we need to know
about the initial and final setting time of this test? And why we do this test? ……
This test is one of the most important tests of cement in the field of civil engineering.
Setting time is important aspect of concrete technology to know the time limit for
handling, Transporting, placing and giving required shape to concrete. So Initial setting
time gives the indication of Cement when it starts losing its plasticity. Loss of plasticity
means Cements cannot be moulded in any other shape once it crosses the Initial setting
time duration. So Initial setting time is important to know that how quick we shall Place
the concrete at required location to attain a desire shape. But Final setting time indicates
the time at which Cement completely losses its plasticity and becomes sufficiently stiff
to bear some Load. Final setting time is important aspect in order to know the minimum
duration to remove the Shuttering and Formwork. and we did this test to characterize
how a particular cement paste sets. For construction purposes, the initial set must not
be too soon and the final set must not be too late.

In general, a number of factors affected the outcome of this test? Such as temperature
and humidity, which the temperature of air in mixing container, dry cement, molds and
base plate should be maintained between 20 and 27.5 ℃. And the temperature of water
shall not vary from 23℃. And the humidity of the lab room shall be not less than %50.
the room in which we performed our test did not have a high humidity. And the room
temperature was also moderate. But what I noticed in this room was that the cement
bag was open, so it had a moisture effect on the cement during night and morning. And
the type of cement used for the test was Portland Cement. But in the fineness test, we
found that the cement was fresh and the moisture effect on the cement is low. And also
Cement paste setting time is affected by a number of items which including: cement

12 fineness, water-cement ratio, chemical content (especially gypsum content) and

admixtures.

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 And according to the Iraqi specification standard, the initial setting time not be less
than 45 minutes, and final setting time not to be more than 10 hours (14400 minutes).
And according to world standards, when cement is said to have an initial setting time,
if the result of a needle-point penetration is more than 25 millimetres or less than 25
millimetres, Around (25mm). Because 25mm of penetration refers to the cement
loses plasticity property, it will get strength and get resistance, reaction to external
load Which is called the hardening stage. Cement is resistant to external forces. This
is called the Final Setting Time. So every 15 minutes, we need to direct the needle off
the plunger into the grouting of the cement until we get a 25mm penetration. As such,
we needed a lot of time to get the results of the Initial Sitting Time. Which took us
about 107.143 minutes. Therefore, we assumed some of the penetration, because it
took a long time to reach this specific point of penetration in (25mm). And as a result
of the test we got each of these values (E C H D) which equal to [105 minutes, 26
mm, 120] minutes, 19 mm respectively. And then through calculations and graphs
we were able to determine the time required for a 25mm pentration which equal to
107.143min, And according to the Iraqi standard, the rate is accepted, because it is
more 45 min.

And in the conclusion that test we learned a lot of important information about cement,
and plasticity condition of cement & hardening stage of cement, and other property of
cement before we use it in the field of construction and concrete. And we learn how
many time we require to set particle of cement, and we get information about Iraqi
speciation’s for initial and final setting time. there are many types of error that can be
occurred during experiment such as Incorrectly mixing or incorrectly inserting the
grout into the mold and reading the penetration incorrectly or use un-fresh cement Also,
our test was generally error-free and performed correctly.
13

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