Important points & characteristics of good concrete.
The volume of one 50 kg bag of cement is 34.5 litres About 19 litres (38%) of water is required to hydrate 50 kg cement in sealed container. The ordinary Portland cement when tested for its compressive strength at 28 days according to the method describe by the standard specification, yields a minimum compressive strength of 43N/mm2 is called 43 grade cement . Too fine cement is susceptible to air set and deteriorates earlier. The setting time of cement can be controlled by varying the quantity of gypsum in cement. Sometime with the addition of water to cement, a premature set occurs within 5 minutes. This is called false set an is due to the presence of anhydrous gypsum which is formed due to grinding of gypsum with too hot clinker .this is not to be worried .continuous mixing aggregates , cement and water will break the false set without harming any property of the concrete . The ability of cement to maintain a constant volume is known as soundness of cement. The abilit