Cement conformity to physical and mechanical specifications: An introductive case study on CEM II 32.5 R and CEM II 42.5 R to standard NBF 02-013 :2009, revised 2012

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Résumé

Cement has been widely used as a binder in construction materials. The present work deals with a conformity study of cement brands produced in Burkina Faso. The study mainly concerned the 32.5R and 42.5R strength class sets of CEM II cements. The conformity criteria used were physical and mechanical properties requirements defined in standard NBF 02-013: 2009, revised 2012. One hundred fifty (150) samples of cement type CEMII were prepared from five cement factories, and several tests were applied on cement, fresh, and hardened mortars. Physical tests enabled us to determine the setting time of cement, the specific surface, and the stability of samples of cement mortar. Mechanical strength of cement mortar was measured at 2 and 28 days of age. Both physical and mechanical properties are compared with standard properties as specified in the relevant standard. The results showed the conformity ratio of 93% for compressive strength, 100% and 96% respectively for setting time and expansion, and for specific surface. Finally, all cement samples meet the specifications of standard NBF 02- 013:2009, revised 2012. However, it's necessary to improve the production process in order to improve the quality, especially of cement plants represented by Brands CBF4 and CBF5 produced in Burkina Faso.

Mots-clés

Cement-based-mortar, Experimental studies, Technical properties, Conformity, ABNORM