Unit- 4 Cementing Materials

Cement: Cement is a material which possess both adhesive and cohesive properties with other materials
to form a strong bond. For construction purposes, the meaning of the term cement is restricted to the
bonding materials used with stones, sand, bricks, building blocks, etc.
Clay as a cementing material
Clay has been used as a mortar and wall plaster in stone and brick masonry since the ancient times.
 Assyrians & Babylonians were perhaps the first to use clay as cementing material.
 It is the traditional method, which is used in most of the rural areas of Nepal.
 Some old buildings of Kathmandu valley are made with clay as mortar and wall plaster.
 Fine clay properly mixed with mortar works a plastic paste which binds other material .
 It is cheap and easily applied.
 Clay mixed with cow dung & other organic fibers is quite strong & helps to prevent the
shrinkage cracks.
LIME
 Lime is produced by heating limestone which is more or less pure calcium carbonate.
 Formula : CaCO3 --------------> CaO + CO2
 It has been used in the construction of ordinary buildings and also massive monuments, palaces
and forts.
Properties:
 It is easily workable.
 It provides strength to the masonry.
 It posses good plasticity.
 It offers good resistance to moisture.
 It stiffens easily.
 It is an excellent cement and adheres to the masonry unit perfectly.
 Lime masonry proves durable due to low shrinkage in drying.
USES:
1. Lime is used as binding material in mortars
2. It is used for preparing concrete for foundation and flooring
3. It has great use in plastering of walls and white washing for rooms
4. It is also highly used as flux in steel manufacturing, knotting before timber painting
5. Besides the above mentioned short list, lime is also used for stabling soils and also helps
in creating good sanitary conditions in foul, damp and filthy places.
 TYPES OF LIME:
1) Fat lime: It is composed of 95 percentage of calcium oxide. When water is added, it slakes
vigorously and its volume increases to 2 to 2.5 times. It is white in color. Its properties are:
(a) hardens slowly
(b) has high degree of plasticity
(c) sets slowly in the presence of air
(d) white in color
(e) slakes vigorously.
2) Hydraulic lime: It contains clay and ferrous oxide. Depending upon the percentage of clay
present, the hydraulic lime is divided into the following three types:
(a) Feebly hydraulic lime (5 to 10% clay content)
(b) Moderately hydraulic lime (11 to 20% clay content)
(c) Eminently hydraulic lime (21 to 30% clay content)
The properties of hydraulic lime is:
• Sets under water
• Color is not perfectly white
• Forms a thin paste with water and do not dissolve in water.
• Its binding property improves if its fine powder is mixed with sand and kept in the form
of heap for a week, before using.
3) Poor lime: It contains more than 30% clay. Its color is muddy. It has poor binding property.
The mortar made with such lime is used for inferior works.
Its color is muddy white.
It slakes very slowly.
It forms a thin paste with water.
It hardens very slowly.
It has poor binding properties.
IS CLASSIFICATION OF LIME
 IS 712-1973 classifies lime as class A, B, C, D and E.
 Class A Lime: It is predominantly hydraulic lime. It is normally supplied as hydrated lime and
is commonly used for structural works.
 Class B Lime: It contains both hydraulic lime and fat lime. It is supplied as hydrated lime or as
quick lime. It is used for making mortar for masonry works.
 Class C Lime: It is predominantly fat lime, supplied both as quick lime and fat lime. It is used
for finishing coat in plastering and for white washing.
 Class D Lime: This lime contains large quantity of magnesium oxide and is similar to fat lime.
This is also commonly used for white washing and for finishing coat in plastering.
 Class E Lime: It is an impure lime stone, known as kankar. It is available in modular and block
form. It is supplied as hydrated lime. It is commonly used for masonry mortar.

Composition of cement
 There are eight major ingredients of cement. The general percentage of these ingredients in
cement is given below:
Ingredient Percentage in cement

Lime 60-65

Silica 17-25

Alumina 3-8

Magnesia 1-3

Iron oxide 0.5-6

Calcium Sulfate 0.1-0.5

Sulfur Trioxide 1-3

Alkaline 0-1

1) Lime: Lime is calcium oxide or calcium hydroxide.

Presence of lime in a sufficient quantity is required to form silicates and aluminates of
calcium.
Deficiency in lime reduces the strength of property to the cement.
Deficiency in lime causes cement to set quickly.
Excess lime makes cement unsound( unsafe).
Excessive presence of lime cause cement to expand and disintegrate.
2) Silica: Silicon dioxide is known as silica, chemical formula SiO2
Sufficient quantity of silica should be present in cement to dicalcium and tricalcium
silicate.
Silica imparts strength to cement.
Silica usually present to the extent of about 30 percent cement.
3) Alumina: Alumina is Aluminum oxide. The chemical formula is Al2O3.
Alumina imparts quick setting property to the cement.
Clinkering temperature is lowered by the presence of the requisite quantity of alumina.
Excess alumina weakens the cement.
4) Magnesia: Magnesium Oxide. Chemical formula is MgO.
Magnesia should not be present more than 2% in cement.
Excess magnesia will reduce the strength of the cement.
5) Iron oxide: Chemical formula is Fe2O3.
Iron oxide imparts color to cement.
 It acts as a flux.
At a very high temperature, it imparts into the chemical reaction with calcium and
aluminum to form tricalcium alumino-ferrite.
Tricalcium alumino-ferrite imparts hardness and strength to cement.
6) Calcium Sulfate: Chemical formula is CaSO4
This is present in cement in the form of gypsum(CaSO4.2H2O)
It slows down or retards the setting action of cement.
7) Sulfur Trioxide: Chemical formula is SO3
Should not be present more than 2%.
Excess Sulfur Trioxide causes cement to unsound.
8) Alkaline:
Should not be present more than 1%.
Excess Alkaline matter causes efflorescence.

Bogue compound in cement

When water is added to cement the ingredients of cement react chemically with water and form
various complicated chemical compounds terms as Bogues compound.

Chemical Percentage
S.No. Chemical Name Formula Notation (%)

1 Tricalcium Silicate 3CaO, SiO2 C3S 30-50

2 Dicalcium Silicate 2CaO, SiO2 C2S 20-45

Tricalcium
3 Aluminate 3CaO, Al2O3 C3A 8-12

Tetra-calcium 4CaO, Al2O3,

4 Alumino-ferrite Fe2O3 C4AF 6-10

Hydration, Heat of hydration & Gain of strength of cement

The chemical reaction between cement and water is known as hydration of cement . The
reaction takes places between the active components of cement (C4AF,C3A,C3S and C2S) and
water liberating and heat forming products like calcium silicate hydrates (C-S-H) and calcium
hydroxide Ca(OH)2 .
Reaction of hydration :
a) Hydration of Tricalcium Silicate (C3 S) :
2(3CaSiO2) +6H2 O --------------> 3CaO2SiO2 3H2 O + 3Ca(OH)2
b) Hydration of Dicalcium Silicate (C2 S)
2(2CaO.SiO2 ) +4H2 O--------------> 3CaO.2SiO2 3H2 O +3Ca(OH)2
The reaction of cement with water is exothermic (release energy through heat and light). The
reaction liberates a considerable quantity of heat. The liberation of heat is called heat of
hydration.
Normal cement generally produces 89-90 cal/gm in 7 days and 90-100 in 28 days.
Heat of hydration of different compound:

Compound 3 Days (cal/gm) 90 Days ( Cal/gm) 13 Years

(Cal/gm)

C2 S 58 104 122

C3 S 12 42 59

C4 A 212 311 324

C4 AF 69 98 102

 The reaction of compound C3 A with water is very fast and is responsible for flash setting and
it is not responsible for strength development.
 The hardening of C3 S can be said to be catalysed by C3 A and C3 S becomes completely
responsible for gain strength upto 28 days by growth and interlocking of C-S-H gel.
 The increase in strength at later stage is due to hydration of C 2 S .
Following fig shows the development of strength of pure compounds:
MANUFACTURE OF CEMENT
There are two types of process employed for the manufacture of the cement.
1) Dry Process
2) Wet Process

1. Dry Process
 This is the common method used in modern cement factory.
 The dry process is adopted when the raw materials are quite hard.
 Limestone & clay are crushed dry and fed in correct proportion into a grinding mill where they
are dried and reduced to a very fine powder.
 Water is added to make a thick paste. The cakes of thick paste which contain about 14% of
moisture are dried and charged into rotary kiln.
 The mixture is burned at about 1400-1500 degree celcius to obtain cement clinker.
 The clinker is then cooled to obtain cement clinker. The clinker is then cooled about 2-3% of
gypsum is added to it.
 Grinding of clinker is done at tube mills, where the mixture is reduced to an extremely fine
powder.
 Then the fine powder i.e cement is sent to storage silos (chamber) from where weighing &
packaging is done.

2. Wet process
 The operation in the wet process of cement manufacture are mixing, burning and grinding.
 The crushed raw materials are fed into ball mill and little water is added.
 On the operating the ball mill, the steel balls in it pulverise (crush) the raw materials which
form the slurry (semi liquid mixture) with water.
  This slurry is passed to silos(underground chamber) , where the proportioning of the
compounds is adjusted to ensure desired chemical composition.
 The corrected slurry having about 40% moisture content is then fed into rotary kiln , where it
losses moisture & forms into lumps .
 These are finally burnt at 1500 -1660 degree Celsius.
 The lumps changes to clinker is cooled and then ground in tube mills.
 While grinding the clinker , about 2-3% of gypsum is added .The cement is then stored in silos
from where it is supplied.

Types of cement
1) OPC (Ordinary Portland Cement):
 This is the most common type of cement available in the market
 It has medium rate of strength development and heat generation.
 It has adequate resistance to dry shrinkage & cracking, but has less resistance to chemical
attack.
 Its initial setting time is 30 minutes and final setting time is about 10 hours.
 Available in different grades like 33 grade, 43 grade and 53 grade.
 Uses: RCC work for footing, column, beam, slab, etc., Multistoried buildings, bridges and
roads.
2) PPC (Portland Pozzolano Cement)
 It is the type of cement in which Portland cement clinker has been mixed with definite
proportions of pozzolanic materials, such as volcanic ash, fly ash , powder over burnt brick .
 The pozzolanic materials do not have any cementing qualities when used alone , but when
mixed with Portland cement they react with cement compounds and form compounds having
cementing properties.
 PPC produces less heat of hydration and offers great resistance to sulphate corrosive action.
 Uses: Hydraulic structure –dams ,retaining walls, Masonry mortar and plaster

3) RHC (Rapid Hardening Cement)

 It is manufactured with such adjustments in proportions of raw materials so that the cement
produced attains maximum strength within 24-72 hours i.e It gains strength than OPC.
 It contains relatively more tri-calcium silicate.
 It is more fine grained than ordinary cement .
 Setting time is same as OPC.
 It gives more heat while setting so, it is unsuitable for mass concreting.
 Uses : It is special purpose cement used only when time is most important factor in a project .
Mostly used in cold area.
4) White Cement
 It is white in color.
 The white color is due to the absence of iron oxide and magnesium oxide in the cement.
 It is manufactured from pure limestone (chalk) and clay that are totally free from oxides of iron,
manganese, and chromium.
 The kiln is fired by oil rather than coal to avoid any contamination.
 It has properties of strength and setting time as well expensive also.
 Uses: Finishing works as floor finish, tile joints, mortars for marble, some aesthetic works,
Ornamental (decoration) works.

TESTING OF CEMENT
1) Fineness test
 The fineness of cement has an important role on the rate of hydration, and hence on the rate of
gain of strength and also on the rate of gain of strength and also on the rate of evaluation of
heat of revolution of heat.
 Finer cement offers a greater surface area of hydration and hence faster the development of
strength.
 Fineness is associated with the quality of cement. Generally, the finer the cement, the better is
its quality.
 Fineness of cement is tested in two ways.
a) Sieve Test
b) Specific surface test
a) Sieve Test: In this test, 100 gm of the cement specimen are sieved on IS Sieve no, 9 for 15
minutes .Then the residue on the sieve is weighted . It is required that the weight of the residue
shall not exceed 10% for OPC and 5 % for RHC.
b) Specific surface Test: It involves finding the specific area of the cement particles by either Air
permeability method or by Wegner’s Turbility method. Principle of air permeability method is
in observing the time taken for fixed quantity of air to flow through compacted cement bed of
specified dimension (1 cm high and 2.5cm dia ) and porosity (0.475 ).

2) Sound test
 It is essential that the cement concrete does not undergo large change in volume after setting.
 This test is performed to ensure that the cement does not show any subsequent expansions.
 The unsoundness in cement is due to the presence of excess lime and magnesia.
 Soundness of cement is tested by Le- chateleir’s method.
3) Consistency test
A minimum quantity of water required to initiate the chemical reaction between water and cement
to form a paste is known as consistency of cement.

Apparatus
a) Weighing balance of 1000 gm with 1gm accuracy.
b) Vicat apparatus
 c) Vicat Mould
d) Measuring Cylinder 200ml
e) Glass plate

Procedure
 Take 400 gram of cement.
 Assuming that consistency would be 29.5% , since we are taking OPC cement .This is trial and
error method.
 Take 29.5% of water that means (400 x 29.5% )=118 gm of water .
 Mix the water with cement and wait the cement paste.
 Now, fill the vacat mould with the cement paste.
 Ensure to compact the paste well after filling the mould
 Now fill the compact paste to the top of the mould. Remove the excess paste by towel.
 Now remove the plunger and allow it to penetrate through the paste .
 Note reading on the Vicat measuring scale.
 Standard consistency % = Weight of water added/ Weight of cement * 100%.
4) Setting time test
Apparatus Required:
a) Vicat Apparatus
b) Trowel
c) Measuring cylinder
d) Weighing Machine
Material Required: Cement and mortar
Procedure for initial setting time:
 A 400 gm of cement is taken and it is mixed with percentage of water as determined in
consistency test i.e 29.5% ( 118 )
 The cement paste is filled in the vicat apparatus.
 The square needle of cross section 1mm x 1mm is attached to the moving rod of the viact
apparatus.
 The needle is quickly released and it is allowed to penetrate the cement paste in the beginning
the needle.
 Then it is taken out and dropped at fresh place.
 The procedure is repeated at regular interval till the needle is failed to measure b 5mm from the
bottom
  The time interval between the addition of water to cement and stage when needle ceases to
penetrate 5mm from the bottom of the mould.
Procedure for final setting time:
 The cement paste is prepared as described for initial setting time
 The needle with angular collar is attached to the moving rod of vicat apparatus. This needle has
a sharp point projecting in the center with angular collar.
 The needle is getting released .The time at which the needle makes an impression on test block
and collar fails to do so is noted.
 The final setting time is difference between the time at which water was added to cement and
time record initial. This time should be about 10 hours for OPC.
5) Compressive strength test
 Compressive strength test specimens are 70.6mm cubes having faces area 5000mm2. The
temperature of water and test room should be about 25-29 degree Celsius.
 A mixture of cement and standard sand in the proportion of 1: 3 weight is mixed dried with a
trowel for 1 minute and then with water until the mixture is of uniform colour.
 Three specimen of cubes are prepared for each individual testing day. The material for each
cube is mixed seperately.
 The quantities of cement, standard sand and water are 185 gm, 555 gm and ( P/4 + 3.5) . Where
P is the percentage of water required to produce a paste of standard consistency.
 The mould is filled completely with the cement paste and vibrations are given.
 The cubes are then removed from the moulds and submerged in clean fresh water and are taken
out just prior to testing in compressive testing machine.
 Compressive strength is taken to be the average of the three cubes. Load is applied from zero a
t the arte of 35N/mm2 per minute.
 The compressive strength is calculated from the crushing load divided by the average area of
the application load.
6) Tensile strength test
 Tensile strength test is caused out by fracturing six briquettes made of cement mortar in the
ratio of 1:3 using standard sand and test cement.
 Average of six result is treated as tensile strength of cement.
 Percentage of water by weight of cement require to make the cement mortar is given by the
relation (P/5+2.5) , where P being percentage of water required to make cement paste of normal
consistency.
 Cement mortar prepared in this way is filled in the standard briquette mould and cured for 24
hours at temperature of 25-290 C and relative humidity of 90% .
 The test is carried out for 3 days, 7 days and 28 days.
MORTARS
 Building mortars are mixture used for the jointing of bricks, stone , blocks etc.
 Mortar may be defined as a paste (capable of setting and hardening ) obtained by adding water to
a mixture of fine aggregates such as sand binding materials ( Clay, gypsum ,lime or cement ).
 The mortar composition is designed by the volume for weight of materials in 1m3 of mortar or by
the relative amount of materials with the amount of binding materials taken as unity. Eg, 1 :4
mortar mix ( i.e 1 part of binding material and 4 part of sand)

Function of Mortar
1. To bind materials together (e. g. masonry mortar and tile adhesive mortar)
2. To provide a level or smooth finish (e. g. floor screed mortar, internal plastering)
3. To protect against weathering (e. g. external rendering)
4. To improve thermal insulation of walls (e. g. external thermal insulation composite systems,
thermal insulation rendering mortar, lightweight masonry mortar)
5. To repair and renovate constructions (e. g. concrete repair mortar, damp roofing mortar, or
renovation mortar)

TYPES OF MORTAR
a) Cement Mortar: Cement mortar is a type of mortar where cement is used as binding material
and sand is used as fine aggregate. Depending upon the desired strength, the cement to the sand
proportion of cement mortar varies from 1:2 to 1:6.
b) Lime Mortar: Lime mortar is a type of mortar where lime (fat lime or hydraulic lime) is used
as binding material and sand is used as fine aggregate. The lime to the sand proportion of mortar
is kept 1:2. The pyramids at Giza are plastered with lime mortar.

c) Gauged Mortar: Gauged mortar is a type of mortar where cement and lime both are used as
binding material and sand is used as fine aggregate. Basically, it is a lime mortar where cement
is added to gain higher strength. The process is known as gauging. The cement to the lime
proportion of varies from 1:6 to 1:9. Gauged mortar is economical than cement concrete and
also possess higher strength than lime mortar.
d) Mud Mortar
Mud mortar is a type of mortar where mud is used as binding material and saw dust, rice husk
or cow-dung is used as fine aggregate. Mud mortar is useful where lime or cement is not
available.