Professional Documents
Culture Documents
properties refer to
Je-2015
Specific Gravity-Density
p is the density (dcm3);
is the mass under dry conditions (6);
V is the volume under absolute compact
conditions (cm3).
The ratio of the mass of a substance relative to the mass of an equal volume of water at a specified
temperature.
The density of water is in 1 Mg/m3 SI units and 62.4 lb/ft3 in English units at 4°C (39.2°F). According to the
definition, specific gravity is equivalent to the density of a material divided by the density of water.
Since the density of water in the metric system has a numerical value of 1, the numerical value of density
and specific gravity are equal.
This fact is often used in the literature where density and specific gravity terms are used interchangeably.
In many structures, the dead weight of the materials in the structure significantly
contributes to the total design stress. If the weight of the materials can be
reduced, the size of the structural members can be also reduced. Thus, the
weight of the materials is an important design consideration.
DENSITY
For solid materials, such as metals, the unit weight, density, and
specific gravity have definite numerical values.
For other materials such as wood and aggregates, voids in the
materials require definitions for a variety of densities and specific
gravities
The volume of a substance under natural conditions refers to the solid volume and the volume of
inner pores. If it is a regular shape, the volume can be directly measured; if it is in an irregular
shape, the volume can be measured
by the liquid drainage method after sealing pores with wax; the liquid drainage method can be
directly used to measure the volume of sandstone aggregate utilized in concrete but the volume
here is the solid volume plus the volume of closed pores-without the volume of the pores open
to the outside.
BULK DENSITY
Bulk density is measure by volumetric container. The size of volumetric container depends
on the size of particles. For example, 1L volumetric container is used to measure sand and
10L, 20L, 30L volumetric containers are used in the measurement of stone.
DENSITY, APPARENT DENSITY, BULK DENSITY AND
POROSITY OF COMMON BUILDING MATERIALS
SOLIDITY AND POROSITY
Solidity
Solidity refers to the degree how the volume of a material is packed with
solid substances, which is the ratio of the solid volume to the total volume. It
is defined by:
Porosity
Porosity (P) is the percentage of the pores volume to the total volume with
the volume of a substance. It is defined by:
RELATIONSHIPS
Both solidity and porosity reflect the compactness of materials. Porosity and characteristics
of pores (including size, connectivity, distribution, etc.) affect the properties of materials
greatly. Generally, for the same material, the lower the porosity is, the less the connected
pores are. Thus the strength will be higher, the water absorption will be smaller, and the
permeability and frost resistance will be better, but the thermal conductivity will be great
Hydro-properties of Materials
1. Hydrophilicity and Hydrophobicity
The bigger the linear expansion coefficient a is, the greater the thermal deformation will be.
The thermal deformation is detrimental to the civil engineering. For example, in a large-area
or large-volume concrete project, temperature cracks can be caused if the expansion tensile
stress is beyond the tensile strength of concrete; in a large-volume construction work,
expansion joints are set to prevent the cracks caused by thermal deformation; and
Petroleum asphalt will have brittle factures when temperature drops to a certain extent.
thermal expansion
The amount of expansion per unit length due to one unit
of temperature increase
is a material constant and is expressed as the coefficient
of thermal expansion
SAMPLE PROBLEM
A steel bar with a length of 3 m, diameter of 25 mm, modulus of elasticity of 207 GPa, and linear coefficient of
thermal expansion of 0.000009 m/m/°C is fixed at both ends when the ambient temperature is 40°C. If the
ambient temperature is decreased to 15°C, what internal stress will develop due to this temperature change? Is
this stress tension or compression? Why?
Solution
If the bar was fixed at one end and free at the other end, the bar would have contracted and no stresses would
have developed.
Since the bar is fixed at both ends, the length of the bar will not change. Therefore, a tensile stress will develop in
the bar as follows:
The stress will be tension; in effect, the length of the bar at 15°C without restraint would be 2.999325 m and
the stress would be zero. Restraining the bar into a longer condition requires a tensile force.
FLAME RESISTANCE
Flame resistance is the property of a substance not to flame in case of contacting with fire in
the air. Materials can be divided into non-flammable materials, fire-retardant materials and
flammable materials according to their reaction to fire.
Fire-retardant materials are the ones that are hard to be burned or carbonized when
contacting with fire or high temperature in the air and stop burning or slightly flaming
immediately when leaving fire, such as gypsum board, cement asbestos board, and lath
and plaster.
FLAME RESISTANCE
(3) Flammable Materials
Flammable materials are the ones that are ignited or flame
immediately when contacting with fire or high temperature in the
air and continue to burn or slightly flame when leaving fire, such
as plywood, fiberboard, wood and foil.