Photos of Setup:

Weigh the cement sample. Then add initial volume sasasof water of 80ml. Then, start mixing using a spatula.
Add more water if nsasaecessary. Remember to record every additional volume of water.

After initial mixing using spatula, knead the paste thoroughly with hands. Quickly form the cement paste into a
ball and toss it from one hand to another six times. The toss distance between two hands is about 150mm.
 Laboratory Exercise No. 10
NORMAL CONSISTENCY OF HYDRAULIC CEMENT

FINAL DATA SHEET

Trial Numbers
Descriptions 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
Mass of water, g 99

Mass of cement powder, 311.75

g
Normal consistency (NC), 31.76
%
Average NC, %
Abstract:

This laboratory exercise gives us understanding on how to find out the percentage by
weight of water to be added to cement to make a paste of standard consistency. A certain
minimum quantity of water is required to mixed with cement so as to complete chemical
reaction between water and cement, less water than this quantity would not complete
chemical reaction thus resulting in reduction of strength and more water would increase
water cement ratio and so would reduce its strength. So, correct proportion of water to
cement is required to be known to achieve proper strength while using cement in structure.
This can be found out knowing standard consistency of cement paste.

All group members were present and actively partook of the laboratory exercise which
was conducted in the Construction and Materials Testing’s Laboratory on 25th of August,
2017.

This laboratory exercise can’t be conduct without the guidance of our instructor. He
gave us the instruction of what we will do for us to complete this laboratory exercise, the list
of equipment, and the procedures. In this laboratory exercise we need to use the analytical
balance, the graduated cylinder, the mixing pan, rubberized hand gloves and spatula, the
digital timer, the vicat apparatus with conical mold and glass base plate, the cement sample,
and clean water.

First thing to do is to weigh the cement sample then mix it with a measured quantity of
water and make a cement paste as per the standard procedure. Put the cement paste in the
ring of the vicat apparatus and remove the excess paste with the help of a spatula. Center the
paste confined in the ring, resting on the plate, under the plunger rod and bring the plunger
end in contact with the surface of the paste, pull the hydraulic jack so that some amount of
energy is stored in it and when released that stored energy is transferred to the cement
paste. This must not exceed 30 s after completion of mixing. The apparatus shall be free of all
vibrations during the test. The paste of normal consistency is achieved when the rod settles
to a point such that the penetration is 10 ± 1mm in 30 s after being released. Make trial
pastes with varying percentages of water until the normal consistency is obtained. Make
each trial with fresh cement. The mass of water we used is 99g. And the mass we used for
cement powder is 311.75g. And the Normal consistency we obtained is 31.76%.
Analysis and Interpretation of Data and Result:

Consistency refers to the flow behavior of a fresh mixture. Consistency test are normally
used to measure the amount of water required to produce standard consistency. The
consistency of cement paste depends on the water to cement ratio and on various aspect of
the cement such as fineness and rate of hydration. The penetration test, ASTM TEST Method
for normal consistency of paste using resistance. The normal consistency is measured using
vicat apparatus equipped with plunger and is achieved when the plunger penetrates
10 ± 1 mm below the original surface. This test is used when preparing paste for measuring
setting time.

The Standard consistency is to determine the state of fluidity of the cement paste. The
objective of conducting this test is to find out the amount of water need to be added to the
cement to get a paste of normal consistency. The paste of a certain standard fluidity will be
used to determine the water content of the paste for setting time.

From the data, the mass of water we used is 99g. And the mass of cement powder we
used is 311.75g. And we obtained a Normal Consistency of 31.76 %.
Conclusion:

 This experiment tells us the amount of water content at which we can obtain the maximum
strength of cement.
 The achieved Standard Consistency is coming within the range of water (26% to 33%). So,
the standard consistency of our cement paste is 31.76%.
 Moreover the temperature and humidity values were not in the specified range.
 This test also gives us information that how much amount of water is enough to prepare a
paste of cement before using it at the site at the time of construction.
Sample Computation:

1.) Calculation of normal consistency of Portland cement.

𝑴𝒘
NC = (𝟏𝟎𝟎)
𝑴𝒄

where:

NC = normal consistency, %
Mw = mass of water, g
Mc = mass of cement powder, g

99g
NC = (100)
311.75g

NC = 31.76 %

Average NC =