BMC Interview Questions

1. Name the various types of clay product used in building industry.

Ans. Tiles, Terra-cotta, earthen wares, stoneware, porcelain and bricks.

2. How are the tiles made hard and impervious?

Ans. For providing hardness and imperviousness to the tiles, a mixture of ground glass and pottery-
ware is added in the required quantity to the clay of tiles.

3. What is Terra-cotta?
Ans. Terra-cotta means beaked earth. It is a porous pottery made from local clays and is glazed.

4. How is salt glazing done?

Ans. A small quantity of wet sodium chloride (salt) is added in the kiln at high temperature (130°C).
The vapour of salt get stick on the surface of articles to form a glass-like glaze.

5. What is mean by term ‘refractories’?

Ans. The term refractories is used to indicate substances that are able to resist high temperatures.

6. What is the effect of excess amount of alumina?

Ans. Due to excess amount of alumina (more than 30%) with inadequate quantity of sand, raw bricks
shrink and warp during drying and burning and become too hard when burnt.

1
7. What is the main cause of splitting of bricks into pieces?
Ans. The lumps of lime get converted into quick lime after burning and the quick lime slakes and
expands in the presence of moisture. This action is responsible for splitting bricks into pieces.

8. What is a frog on the top surface of brick?

Ans. A frog is a mark of depth about 10 mm to 20 mm placed on raw brick during moulding.

9. Name the various types of continuous kilns.

Ans. The three types of continuous kilns are : 1. Bull’s trench kiln 2. Hoffman’s kiln. 3. Tunnel kiln

10. What is lime?

Ans. The product which remains after calcination of lime stone, having no moisture and carbon dioxide
is known as lime.

11. What is a quick lime?

Ans. The lime obtained by the calcination of comparatively pure lime stone is known as quick lime
(caustic lime)
2
12. What is the difference between king closer and bevelled closer?
Ans. The brick cut in such a way that the whole length is bevelled for maintaining half width at one end
and full width at the other end whereas in King closer only half length is bevelled.

13. What is the difference between jambs and reveals?

Ans. The vertical sides of a finished opening for door or window are termed as jambs whereas the
exposed vertical surfaces left on the sides of an opening after the door or window frame has been
fitted in position is termed as reveals.

14. What is mean by throating in walls?

Ans. The groove cut on the underside of a projecting course of masonry to enable the rain water to flow
off the surface, is called throating.

3
15. Define ashlar facing stone masonry.
Ans. The construction of an outer wall with roughly tooled and chamfered on its outer face and backing
made of bricks in concrete, is called ashlar facing.

16. What are the nominal dimensions of commonly used traditional bricks?
Ans. 23  11.4  7.6 cm. (9  4.5  3).

4
17. What are Flemish bonds?
Ans. The arrangement of bricks in each course consisting of alternate headers and stretchers is known
as Flemish bond.

18. What is efflorescence? How can it be removed?

Ans. When masonry made out of bricks containing excessive salts come in contact with water, the
soluble salts get dissolved and appear in the form of fine white crystals on the surface of the brick
work, such a defect is known is efflorescence. This defect can be removed by brushing and
washing the affected surface repeatedly.

5
19. What are the raw materials required for manufacture of Portland cement?
Ans. The following are the raw materials required for the manufacture of Portland cement:
(i) Calcarious material : Lime stone, chalk,
(ii) Argillaceous materials : Shale or clay

20. Enumerate the Bogues Compounds.

Ans. The following four Bogue’s compounds usually regarded as major compounds are :
1. Tri calcium silicate 3 CaO. SiO3 (C3S)
2. Di calcium silicate 2 CaO. SiO3 (C2S)
3. Tri calcium aluminate 3 CaO. A12O3 (CgA)
4. Tetra calcium alumina ferrite 4 CaO. A12O3 . Fe2O3(C4AF)

6
21. Name the most important compounds responsible for the cement strength?
Ans. Tri calcium silicate (45%) and Di-calcium silicate (25%) are the most important compounds that
contribute the strength.

22. What is heat of hydration?

Ans. The exothermic chemical reaction produces a considerable quantity of heat that is known as heat
of hydration

23. Does fineness of cement influence the rate of development of heat?

Ans. Yes, it does.

24. Name the compound that is responsible for early strength of concrete.
Ans. C3 S that reacts with water and produces more heat of hydration, is responsible for early strength
of concrete.

25. In how many days, about 50% of the total heat evolution occurs.
Ans. During the first 3 days of hydration.

26. What is gel water?

Ans. The quantity of water that remains in the gel pores in the cement is called gel-water.

27. What percentage of by weight water is required for complete chemical reactions?
Ans. A total of 38 percent (23% as bound water and 15% as gel water) is required for complete
chemical reactions.

28. Are the rapid hardening cement and quick-setting cement the same?
Ans. No, the rapid hardening cement develops higher rate of strength and quick setting cement only sets
quickly.

29. For road repair works, which type of cement is recommended?

Ans. Rapid Hardening Cement.

7
30. What is sulphate attack?
Ans. The chemical reaction of sulphates in hardened concrete with calcium hydroxides hydrated
calcium aluminate and hydrated silicate is known as sulphate attack.

31. How is low heat cement manufactured?

Ans. For the manufacture of low heat cement, the contents of C3 S and C3 A are reduced and the content
of C2 S is increased.

32. What is the aim of standard consistency test of cement?

Ans. Standard consistency test of cement is carried out to ascertain the initial setting time, final setting
time and soundness of cement.

33. What is the meant by the standard consistency of a cement?

Ans. The standard consistency of a cement paste may be defined as the consistency which will permit
the Vicat plunger (10 mm diameter, 50 mm length) to penetrate to a depth of 33-35 mm from the
top of the mould.

8
34. Name the apparatus with which soundness test is performed?
Ans. Le-Chatelier apparatus

35. Write down the requirements of good aggregate.

Ans. Good aggregate should be sufficiently strong, hard, durable, chemically inert and having limited
porosity.

36. How do we classify the fine aggregates?

Ans. The aggregates which pass through 4.75 mm IS Sieve and entirely retain on 75 micron IS sieve are
known as fine aggregates.

9
37. What is cement? Why is it called hydraulic cement?
Ans. Cement is a material with adhesive and cohesive properties. Cement, when mixed with mineral
fragments and water, binds the particles into a compact whole. For construction purpose, cement is
used to bind stones, bricks, sand, etc.
The materials which set and harden in the presence of water are said to possess hydraulic
properties. As cement gets strength due to the chemical action between cement and water (known
as hydration) and its ability to harden under water, it is known as hydraulic cement.

38. Explain the difference between setting and hardening of cement.

Ans. The change from fluid to rigid state of a cement paste is termed as setting of cement. The
hardening refers to the gain of strength of set cement paste. During setting, cement acquires some
strength, however for practical purpose, the terms setting and hardening are separately defined.

39. How much water is required to hydrate 50 kg cement in sealed container?

Ans. About 19 litres (38 percent).

40. What are the benefits of blast furnace slag cement?

Ans. It has a low heat of hydration, more durability and is better resistant to soil and water containing
excessive amount of sulphates, alkalies, metals as well as acidic waters. It is helpful for marine
works.

41. What happens if the cement is too fine?

Ans. Too fine cement is susceptible to air set and deteriorates earlier.

42. What is false set?

Ans. Sometimes with the addition of water to cement, a premature set occurs within 5 minutes. This is
called false set and is due to the presence of anhydrous gypsum which is formed due to grinding of
gypsum with too hot clinker. This is not to be worried. Continuous mixing aggregates, cement and
water will break the false set without harming any property of the concrete.

10
43. Explain bulking of sand. How does it affect the quantity of sand in volume batch mixing?
Ans. Due to the presence of moisture content, the aggregate, particularly sand, bulks in volume. The
moisture particles form a thin film around the sand particles and exert surface tension. This keeps
the particles away from each other and thus sand bulks in volume.
When volume batch mixing is employed on site, the actual mass of the bulk sand is less than the
required which results in stony mix, and the concrete made out of it will be honey combed.

44. What is soundness of aggregate?

Ans. The ability of aggregate to resist excessive changes in volume due to changes in physical
conditions is known as soundness. In laboratory, it is found by determining resistance of aggregate
to disintegration by saturated solution of sodium sulphate or magnesium sulphate.

45. What is fineness modulus? What is its significance?

Ans. The fineness modulus is the sum, divided by 100, of the cumulative percentage mass which is
retained on each of the ten sieves specified by Indian Standards. The specified sieves are 150
micron, 300 micron, 600 micron, 1.18 mm, 2.36 mm, 4.75 mm, 10 mm, 20mm, 40 mm, 80 mm
and larger (if required) increasing in the ratio of 2 : 1.
The fineness modulus represents the massed average size of the sieve on which the material is
retained, the sieve being counted from the finest. For example, a fineness modulus of 3 indicates
the third sieve, 600 micron, is the average size.

46. What are the admixtures?

Ans. A material other than water, aggregates and hydraulic cement used as an ingredient of concrete or
mortar, and added to the batch immediately during its mixing to modify one or more of the
properties of concrete is known as admixture. The admixture is used not to improve the quality of
concrete but to modify the properties of concrete as per special requirements.

11
47. Why is steel used as reinforcement?
Ans. Steel is used as reinforcement for following reasons:
(a) It possesses high tensile strength
(b) It can develop perfect bond with concrete.
(c) It possesses high modulus of elasticity.
(d) Its coefficient of thermal expansion is nearly the same as that of concrete.
(e) It is easily available.

12
48. What do you mean by M20 mix?
Ans. M20 is the designation of concrete mix. Letter M refers to the mix and number 20 refers to the
characteristic strength of 15 cm cube after 28 days equal to 20 N/mm2.

49. What is a design mix concrete?

Ans. The proportion of ingredients of concrete to produce the concrete of required strength is found out
by laboratory methods. Concrete produced by using this proportion of ingredients is called design
mix concrete.

50. What is workability?

Ans. Workability is the ease with which a concrete can be mixed, placed and compacted so that a dense
concrete is obtained (full compaction). The workable mix should not show any segregation or
bleeding. In a wide sense workability is defined as the amount of useful internal work necessary to
produce full compaction.

13
51. What is segregation? How does it occur?
Ans. Segregation is said to occur when the constituent materials of concrete try to separate out from
each other producing concentration of coarser material at one place and finer material at other
place in the concrete. Such concrete contains large voids and is less durable.
Segregation occurs due to poor grading of aggregates (i.e., large difference in sizes of particles),
over-vibration and dropping the concrete from above a certain height, which should be avoided.

52. What is bleeding of concrete? What is its effect?

Ans. Bleeding of concrete is said to occur when unreacted water in the mix tends to rise to the surface
of freshly placed concrete due to sedimentation of constituents of concrete. This produces
continuous capillary pores which provides a clear straight access to chemicals and deleterious
materials in concrete and lowers the strength and workability of concrete.

53. What field test is used to measure workability?

Ans. Slump test is used to measure workability on site as a day to day check on workability of concrete.

54. What is shrinkage? What is the major factor that influences the magnitude of shrinkage?
Ans. The volumetric contraction of the concrete per unit volume due to drying when concrete sets i
known as shrinkage. It is an irreversible process and unrelated to the application of loads. It is not
influenced by the total amount of water present in the concrete at the time of mixing and to a
lesser extent by the cement content.

55. Define creep. List two negative effects of creep.

Ans. Creep is that property of concrete by which it continues to deform with time under sustained stress.
The negative effects of creep are:
(a) Deformations of the concrete members are 2 to 3 times the initial deformations.
(b) In R.C.C. columns supporting constant load, creep deformation causes initial stress
proportional to time in steel reinforcement, to 2 to 3 times the designed stress assuming the
steel remains elastic.

56. What is a durable concrete?

14
Ans. A durable concrete is one that performs satisfactorily in the working environment during its
anticipated exposure conditions during service.

57. How is the quality of concrete checked on site?

Ans. Frequently, the concrete cubes are cast and tested for compressive strength. Thus, quality of
concrete can be checked. To get relatively quicker idea, beams are also cast for testing its modulus
of rupture. Cubes and beams are tested at 3 days, 7 days and 28 days.

58. What is target mean strength?

Ans. For designing the concrete mix of a given characteristic strength, the statistical methods are used.
It can be seen from the accepted Gaussian curve for analysis of cube test results that there is only 5
percent probability that a result would fall below x  1.65 s or above x  1.65 s.
The characteristic strength of concrete fck can be defined as
fck = fm  1.65 S
where fm = the mean strength and s = standard deviation.
Therefore while designing a concrete mix, the target should be to get a mean strength or target
strength of ft = fck + 1.65 s, where ft is the target mean strength.

15