Most of the concrete used in the construction have to be gone through the concrete testing procedure to ensure the strength of the concrete, if the concrete is crack or spoil in the concrete test, which mean the concrete is failed to be used in construction. There is several types of concrete testing in the construction, where Cylinder Test and Slump Test are commonly used. Some of them are very costly and time consuming, while some of the concrete testing are very simple and low cost.

Type of concrete testing depends on type of concrete used, purpose of the concrete used and requirement from client. Concrete for concrete curb is not required to go through the concrete testing process because it’s just a light duty work, usually concrete testing used to test the concrete for commercial building, concrete bridges, and etc.

Types Of Concrete Testing

1) Cylinder Test
For Cylinder test, concrete is poured into a 6 x 12 inches cylinder (6 inches diameter, 12 inches height). The cylinders are usually plastic, like the ones below. The plastic cylinders filled with concrete are allowed to cure at 70 degrees Fahrenheit for 28 days.

Then each cylinder is loaded axially in a laboratory, the cylinder is stood up in a loading machine and an arm of the machine pushes down on the top of the cylinder until the cylinder breaks. The maximum amount of force the machine used on the cylinder is important, it tests the maximum strength of the concrete.

The compressive strength of the concrete, f’c (f¡¯c=P/A) where P is the load at which the cylinder failed A is the cross-sectional area of the cylinder, in this case, pi*r^2, where r is the radius of the cylinder. Cylinder concrete test is to be done in a closed room, no one will be around the concrete testing during the compressing process, because it’s very dangerous when the spoil concrete pieces will be flying everywhere.

2) Slump Test
Concrete Slump Test is another method of concrete testing, which is a easiest way of testing the concrete. Slump testing is a means of measuring the consistency of concrete using “slump cone”. The cone is made of galvanised metal with an 8-inch-diameter base, a 4-inch-diameter top and a 12-inch-height. The base and the top are open and parallel to each other and at right angles to the axis of the cone. This is the most economic way for concrete testing which don’t require any machine.

Source : SimScience | Tpub

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Usually concrete curb is built by using hand or can be done by using precast concrete curb which is using hand as well, but there is another method to lay concrete curb which is using concrete agitator. The procedure is not as difficult as you think, it’s just a simple work to lay the concrete curb by using concrete agitator.

Contractor uses concrete agitator to mix the concrete which require larger mixture or large quantity of concrete, so contractor might need to mix the concrete by using agitator. Usually worker just has to throw all the concrete mixture material such as sand, water and cement into concrete agitator and the roll will be starting to swing and mix the concrete until it’s properly mixed.

How To Lay Concrete Curb With Concrete Agitator

1) Throw all the concrete mixture material such as cement, water and sand into concrete agitator, swing the roll until the concrete is properly mixed.

2) Concrete curbing machine has to be used, set the concrete curbing machine at the place where the contractor want to build the concrete curb.

3) Make sure the opening of concrete agitator is aiming to the concrete curbing machine so that the concrete can be dropped into the concrete curbing machine.

4) Everything set on place, concrete agitator opens its’ opening and the concrete is flow out into the concrete curbing machine, a worker is controlling the concrete curbing machine, another worker is pulling out the concrete from the opening of concrete agitator to make it flowing out faster into the concrete curbing machine.

5) The worker who controls the concrete curbing machine is pulling the concrete machine so that the concrete curb can be lay on shape. After that, the concrete curb is done in shape in short time.

The advantage of using concrete agitator to build concrete curb is the minimum usage of labour which can be saving the labour cost. Besides this, this method is easy and fast, it can saves up a lot of time and cut off the expenses. From the video clip, it only requires 3 workers to lay the concrete curb. Due to current economic downturn, contractor must plan and decides the cheapest and most economic way or method to construct their structures.

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