CONSTRUCTION MATERIALS

AND TESTING
WEEK 1: LESSON 2
FAMILIARIZATION WITH
APPARATUS & EQUIPMENT USED
IN TESTING OF MATERIALS
C O N S T R U C T I O N M AT E R I A L S A N D
TESTING
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Why Is it Important to be familiar

with Laboratory Apparatus & Their
Uses?

Prepared by: Dr. KVS Caingles and Engr. RC Galdo, M.Eng

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• When Field Testing indicates further study is needed

Laboratory Testing is the next step.

Prepared by: Dr. KVS Caingles and Engr. RC Galdo, M.Eng
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• Construction materials testing laboratories are equipped

with

Costly Sensitive
laboratory equipment and apparatus!

Prepared by: Dr. KVS Caingles and Engr. RC Galdo, M.Eng

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Construction material testing is critical for the viability and

safety of a construction project. Hence,

1. It can reveal any number of issues related to

construction quality.
2. It can highlight future risks, help classify a
building site, and assist with engineering
decisions.
3. Without construction material testing, engineers
and builders may not know if the quality of the
construction meets the requirements.

Prepared by: Dr. KVS Caingles and Engr. RC Galdo, M.Eng

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Before getting indulged with the science instruments or

chemicals, it is quite important to have the accurate information
regarding it.

A. Safe Handling
- Laboratory equipment can lead to dangerous side effects and
that is why it is quite important to know how to handle properly.

B. Efficient Use
- Laboratory instruments required the proper knowledge to run
or operate them. If they are not operated in the required way, it
will not be helpful to churn out the desired results.

Prepared by: Dr. KVS Caingles and Engr. RC Galdo, M.Eng

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C. Proper Materials
- Many laboratory machines are designed to study and analyze
samples from a variety of sources. This sample could be organic
or inorganic, vegetable or mineral. Knowing which machine is for
which kind of sample and what the machine is supposed to do is
good for avoiding trouble.

Prepared by: Dr. KVS Caingles and Engr. RC Galdo, M.Eng

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D. Understanding Results
- After inserting the correct materials or calibrating a machine
correctly, you still won't be able to finish your task unless you
understand what it is that the machine has just done. Knowing
which sections of any printouts or displays contain the most vital
information and what that information means is important to
completing the experiment.

Prepared by: Dr. KVS Caingles and Engr. RC Galdo, M.Eng

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THE APPARATUS AND EQUIPMENT USED

IN TESTING MATERIALS
Civil engineering projects largely depend on the quality of their
materials; therefore testing equipment capable of providing
consumers with accurate and repeatable results is imperative.
While the mechanism in which the equipment performs analysis
procedures varies depending upon the material to be analyzed,
these testing instruments are capable of analyzing the
properties of the materials such as aggregates, soil, concrete,
and asphalt.

Prepared by: Dr. KVS Caingles and Engr. RC Galdo, M.Eng

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A. FOR TESTING OF AGGREGATES

1. Laboratory Oven - laboratory purpose 2. Muffle Furnaces - designed for
specially designed for drying, baking, higher temperature heating
conditioning and moisture determination.

Prepared by: Dr. KVS Caingles and Engr. RC Galdo, M.Eng

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A. FOR TESTING OF AGGREGATES

3. Moisture tester - for accurate moisture 4. Chapman Flask - use for field
reading on site of soil and aggregates determination of the amount of
surface moisture in fine aggregates

Prepared by: Dr. KVS Caingles and Engr. RC Galdo, M.Eng

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A. FOR TESTING OF AGGREGATES

5. Sieves - device for separating wanted 6. Sieve shaker motor - operated
elements from unwanted materials or for for sieves when perform sieving test
characterizing the particle size distributions
of samples

Prepared by: Dr. KVS Caingles and Engr. RC Galdo, M.Eng

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A. FOR TESTING OF AGGREGATES

7. Sample splitters - designed for the 8. Tribometer-abrasion tester - used to
reduction of test samples which are too determine the resistance to abrasion and
large in volume to be conveniently handled wear of cement, concrete and similar
materials

Prepared by: Dr. KVS Caingles and Engr. RC Galdo, M.Eng

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A. FOR TESTING OF AGGREGATES

9. Rock classification hammer - used for 10. Los Angeles abrasion machine -
rock classification test used to determine the resistance of
aggregates by abrasion

Prepared by: Dr. KVS Caingles and Engr. RC Galdo, M.Eng

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A. FOR TESTING OF AGGREGATES

11. Micro-Deval Testing machine - used 12. Dry mixer - designed to dry mix
to determine the quality of aggregates by materials like powder, cement, gypsum, and
abrasion granulometric

Prepared by: Dr. KVS Caingles and Engr. RC Galdo, M.Eng

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B. FOR TESTING OF CONCRETE

1. Core drill - designed to remove a 2. Extruder - to thrust out; force or press
cylinder of materials, much like a hole saw out

Prepared by: Dr. KVS Caingles and Engr. RC Galdo, M.Eng

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B. FOR TESTING OF CONCRETE

3. Portable rock shear box assembly - 4. Climatic chamber - used to test the
used to determine the strength and slope effectof specified environmental conditions
stability of rock size

Prepared by: Dr. KVS Caingles and Engr. RC Galdo, M.Eng


B. FOR TESTING OF CONCRETE
5. Rebound hammer - used to assess the
uniformity of concrete in situ, to delineate
zones or areas of poor quality or
deteriorated concrete in structures
Prepared by: Dr. KVS Caingles and Engr. RC Galdo, M.Eng
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6. High stiffness flexural frame -
designed for displacement controlled
testing on advanced construction materials,
e.g. fiber reinforced concrete (FRC) and
sprayed concrete.
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B. FOR TESTING OF CONCRETE

7. Specimen grinding machine - used to 8. Circumferential extensometers -

grind and polish rock and concrete designed for concrete and rock
specimens, natural stones, ceramic compression testing or for compression
materials, etc. tests on other large samples.

Prepared by: Dr. KVS Caingles and Engr. RC Galdo, M.Eng

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B. FOR TESTING OF CONCRETE

9. Universal testing machine 10. concrete slump test - designed to
- used to test the tensile strength and measure the consistency of fresh concrete
compressive strength of materials before it sets.

Prepared by: Dr. KVS Caingles and Engr. RC Galdo, M.Eng

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C. FOR TESTING OF SOIL

1. Atterberg limit 2. Plastic limit tools - designed to
- designed to measure of the critical water measure of the critical water content of
content of fine-grained soils fine-grained soils

Prepared by: Dr. KVS Caingles and Engr. RC Galdo, M.Eng

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C. FOR TESTING OF SOIL

3. Shrinkage limit tools- designed to 4. Proctor soil compaction test tools -
evaluates the water content of a soil where designed to understand compaction
further loss of moisture will not result in an characteristics of different soils with change
additional volume reduction. in moisture content.

Prepared by: Dr. KVS Caingles and Engr. RC Galdo, M.Eng

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C. FOR TESTING OF SOIL

5. Spatula- designed for mixing, lifting, and 6. Soil hydrometer - measure
handling powders, granular materials, and suspended solids during testing
other solids, as well as for stirring or mixing
liquids and other wet products.

Prepared by: Dr. KVS Caingles and Engr. RC Galdo, M.Eng

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C. FOR TESTING OF SOIL

7. Direct shear testing machine - used to 8. Penetrometer - is adevice to test the
apply both normal and shear stress on the strength of a material
specimen

Prepared by: Dr. KVS Caingles and Engr. RC Galdo, M.Eng

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C. FOR TESTING OF SOIL

9. Permeability - used to determine 10. Consolidation machine - designed to
hydraulic conductivity or flow characteristics measure the compressibility of soils.
of water or other permeants through soils

Prepared by: Dr. KVS Caingles and Engr. RC Galdo, M.Eng

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References:

ELE International. Available: https://www.ele.com/Department/lab-testing-equipment

Shied Engineering, Inc. Available: http://info.shieldengineering.com/blog/why-is-

construction-materials-testing-important

The importance of knowing your laboratory instruments. Available:

https://medium.com/@devendramehta/the-importance-of-knowing-your-laboratory-
instruments-46648f7caff1

Why Is it Important to Be Familiar With Laboratory Apparatus & Their Uses? Available:
https://sciencing.com/important-familiar-laboratory-apparatus-uses-8401290.html

Civil Engineering Materials Testing Equipment. Available:

https://www.azom.com/materials-equipment.aspx?cat=116

Concrete. Available: https://www.controls-group.com/eng/concrete-testing-equipment/

Soil Testing Equipment for Laboratory Evaluation. Available:

https://www.humboldtmfg.com/soil-lab.html

Prepared by: Dr. KVS Caingles and Engr. RC Galdo, M.Eng