Quick Estimation of Cement Mortar Strength By using high pressure and temperature techniques

Abstract

Quality control tests of cement are essential issue to guarantee the compliance of this important building material with the standard. The28 days compressive strength test for cement is an important parameter that judging the quality is based on, a rapid compressive strength test method is proposed as a quick alternative for the conventional 28 days strength test. This test method cover the procedure for making , curing and testing specimens of mortar stored under condition of high pressure and temperature and intended to accelerate the development of strength in a period of 30- 36 hours under condition of elevated pressure and temperature using autoclave . The accelerated curing procedures provide, at the earliest practical time, an indication of the potential strength of mortar cement. The accelerated early strength obtained from this procedure in this test method can be used to evaluate mortar strengths in the same way as conventional 28- days strengths have been used in the daily work, with suitable changes in the expected strength values. Since the practice of using strength values obtained from standard-cured prism at 28-days is long established and widespread, such estimates should be limited to mortar using the same materials and mixture proportions as those used for establishing the correlation. The result of accelerated strength tests are usually used to estimate the later-age strength under standard curing. The practically tested samples results obtained in this study confirmed that, the mortar cement strength can precisely be predicted and estimated according to this new tested method.