Experiment No 4

TO DETERMINE THE NORMAL CONSISTENCY OF

HYDRAULIC CEMENT (ASTM C187-98).
 Importance
This test method is used to find out the
amount of water required to prepare
hydraulic cement past for other tests like
initial and final setting time, Soundness and
compressive strength.
 Definition

 Normal consistency of a cement paste is

defined as that consistency which will permit
a vicat plunger having 10 mm diameter and
50 mm length to penetrate to a depth of 10 ±
1 mm from top of the mould in 30 seconds.
 For normal consistency of cement the
maximum amount of water to be added is
25-33%.
 APPARATUS:
 Graduated Cylinder (capacity 200 – 250 ml)
 Electronic Balance (capacity 1000 gram)
 Vicat apparatus
 Weight of movable rod (300 ± 0.5 gram)
 Diameter of plunger end of rod (10 ± 0.05 mm)
 Conical hard rubber ring
 Inside diameter of ring at bottom (70 ± 3 mm)
 Inside diameter of ring at top (60 ± 3 mm)
 Height of ring ( 40 ± 1 mm)
 Trowel
 Mixing apparatus: (glass plate, spatula).
 Stopwatch.
 PROCEDURE:

 Take the Electronic balance and adjust the reading of the balance
to zero.
 Take a pan and note its weight.
 Put some cement in the pan placed on the balance, so that the
weight of cement becomes 300 grams.
 Mix about 25% water by weight of dry cement thoroughly to get
a cement paste.
 Total time taken to obtain thoroughly mixed water cement paste
i.e. “Gauging time” should not be more than 3 to 5 minutes.
 Now put the cement paste in the rubber ring from the wider side
i.e. from down side, and make both the upper and lower
surface smooth by dragging it on a smooth surface.
 Take the Vicat apparatus and place the rubber mould
beneath the rod.
 PROCEDURE:
 Set the 10 mm. diameter plunger on the lower side of
rod. Place the lower end of plunger just above the
surface of paste.
 Now release the rod and note down the penetration of
plunger in the paste.
 For cement to be of normal consistence the penetration
should be 10 mm ± 1 mm below the original surface in 30 seconds after
being released according to ASTM standard under standard conditions.
 If it’s not so then the water and cement ratio will not be
standard.
 Prepare trial cement pastes with varying percentages of water content
and follow the steps (3 to 10) as described above.
 CALCULATION:

Formula for Normal Consistency

 

Where,
P= Percentage of water required for given
sample of cement to calculate the normal
consistency
W=Quantity of water added
C=Quantity of cement used
 PRECAUTIONS

 Gauging time should be strictly

observed.
 Room temperature should be well
maintained as per test requirement.
 All apparatus used should be clean.
 The experiment should be
performed away from vibrations
and other disturbances.