Expt. No.

2 Date:09/09/2020

1. TESTS ON HYDRAULIC CEMENT

STANDARD CONSISTENCY OF CEMENT

Reference: IS 4031 (Part 4) – 1999

Aim: To determine the quantity of water required to produce a cement paste of standard
consistency.

Significance: Since the fineness of cement samples differ from batch to batch, cement pastes with
the same water content may differ in consistency. Hence the consistency of cement paste is
standardized by varying the water content until the paste has a given resistance to penetration,
when it is first mixed. Moreover, it is required for the determination of initial and final setting
times and also for the preparation of test specimens to determine the compressive strength of
cement.

Apparatus: Vicat apparatus, Vicat mould, 10mm diameter plunger, stop watch, weighing balance,
measuring jar and nonporous smooth plate.

Fig 1.1 Vicat Apparatus

Procedure: Standard consistency of cement paste is defined as that consistency which will permit
the Vicat plunger to penetrate to a point 5 to 7 mm from the bottom of the Vicat mould, when
tested as below:

Material Testing Lab II Manual LBS Institute of Technology for Women, Poojappura Page 1
 Take 300g of cement in a pan and a known quantity (about 30% of weight of cement) of water in
a measuring jar. Add water to cement to prepare a paste and start stopwatch simultaneously. Fill
the cement paste in the Vicat mould, which is resting on a nonporous plate within the gauging
time. The gauging time is the time interval between the additions of water to dry cement until the
commencement of filling the mould. The gauging time shall not be less than 3 minutes and not
more than 5 minutes. A plunger of 10mm diameter is attached to the moving rod of Vicat
apparatus. After completely filling the mould, smoothen the surface of the paste making it level
with the top of the mould. The mould should be slightly shaken to expel the air. Place the test block
in the mould together with the nonporous resting plate under the rod bearing the plunger. Lower
the plunger gently to touch the surface of the paste in the test block, and quickly release it allowing
it to sink into the paste. Penetration of the plunger is noted. Prepare trial pastes with varying
percentages of water and repeat the test until the plunger penetrates 5mm to 7mm from the bottom
of the mould. Express the amount of water as percentage by mass of dry cement, corrected to first
decimal place.

Observations and Calculations

Weight of the dry cement (W1) = 300g

Penetration of Plunger Standard Consistency

Weight of water
Trial from the bottom of mould
added, W2 100 (%)
(mm) W1
W2 (g)

1 90 31 30%

2 93 13 31%

3 96 7 32%

Result: Standard Consistency of Cement = 32 %

Recommended Value: Recommended value of standard consistency of cement is about 30 %

Material Testing Lab II Manual LBS Institute of Technology for Women, Poojappura Page 1
 Inference: As per IS 4031 (part 4)-1999, the recommended value of standard consistency of cement is 30%The
value obtained from experiment is 32% which is more than standard value. This may be due to the manual errors
occurred while during the experiment.

Material Testing Lab II Manual LBS Institute of Technology for Women, Poojappura Page 1