How to Select Proper Pile Type? The purpose of a pile foundation is to transfer and distribute load through a material or stratum with inadequate bearing, sliding or uplift capacity to a firmer stratum that is capable of supporting the load without detrimental displacement. A wide range of pile types is available for applications with … Read more
Flow Table Test for Cement Mortar The flow table test of cement mortar is done only to calculate the amount of water required for gauging for conducting strength test of masonry cement and for drying shrinkage test of cement. It also gives us some idea on the workability of cement mortar. The amount of water … Read more
Factors Affecting Transportation The success of transportation engineering depends upon the co-ordination between the three primary elements, namely the vehicles, the roadways, and the road users. Their characteristics affect the performance of the transportation system and the transportation engineer should have fairly good understanding about them. This post elaborated salient human, vehicle, and road factors … Read more
Tremie Concreting – On Site Precautions During tremie concreting the following precautions are to be taken while doing the work: The concrete should be coherent, rich in cement (not less than 370 kg/m3) and of slump between 150 and 180 mm. When concreting is carried out under water, a temporary casing should be installed to … Read more
Different Forms of Bitumen 1. Cutback Bitumen Normal practice is to heat bitumen to reduce its viscosity. In some situations preference is given to use liquid binders such as cutback bitumen. In cutback bitumen suitable solvent is used to lower the viscosity of the bitumen. From the environmental point of view also cutback bitumen is … Read more
Types of Soil Shear Test Based on Drainage Condition The shear strength parameters in the case of saturated soils depend very much upon the drainage conditions and therefore in the laboratory shear test, the drainage condition expected in the field for a particular problem should be simulated. Based on drainage condition the shear tests are … Read more
Popping and Pitting Test of Lime Objective To determine popping and pitting of lime sample as per IS-6932-part-10 Theory This test is a measure to study the unsoundness of building limes. Popping, pitting and blowing are due to the presence of coarse unslaked or only partially slaked particles. On final slaking, these cause dislodgement of … Read more
Uses of Geotextiles Geotextiles are porous fabric manufactured from synthetic material such as polypropylene, polyester, polyethylene, nylon, polyvinyl chloride and various mixtures of these. They are available in thicknesses ranging from 10 to 300 mils (1 mil = 1/1000 inch) in widths upto 30 ft, in roll lengths upto 2000 ft. The permeability of geotextile … Read more
Defects in Brickwork The followings are some of the common defects in brickwork that are found at construction site. The bricks used were of substandard quality compared to the quality specified in the contract. No tests were carried out to find out the efflorescence level and water absorption in the bricks The bricks were not … Read more
Quality Requirements of Pumped Concrete Pumped concrete can be used for most structural concrete construction but is most useful where space for construction equipment is limited or access is difficult. Concrete pumps can be either truck- or trailer mounted and range from small units, exerting pressures from 250 to 300 psi and outputs of 15 … Read more