LIBRARY Michigan State University PLACE IN RETURN BOX to remove this checkout from your record. TO AVOID FINES return on or before date due. MAY BE RECALLED with earlier due date if requested. DATE DUE DATE DUE DATE DUE 6/01 c/CIRC/DateDue.p65-p. 15 LUDA ON CEMENTS THEIR STRENGTIL AND VALUE a SiN) / THFSIS ON CFLENTS: THEIR STEENCTH AND "ALLE / THESIS [37 b 2s THS (1) Of all the subjects now occupying the important places in the minds of our mecnenical engineers probably none deserve more attention than the subject of hydraulic cements, and, indced, one of the leading engincers of this country, ina rccent article read before the American So- ciety of Mecnanical Engineers, placed cements and allumi- num at the top of the List in importance. Ever since the time when man rirst came to recognize this need of protections from surrounding influances and evils, the uses of comenzs in some form or another, have played an important part in his general welfare. Perheps the simplest form of cement, (if we may call it such) of which we nave any record, was the plastic mud of the Nile, which wn@n mixed with straw and daried in the heat of an Egyptian sun, formed all the necessary qualities of the ordinary building brick. That was a time wnen ten, twelve, °iftcen and twenty-six story buildings were un- dreamed of. Brooklyn Bridges would have been miracles, while many of the more com-on problems of enginccring of our day would have been beyond the range of possibility and usefulness. Mud and straw were therefore all that were generally necessary for the building purposes of those LO395G6 (2) ancient times. Later on when the arts of war became more horrible and land cecame valuable,in just that proportion did the néged of a stronger and more durable cement present itself. In the many excavations which have veen lately made in Rome, samples of masonry are unearthed in which the cement is often as firm and strong as tne stones it joins. To give a detailed account or the nistory , the manufac- ture, the geological classification and distribution, :.nd the relative value of ell the thousiend and one brands and Kinds of cement found and made is not the purpose of this thesis. What I intend more is to give the results of a series or experiments I have just completed, the comparison with similar experiments by other expoerimentors,and if pos- Sible arrive at some sa:isfactory conclusions regarding the same. I heave not done as exact work as might be expected in a line or experiments like this, perhaps, aid the results obtained arc not to be relied on as absclutely correct. There are many reasons for this: first, this is practical-= ly the first thesis,along this 11%8, ever written at this college and I have profited by the experience of but few others than myself. The first reason coming into account, it was quite natural that I should waste a considerable (3) amount of time in trial experiments. Insurficient quan- tities of cement of any one kind also prevented making very many expecriments sor averages. ‘the very few accurate molds Il had, prevented much work at any one time being done. Without ccing farther into the acecuntof my dilemas and misrortunes I wili proceed to deseribce in a pvrief manner the mature of the tests I made and the machines end tools used in making them. There are many tests thet are of sereat importance in connection with every cement. Some of them are as Proliows: the dactremination of tensil, flexure, crushing and cohesive and adhesive strengths, hardness, time of setting, (both in water and cut) the influance of heat and cold, adultcraits and mary other things rhich are not quite so univer. sliy imvortant. The first three classes o: exreriments I endeavored to perform on cach of the dirfrerernt cements I had. On some c=: the samples I performed other experiments. The tcsts for adnesive strength, would have been very important but owing to innumerable varity of surfaccs to adherc to it did not become conven- lently possivle to perform these tests. The time of "setting" I fcund rather roughly in some ceases. For tensil strength briquettes are made “symmetriacl (4) in form) vith an ineh square cross-section at the middle point. A Tull sized plan and elevation draving of the molds used wiil be seer. in fircure - these were made some years aso py " the Olsen Manuracturing conecrn of Philadelphia. The morc modern orm or mold ailows Lor more surrace eacn wide of the one inen cross-section, thus reducing the liability o° breaking the brick except at the proper piace. With 4a well moldcd bprique te this dirficul- ty is casily met, providing the clips for holding the bri- 2 quette aru provorly snaped cnd adjusted. ¢ The pattcorns I used for molding my flexure ( and crusning ) pieces were for the most part like the scheme shovn in figure - ‘the patterns are made after the foilowing descriptions: Yricangular cross-section pieces of wood ecisht incnes long with eacn or the tvo sides or the right angie tvo inches long. A number of tnese pieces are firmly nuiled at risnt angles to one edge of a ton inch board, the right angles projecting upvardas, cach piece tou:hing the adjacent piece. Anovher combination like the one just descripvccd, turned vottom side up cand placed on the first, forms a row of opening 2 x 2 x 8 inches in dimension. Dowcll pins h-ld the tvo pieces in ;~lace with each other (Ss) ard one or two coats of asphalitum paint well dried on and aftcrwards a good coal black engine oil renders the mold ready ror use. this was made more satisfuctory than cither iron mclds or wooden ones- made scparately ror each cast- ing. in tne former case the grcoatcst objicctions were, weight, ciumsiness und cost. In the second case vViarping due to a cortain amount of mcisture necessarily absorbed from the contained mortar. Of ail tne contrivanees used in cem nt testing, per- haps sone play a morc important part and none have to be prepared with more care th:n tne "clips" for breaking the tensil pieccs. The "clips" accompanyins the Olson machine which was tne ~achine used in testing were of the rorm shown in rigure e These as vwili be seen fitted the Sides of the briquette quite clesely and any slight jar or the least irregularity in the briquette due to working in seasoning or otherwise, caused the briquette to become cracked and proken without, in many cases, any appreciable ternsil strength. In order to overcome this dirficulty I Made a pattcrn descrived in the Engincering News for Decem- ber - A daraving from the pattern I made will be seen in figure e it dirfers somewaht,(and for the better I think) (6) from the "elip" recom=:cnded in the News in which a rolicr of rub -er tubing stretched over e steel rod, which is im movable and troublesome to remove wnen a now rubsecr comes necessary from squcezing and wear. The "clip" snowh in the dreving provides no place for rubocr roiler, anc no v2 such thing is used in it. Simpiy a piece of rubver pack=- ing of about one-sixteenth inen in thickness by one-nalf or thr.e-cguarter inches by one cnd one-querter inches in di- mensions slipred in at each os tne Your pressure places each time the new briquetic is used. At first this would seem to bce rather tedicus work but one soon becomes accus- tomed to it and t..c results obtiined are most satisfactory. In this gecnemc of the rubber being loose tnere is a cnance for the priquette more easily adjusting itself without liability *o cramping. For breeking tne flexure cond crushing pieces I used a large Olson machine vwnese renge was from 0 to 50,000 pounds pressure. On account o: the pondrousness of the macnine I did not have mucn F:..ith in tne results I obtained for the weaker specimens or eceinent, as no doubt a consider- able of the indicated pressure rer.t to moving the parts of the macnine rather than wholly to breaking the cements (7) th.mselvcs. However, the results were more satisfactory than I had anticipated. Should ever any other experiments along this linc be made I vould suggest an arrangement for crusuliiis and flexure be got and attacned to the "little Olson" machine «here Yriner gredations can be sot and far less pressure soes to overcoming the friction ann inertia oOo: the parts of the “acninés i nave tnought of a scheme whieh I think vould be practical for such puryose and have briefly indicatcd it in figure - For cements and spec- dimen which are liable to resist a pressure of 2500 pounds probably the large Olson would have to be resorted to on account of liability of straining the little one. Now regaruing, the coments t..emselvcs. I performed ex- periments upon the rol_ovwing Kinds of cement: For brevity each coment will be d.:ignated by letter, thus * Akron, - - = "A." German Portland, - "G." A New York brand now at college, - - "pif Louisville, - - "Le" Common Lime. - - "Cc." (8) "AN ig the kinz of cement used in the construction of the new post office building at Lansing. It is highly recoizen d. . oo ded as a strong cement and has great durability. I% is of of cross between on lisht color and on setting assumes a sor. a pinkish yeilow and a stra. color, on the outside, and a fresh freeture shows a tendency to pale hneliotrope. "Gc" is rather heavier than "A" ana of a dull gray color on the exrosed surface with light traces of yellow. Fractures (fresh) reveal a color closcly resembling blue clay. Resists disfiguring much moru thin coes "A*", *L" is darker then "A" and lighter than "GG", In the powder it rather of a pinkish gray; but on “setting” and scasoning the pink pretty much cies out, or vades away. Its weight per unit volume is nearly equal ‘o that of "G", "Cc" is too familiar *o all to need description white when of sood quality and darker with yellowish prown tinges when imcure. It is hard to "ind two samples of "C" that has the seme qu:.lities owing to the great changes brought about by burning, a little too much or a little too little burning of the lime stone makes great ch: nges in the stren- gth of the lime. ‘the least exposure to the air or dampness lessens the strength of the lime quite materially. Beginning with "A"; Several tensil and flexure pieccs were made by mixing "A" and water of the temperture of the air (80") tosethcr and pressin into the molds so as to re ove @ili vossible traces of air bubbles. Ai were allowed to stand in tne molds until stiffr enough to allow taking, out. When barely set ali were carefully laid on a smooth shelf. Av the ena or twenty-four hours part were placcd in water anc Kept covered py it until the time for breaking had arrived. Av the end of twelve dcys part of botn lots were proken. The results were as follows: Tensil breakins force one sq. inch cross section. In air 162 and 1702" average - 166# "watcr84- " 64 " - 74/6 Flexure, 2 xX 2 inches cross section 4 inches ze- tween suv torts. In air c21¢ 1857- 240% Average - 223¢ " water 180¢ 190 " - 1857 None of the pieces were crusned at the time, but the pest pieces two inch long were saved off and faced up perfectly Square by puttins on a thin layer of Portland thus preven- ting any irregularities in pressure rorees and alloving all (10) up anc down lines in the pieces to receive an equal amount of rorce ayrlicd. At the end of twenty-eight days the re- mainder of the pieces were broken and the two inch cubes crushed. Tensil in air one sq. inch, 106-148 equals 127+. " "water " " " - 164-156 " L504 Flexure " air 4 % i" ~- 210-218 n 62134 " "water " "oom - 350-560 8 6 SS5¥# Crushing" air 2 inch cube — 2000-2100 " 2050¢ " "vateor " " ‘- 2550. "Cc" was treated in the seme menzer as "At o> am “7 oe - £00— 007 epucls 2oc% Tensil strength, 12 dsys in air " " sot " vator - 506 " 3506# Flexural " " n " air - lio test. " ft " " "water - # " Tensil " 28 =" " air - % " " " " " "water - " " Flexure " " " " air - 520-490 equals 505#¢ " " " i " water - 780-770 " 77 Soe Crushing in air, only one test only " 35804 mpHl'i2 day teste —- By oversisht no svecimens of clear coment blocks were made. But ror "P" one part and fine gravel two parts, sifted through mesnes one-rourth inecn square and not capable of passing meshes one tenth inch square, washed perfectly clean. (1i) Tensil strength in air (only) one test, 190 lbs. 28 day test air, (only) 148-145 eouals 146 1/2 # Crushing ( one specimen.) 3200 #. "Pp" and snarp sand (wesned) - "P" one part to sand 2 parts l2 day test. fensil, one specimen- 183 Flexure,None tiade. Crusnin " " 28 day test. Tensil, 180- 165 equals 172 1/2# Flexure,380- 500 (200) equals 340 Crucsnirg, None slaae. "LE" le day test,- None hiade. 28 day rest in air,- Toneil S55 - 52 —- 38 equals 35 (nearly ) Flexure, None tiadae. Crusnir tt " oY 3 ~ "Lh" and grayel acccrcing to g:uge used in "P" and gravel 12 day test in air, Tensil, one specimen only 204 28 day test, (12) Tensil 15 - 16 - 701 cquals G65¥ "Ty," 28 day tes: in water, - Tensil, onc specimen equals S6¢ Flexure 629 - 701 " 665# Crushing 1200 "Cc" and sand, "C" 1 part, send 2 parts. 28 day test,- Tensil 21 - 26 - 28 equals 25#¥ Flexure 110- 106- 110 " 109% Crushing, None iiade. *p" and Soap. The soap was mixed in by first dissolvingin sort water about ali the hard soap it could nold in solution. This was perhaps not a very practical experiment, bt it might comc into practice around sewers where the pipes were joined vy cements. The detrimental effect was quite marked, as the average tensil strain above wnichn the samples broke in tienty-eicht d:ys was only 55#, while "P" and clear water and sand was 146 1/2#. "Pp" and Sugar. Sugar is uscd in the mortars in India and is prob- ably all right in such countries where there is not much dempness to dissolve the sugar out. wade a soluticn or suger end,water in about the pro- portion of aucut one teaspoon ful to one ordinary drinking glass of water. ‘the effect was quite marked on the stren- gth of tne cement, as tne average tensil strength was in- creascd from 146 1/2 to 175,or rather from 55 with soap to 175 with sugar. One striking peculiarity of the compound is the immense quantity of heat deveioped in "setting", especially in the flexure pieces when not much surface is exposcd to tne cir. The hard surfaco and hardness vnroughout was very noticeable, whiic tne inerease o: quickness of setting was very great. The fact of the mattcr is that the ccment "set so very guick that the cuter surface commcneed to contraet and crack bcfore the moisture witnin had time to let the inner moist part or the mass contract accordingly. The re- sults was many of the specimens vere cracked up so as to be quite unreliabic for testing. Flexurc stood an avercge of 190% (nearly ) "PP" and proken granite. Broke a piece o: grenite rock into pieces of gauge perscribed for sravel in experiments above “2 (14) The object ot this experiment was to see if the snape of the pieces to which the cement clung had anything to do with vhe strength of the mass. "Poor brick" in making the bri- quettes prevented satisfactory results. Right here it may be well to state that as the stone contained in the cement does not of itself add to the strength of the cement, the strength of an ineh square cross-section of thc mass would deperd a sood deal on the cmount of cement and the vevness of the stones at this section. I thercfore do not feel safc in civine the results of experiments in whieh tine in- gredients had grains much larger tnan ordinary sand. Besides the expcriments on cements of twelve and twenty-eight daays setting, I made scveral tests on cements eight cond eisht and one-haif months old. Some of the more importent of these I will «ive bcolows Water lime and sand 1 to 1 gave an average of 113¢ tensil strain in air. Portland coment and sand 1 to 1 in air 312 tt m tt tt tt no tT Wt 285# i i Alone - -- - - 580¢ t " and sand 1 to 3 155# Ordinary lime and sand (1 to 2) gave a tensil strength of 38+ (15) Pure vater lime gave for air (or water one month and air the remainder ) 478¢ Same air ali the time. 346; Owing to disturbences of pieces during the vinter vacation it was hard to decide which set of briquettes was which. Ordinary lime and sand, (1 to 1) gave an average breaking tensil stress of 95¢ Porticnd (1) Sand (1) and Adamant plaster (1) gave an average of 10454 An cxperiment for the rise of temperature in lime while "slacking" showed in a sample of lime fresh from a new barrel an increase of from 81 degrees Farh. to 209 degrees Farhn. equals 128 degrces Farh. The volume of the lime in- creased “rom 1 to 4. This practicaliy ends the list of experiments. As I seid in the berinz:.ing I consumed « large fer.cent of the amount of time available for experiments in making pat- terns, getting things into snipe and finding out the best way ot performing experiments. It vould be useless to put a mess o- figures relating to other experiments made by eriinent authorities, but I will give a number of references to books articles in the (16 ) colicge library. For geological classirication ane distribution of hydraulic lime stone etc. probably no better authority can be sot than 2 A. Giiimore. A. WM. in his work on "Limes Hydraulic Cements and Mortars." In the same book valuable points of information regarding tests and manufacture of cer.ents of ali descrittion abound. The relative costs of cvrments and the most apvoroved methods of testing and analyzing cements, their use etc. will be found fully stated and described in "A Tretise on Masonry Construction" by Ira 0. Baker C. E., proressor of civil engineering, University of Illinois. Bowth of the bookd just mentioned furnish almost every variety of infor- mation recessary; but thers cre several important allusions to the Enginecring News which I deem quite intcresting and importéent. Amorg them are: Manufacture o2 Portland Cement from slag"- July 19+90 Also Dec. 7°89. Adhesive strength of sulphur, lead and Portland Cement for anchoring bolts, July 20,'90. Soda in Portland Cement, " Oct. 11, '90. An improvement in"clips" for cement testing, Dec. 2a, (17) *90. Does Salt Water inercase the strength of cement mortar Dec. 20% '90. 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