DE LA SALLE UNIVERSITY Civil Engineering Department Construction Materials and Testing Laboratory

EXPERIMENT NUMBER 1
January 22, 2014

Total Evaporable Moisture Content Of Aggregate by Drying

(ASTM C702 & ASTM C566)

Dr. Bernardo A. Lejano Professor

DE GUZMAN, Euclid GONZALEZ, Carla JARDER, Samantha JUEGO, Modwena MARTINEZ, Krisia

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DE LA SALLE UNIVERSITY Civil Engineering Department Construction Materials and Testing Laboratory

I.

INTRODUCTION Concrete is a material popularly used in construction. It forms a stone-like mass upon hardening and is what composes many structures seen today. Like any material, concrete also has its components. A few of which would be water, cement, and aggregates. Aggregates are loosely compacted particles such as sand and gravel and before any structure is made, these aggregates have to go under a series tests. Total evaporable moisture content refers to the water content in the surface of the particle or those that can be evaporated by drying or applying heat. There are cases wherein the aggregate may contain water that is chemically combined with the minerals in the aggregate. The said water is unable to be evaporated and is not included in the computation of the total evaporable moisture content. In this experiment, the group is expected to perform test in order to determine the total evaporable moisture content of aggregates such as sand and gravel. Although these samples look like they are dry, they have actually accumulated moisture from the air. Before leaving the specimen in the oven to dry, they first have to go through a few steps. A clearer description of this could be seen in the procedure below. Through this experiment, the group hopes to have a clearer understanding of the components of concrete and be able to carry these basic concepts in the future experiments.

II.

SUMMARY OF EXPERIMENT 1. The weight of the containers were measured and recorded to be used in computations. 2. Sufficient amount of samples were obtained for both the aggregate and sand. 3. For the aggregate, the sample that was placed in the mechanical splitter was used.

TOTAL MOISTURE CONTENT OF AGGREGATE BY DRYING | ASTM C702 & C566

DE LA SALLE UNIVERSITY Civil Engineering Department Construction Materials and Testing Laboratory

4. For the sand, the quartering method was used. The sand was flattened and divided into quarters. The opposite quarters were retained to be used in the experiment and the rejected were placed back in the bin. 5. For the aggregate, the mass was determined and recorded to the nearest 0.1 percent. 6. For the sand, the mass was determined and recorded to the nearest 0.1g 7. The wet samples, both the aggregate and sand, were placed inside the oven to be able to determine the moisture content of the samples. 8. The total mass of the container and the oven dried samples were determined and recorded. 9. The samples that were used were disposed properly and the containers were cleaned before returning to the office. 10. The weights of the oven dried samples were computed by subtracting the mass of the containers from total mass in step 8. 11. The total evaporable moisture content were computed for the two samples. 12. The solution will be shown in the computational part of the report. III. DATA Test No. 1. Container No. 2. Weight of Container, g 3. Weight of Sample + Container, g 4. Weight of Sample: W = [3]-[2], g 5. Weight of Oven Dried Sample + Container, g 6. Weight of Oven Dried Sample: D = [5]-[2], g 7. P = 100*{[4]-[6]}/[6], % 8. Average Moisture Content, % 1 A 383.6 915.2 531.6 903.4 519.8 2.27 1.37 2 B 378.6 3,388.2 3,009.6 3,374.0 2,995.4 0.47 1.37

TOTAL MOISTURE CONTENT OF AGGREGATE BY DRYING | ASTM C702 & C566

DE LA SALLE UNIVERSITY Civil Engineering Department Construction Materials and Testing Laboratory

IV.

FINDINGS P = Total evaporable moisture content = 100(W-D)/D

In this experiment, the fine aggregates or sand were classified as Sample A, while the coarse aggregates or the angular gravels were classified as Sample B. Sample A contained 531.6g of sand and; while Sample B contained 3009.6g of gravel. After being inside the oven for more than 24 hours, Sample A weighed 519.8g and Sample B weighed 2995.4g. With the completed data, the students computed for the Total Evaporable Moisture Content of Samples A and B, which were 2.27% and 0.47% respectively. The average moisture content of the two samples was 1.37 and the Percent Difference was 58.39%. With these data, the students can say that the sand can absorb and contain more moisture compared to gravel. It also showed that sand can absorb and contain more than twice the moisture the gravel had. The possible sources of data includes that the samples were exposed to vapor and contained moisture when they were weighed after being taken from the oven. However, the students believe that the sources of error does not have a significant effect on the results since the standard
TOTAL MOISTURE CONTENT OF AGGREGATE BY DRYING | ASTM C702 & C566

DE LA SALLE UNIVERSITY Civil Engineering Department Construction Materials and Testing Laboratory

range for fine aggregates ranges from 2%-6%, which the result fits in; and 0.5%2%, which the result have a percent error of 6%. With this, the students can say that they had collected accurate data and performed the experiment correctly. V. CONCLUSIONS Having finished the experiment correctly, the group was able to meet the main objective of the experiment which is to determine the total evaporable moisture content of the fine aggregates or sand and the coarse aggregates or the gravel. The group have learned in this experiment that evaporable moisture content simply refers to the moisture or water content in the surface of the particle or those that can evaporate by drying or heating. The evaporable moisture content calculated is 2.27% for sand and 0.47% for gravel. Meaning, in sand, there is 2.27% moisture that might be trapped inside the particles. Same goes for the gravel-- there is 0.47% moisture trapped inside the coarse aggregates. Moreover, the group also computed for the average of the total evaporable moisture content of the aggregates. It is found out to be 1.37%. Knowing the average will help in the mixing and analysis of a concrete. Because in a concrete, it is not only the fine aggregates are added but also coarse aggregates. Lastly, one source of errors that might affect the results and values calculated might be caused by the weighing scale. While weighing, the weight changes by 0.1. With that, it can be said that the experiment is successful.

VI.

THINGS LEARNED FROM THE EXPERIMENT Aside from what is written in the conclusion, from the experiment the class had performed last meeting, the group learned that when getting aggregate samples, the mechanical splitter is just be the same as having to apply the quartering method. There is also an approximate minimum mass of the sample that should be taken when it is to be tested, based from the maximum nominal size of the aggregate. As for example, the mass to be tested is a minimum of 10kg

TOTAL MOISTURE CONTENT OF AGGREGATE BY DRYING | ASTM C702 & C566

DE LA SALLE UNIVERSITY Civil Engineering Department Construction Materials and Testing Laboratory

for fine aggregates then the tester should get a sample mass of equal or more than 20kg as the mechanical splitter/quartering method would get half of the sample mass obtained. By following this, the sample aggregates would just have the right amount for testing. VII. REFERENCE

Kurtis, K. (n.d.). Aggregates. Retrieved January 21, 2014 from the World Wide Web: http://people.ce.gatech.edu/~kk92/aggregateUG.pdf ASTM. (n.d.). Standard Test Method for Total Evaporable Moisture Content Of Aggregate by Drying . Retrieved January 19, 2014, from ASTM C 566-97: http://adsl99-68-174-150.dsl.pltn13.sbcglobal.net/ASTMC/PDF/C566.pdf

TOTAL MOISTURE CONTENT OF AGGREGATE BY DRYING | ASTM C702 & C566