TESTING CONCRETE MASONRY BLOCKS

CE 310 LAB 3

Objectives:
1. Introduce the use of test equipment
2. Develop an basic understanding of basic descriptive statistics and hypothesis testing
3. Understand basic data presentation and analysis

Materials and Equipment:

1. Masonry blocks from Lowes and Home Depot (Figure 1)
2. Forney masonry tester (Figure 2)
3. Scale or caliper
4. Computer with Excel

Figure 1. Common masonry block

Figure 2. Forney Masonry Tester

Introduction:
Masonry blocks are used for foundations, retaining walls, structural walls, and in many other
construction applications. In this lab, you will test a number of concrete blocks from two different
vendors. These blocks will be essentially the same, but the goal is to assess whether the strengths of the
blocks are the same for both vendors.

The class will test blocks from each vendor and obtain the ultimate strength of each. From the cross-
sectional area of the block, the ultimate compressive strength will be determined for each block. The
results will be analyzed to determine the mean, median, standard deviation, and interquartile range of
strengths for the blocks tested. A statistical hypothesis test will be performed on the blocks to
determine to a reasonable degree of certainty, whether the strengths from the two vendors are the
same.

Computations:

Depending on availability, you will test 10 of each block. For the block shown in Figure 1, the
dimensions are shown in Figure 3. Note that your blocks will probably not have the same dimensions.

Figure 3. Dimensions of block of Figure 1 and cross-sectional areas to be calculated

Sample Calculations:
The different areas are given below.
 Agreen 15.5 1.54  23.87  in 2
Ared 15.5 1.4  21.7  in 2
Apurple  2  1.23   7.625 1.4 1.54   11.5  in 2
Ablue 1.85   7.625 1.4 1.54   8.67  in 2
Atotal  23.87  21.7  11.5  8.67  65.762  in 2

The total cross-sectional area is 65.8 in2. Suppose the block held a maximum of 180,000 lb. Then the
Fmax 180, 000
maximum compressive strength is  ult    2, 737  psi .
Atotal 65.8

Suppose that 10 blocks from Lowes were tested with the results given in Table 1 and assume all had the
cross-sectional area of 65.8 in2.

Table 1. Block strengths in lbf and compressive stresses in psi

Block Home
No. Lowes Depot Lowes HD
1 189,000 188,000 2,870 2,860
2 181,000 180,000 2,750 2,740
3 184,000 185,000 2,800 2,810
4 189,000 190,000 2,870 2,890
5 182,000 171,000 2,770 2,600
6 183,000 181,000 2,780 2,750
7 181,000 174,000 2,750 2,640
8 185,000 179,000 2,810 2,720
9 186,000 175,000 2,830 2,660
10 183,000 173,000 2,780 2,630

Means 184,300 179,600 2,800 2,730

Median 183,500 179,500 2,790 2,730
x25 182,250 174,250 2,770 2,650
x75 185,750 184,000 2,830 2,800
IPR 3,500 9,750 60 150
Std Dev 2,946 6,501 44 100

In Excel, my Lowes strengths were in cells C3:C12 and Home Depot strengths were in D3:D12. To get the
mean for Lowes, I typed “=average(C3:C12)” without the quotes for Lowes. For the median I typed
“=median(C3:C12)”. For the 25th percentile, I typed “=percentile(C3:C12,0.25)” and for the 75th
percentile “=percentile(C3:C12,0.75)”. The InterPercentile Range IPR = x75 – x25. For the standard
deviation, I typed “=stdev(C3:C12)”. Change the Cs in these expressions to Ds and you have the
equivalent values for the Home Depot blocks.

I also rounded to three significant figures because we cannot measure any more accurately than that.
For calculations, the last step is the testing of the hypothesis that the two sets of blocks were drawn
from the same population of blocks. We will assume that the original distribution of block strengths
were normally distributed.

Our hypothesis is that the means of block strengths are the same for Lowes and Home Depot. We will
test it at the 95 % level of confidence. If the hypothesis fails, we will be 95 % confident that the mean
strength of the blocks are not the same. To do that we calculate the following.

 
n1
1
  x1i  X 1  29462  8, 679, 000
2
S 
2

n1 1 i 1
1

 
n2
1
  x2i  X 2
2
S 22   65012  42, 263, 000
n2 1 i 1

S 2

 n1 1  S12   n2  1  S 22
 25, 471, 000
n1  n2  2
p

X1  X 2 184,300 179, 600

t   2.08
1 1 1 1
Sp   25, 471, 000  
n1 n2 10 10

t  2.08 and t has the t-distribution with n1  n2 118 degrees of freedom. We are testing that the
blocks have the same strength against the alternate hypothesis that the Lowes blocks are stronger than
the Home Depot blocks. We can either reference statistical tables or use Excel to find the probability
that the two samples of bricks would have have this value of Z . If we type “=T.INV(0.95,18)” the result
is 1.734. To accept our initial hypothesis, the value of t should be less than 1.734. Since our value was
2.08, we reject the hypothesis that the strengths are the same. Note that you may have test results for
a different number than 10 blocks. Make sure you use the correct number of degrees of freedom.

Procedure:
1. Test the blocks for each sample recording the ultimate strength in pounds for each block.
2. For each sample, calculate the mean, median, IPR, standard deviation, and Z value.
3. Write your report in the following format.

I. Cover page - Title, Name of the lab, Names of all participating group members
II. Intro - explain the lab objective and procedures
III. Results
IV. Analysis
V. Summary
4. Deliverables
a. Report in Microsoft Word format
b. Excel spreadsheet with all the data and graphs (do the calculations with Excel)