How to Test Quality of Cement at Construction Site?

How to Know Which is the Best Cement Brand in India

Quality test of cement at construction site is also called the cement field test and are essentially carried out to ascertain the quality of the cement received while construction process is going on. Although you may have procured cement from the best cementmanufacturers in India, it’s critical you do a field test to be sure of the quality of the cement as concrete is one of the most pivotal building construction materials that leads to a strong foundation.

Carrying out this field test on cement quality based on colour, touch and feel and other tests can be done in the following manner:

Cement Test at Construction Site

1.   Colour Test

If you ever get confused as to which is the best cement brand in India, just try out this simple cement colour test to get the answer. Quality of the best cement can be easily ascertained by its colour. If you procured the cement from a leading cement manufacturer in India like M P Birla Cement, their cement’s colour is always uniform grey with a light greenish shade.

2.   Lump Test

The best quality cement should be free of any hard lumps and should have a coarse but smooth texture. Cement forms lumps when it absorbs moisture from the atmosphere and such cement is unfit for construction.

3.   Adulteration Test

The cement has to be checked for adulteration too before taking it up for construction. The best quality cement should feel smooth on rubbing between fingers and if it feels coarse, it signals adulteration with sand.

4.   Temperature Test

If you insert a hand inside the cement bag, it should feel cold and not at all warm. This indicates your cement bag is from a leading cement manufacturer in India like MP Birla Cement.

5.   Float Test

Float test is yet another cement field test to know which is the best cement brand in India that offers quality cement. This is carried out by throwing small amount of cement in a bucket of water and see if they settle at the bottom or float above. If they float above for sometime before settling at the bottom, it’s the sign of a premium quality cement.

6.   Setting Test

Setting test is another solid test to know the cement quality at the construction site. Make a thick paste of cement with water on a glass plate and keep it under water for 24 hours. The best quality cement, from a leading cement manufacturer in India like MP Birla cement, wouldn’t crack and stay put after 24 hours.

7.   Strength Test

A block of cement 25 mm × 25 mm and 200 mm long is prepared and it is immersed for 7 days in water. It is then placed on supports 15cm apart and loaded with a weight of about 34 kg. if you’ve bought the cement from a reputed cement manufacturer in India like MP Birla Cement then the block should not show signs of failure.

8.   Packaging Date

It’s no brainer to figure out that the strength of cement reduces over time and thus it gets all the more important to always look for the packaging date on the cement bag. Generally, a bag of cement with less than 90 days of manufacturing date is fit to use.

Earthquake Safety Measures for High-Rise Buildings

Our planet is experience natural catastrophic events more than ever. From earthquakes, to wildfires, to global warming, the consequences are disastrous. Other natural disasters like tsunami, hurricanes, floods, are occurring frequently. These events can wreak havoc on human life, wildlife and the environment. While there is no perfect solution for this, we can all take steps towards progress together.

No structure is completely earthquake proof, engineers and architects are using innovative techniques and designs to safeguard new structures. These construction techniques help to reduce destruction and save precious lives. An earthquake with a magnitude of 6 Richter scale and above can damage any building. A devastating 7.0 magnitude earthquake which occurred in 2010 in Haiti reported more than 200,000 causalities and rendered millions homeless. Chile, Japan, Nepal, Indonesia, Mexico, and the Philippines are some of the most earthquake-prone areas in the world. Lack of habitable land and increasing human population are leading to the construction of high-rise buildings that stand at a higher risk of being destroyed by earthquakes. It is also easier to evacuate people through stairs in a low-rise building compared to a high-rise building. However, modern evacuation techniques are often inbuilt in tall buildings. A popular example would be the World trade center tragedy in 2011, many people could not make it to the ground floor because of the height of the building. Engineers are striving to create partially earthquake-resistant structures. Unreinforced bricks plastered with mortar are dangerous structures and can be reduced to rubble in case of any seismic shock waves. MP Birla is one of the best cement manufacturers in India. The major types of cement manufactured by MP Birla are OPC, PSC, and PPC. Portland Slag cement is used to create strong and durable structures. 

The Burj Khalifa in Dubai is the tallest mega-structure in the world standing at a height of 2722 feet. This massive skyscraper can withstand earthquakes up to 7 Richter scale. It is built on a 52-foot-deep steel and concrete foundation. The vertical and horizontal loadings are supported by a unique truss system, making it resistant to torsional movements. Shanghai tower with a height of 2000 feet, is the second tallest building in the world. The site is primarily filled with soft, clay-based soil. To make this structure earthquake resistant, engineers incorporated 980 piles and secured 2.15 million cubic feet of reinforced best cement for concrete. It also consists of a tuned mass damper to control swaying during earthquake or high winds. A series of shock absorbers helps in optimal counterbalancing. Taipei 101 located in Taiwan is one of the tallest structures in the world. It has a massive internal damper to control swaying and minimize the possibility of structural damage, in case of an earthquake. Recently a few Earthquakes occurred in Northern Indian region.

The best way to safeguard any building from earthquake is to build it on a strong foundation, using the best construction materials available.