Shear Strength Test of Soil The choice of appropriate shear strength tests for a particular project depends on the soil type, whether the parameters will be used in a total or effective stress analysis, and the relative importance of the structure. Common laboratory tests include direct shear, triaxial, unconfined compression, and laboratory vane shear test. … Read more
Types of Limes Different types of limes are used for building construction. It is not generally found in the free state. Lime is a product which is obtained by burning lime stone, a raw material, found in lime stone hills or lime stone boulders in the beds of old river, kankar found below ground level, … Read more
Building Finishes Building finishes such as plastering, varnishing, dis-tempering, white-washing, coloring, etc basically perform two functions as pointed below. They give a protective coating to the surfaces which protects them from weather effects such as rain water, frost, heat etc, and They provide decorative effects which add to the appearance of the surfaces and building … Read more
Unit Weight/Dead Weight of Construction Materials The tables given below give the unit weight or dead weight of some common construction material that is used by designer while computing load related calculation. 1. Bituminous Substance Item Weight (kg/m3) Anthracite coal 1550 Peat (dry) 560 to 640 Charcoal (light) 300 Coke 1000 Graphite 500 Crude oil … Read more
Basic Unit Conversion Tables Some of the useful and common unit conversion tables used by civil engineers to convert Metric and FPS units are given below. 1. Length FPS TO METRIC METRIC TO FPS 1 in 2.54 cm 1 cm 0.393701 in 1 ft 30.48 cm 1 m 3.28084 ft 1 yd 0.09144 m 1 … Read more
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