Construction Engineering Materials

Prepared By: Er.Radhika Kharbuja

Chapter-1 (4 hrs)

Introduction
1.1 Scope of construction materials
1.2 Selection criteria of construction materials
1.3 Classification of construction materials
1.4 Properties of construction materials
1.5 Griffith’s theory
1.6 Hardness and toughness tests of construction materials
Scope of the Subject
Civil Engineering Sector
 Hydropower -> construction of Power
house, dam reservoir and other
structures.
 Road Construction -> Road
Protection work, Retaining Wall,
Pavement Work etc
 Building Construction -> Foundation
work, Superstructure work, Finishing
work etc
 Water Supply -> construction of
headwork , canal, dam etc
 Sanitary -> Drainage system, sludge
tank construction etc
1.2 Selection Criteria of Construction
Material
Material selection criteria depends upon:
 Locally availability of natural resources
 Availability of skilled Manpower
 Availability of material in nearest market
 Technology Used
 Budget availability
 Economic Benefit
1.3 Types of construction materials:

A) According to chemical compositions

1) Organic materials:
◦ Organic materials contains basically carbon as key
material
◦ E.g.: timber, plastic, bitumen, petroleum etc.

2) Inorganic materials:

◦ Inorganic materials basically contain silica, calcareous

materials containing calcium compounds &
argillaceous materials like clay.
B) According to uses:
1) Structural material
 Stone, brick, steel etc.

2) Aesthetic material
 Tiles, marbles, paints etc.

C) According to existence:
1) Natural material
 Stone, sand, clay, wood etc.

2) Artificial material
 Cement, plastic, brick etc.
D. According to metallurgy

Metal
 Ferrous metal and its alloys e.g. Cast Iron,
Wrought Iron and steel similarly silicon steel,
spring steel etc

 Non Ferrous metals and their alloys e.g. copper,

aluminium, zinc etc similarly, brass , bronze etc

Non- Metal
 e.g. Building Stones, Cement, Rubber, Plastics,
Paint and Varnishes, asbestos ,etc
1.4 Properties of Construction Materials

 Physical Properties
 Mechanical properties
 Thermal Properties
 Electrical Properties
 Magnetic Properties
 Chemical Properties
Physical Properties
1. Specific gravity:
 It is the ratio of density at material to the density of water at
standard condition.

2. Density:
 It is the ratio of mass of the material to the total volume of
the materials.
 Density = M/V Unit kg/m3

3. Porosity:
 It is the ratio of volume of voids in the material to the total
volume of the materials.
4. Permeability:
 It is the property where by the material allows
water to pass through its pore.

5. Water absorption:
 It is the ability of material to absorb & retain water.

6. Fire resistance:
 It is the property of material to resist fire

7. Durability:
 It is the resistance of material to disintegrate by
natural agencies like humidity variation, chemical
attack, action of atmosphere gases etc.
 Mechanical properties
Mechanical properties are important to determine the load resisting
capacity, durability etc. These are:
1. Strength:
 property of material to resist the applied load without failure.
 Common types of strength properties found in construction material
are:
a. Tensile Strength:
 It is maximum stress that a material can withstand under a tensile load
without failure is known as strength.

b. Compressive strength:
 It is maximum stress that a material can withstand under a
compressive load without failure is known as compressive strength.

c. Shear Strength:
 It is the maximum stress that the material can withstand
under shear force without failure is known as shear strength.
Stress and Strain
• When a body is • change in dimension
loaded, the restoring to original dimension
force per unit area, when a body is
comes into play inside subjected to external
the body, it is called force
stress. Its unit is
N/mm2 or KN/m2. • Types:
• Types: 1.Tensile strain
1. Tensile stress 2. Compressive strain
2. Compressive stress: 3. Shear strain
3. Shear stress:
Tension, compression, shear, and torsion
2. Elasticity
property of material by which material tends to
regain its shape after the removal of applied load.
Elasticity of material is defined upto limit called
elastic limit. After crossing this limit material
become plastic.
A material is said to be perfectly elastic if the whole
of the stress produced by a load disappears
completely on the removal of the load.
The modulus of elasticity of young’s modulus
(E) is the proportionality constant between stress
and strain for elastic materials.
 Poisson’s ratio – The ratio of lateral or
transverse strain to the longitudinal
strain.

Poisson’s ratio for most materials ranges

from 0.25 to 0.35.
Cork ⇒ ν ≈ 0.0
Steel ⇒ ν = 0.27 – 0.30
Aluminum ⇒ ν = 0.23
Rubber ⇒ ν ≈0.5 (limiting value for
Poisson’s ratio)
3. Plasticity -> property that enables the
formation of permanent deformation
in a material. Gold and lead are highly
plastic material.
4. Ductility -> ability of metal to
withstand elongation or bending. Due to
this property, wires are made by drawing
out through a hole.
5. Malleability -> property by virtue of which a
material may be hammered or rolled into
thin sheets without rupture. Such
properties increase with increase in
temperature.
6. Toughness (or tenacity)
 ability of material to absorb
energy due to straining
action undergoing the
plastic deformation
 Due to molecular attraction
of metal the power resist
the metal tearing apart,
strength with which the
material rupture.

 Area under stress strain

curve indicate the
toughness.
 It is express as energy
absorbed (Nm)per unit
volume of material (Nm/m3)
7. Brittleness -> lack of ductility thus break
easily when subjected to shocks.

8. Hardness -> resistance of material to

penetration. It resist scratch or being worn
out by friction with another body.

9. Fatigue -> development of facture when

material subjected to fluctuating or
repeating load. Such failure starts at the
point of highest stress.
10. Creep -> Slow plastic deformation of metals
under constant stress or under prolong loading
usually at high temperature.

11. Impact strength:

 It is the property of material to the resist certain
sudden shock or impact over the material.

12. Abrasive Resistance

 property to resist the wearing of the surface of the
material due to the friction between one another.
13. Resilience: is the capacity of a material to
absorb energy when it is deformed elastically
and then, upon unloading, to have this energy
recovered.
Chemical Properties
- describes the combining tendencies,
corrosion characteristics, reactivities,
solubilities, etc. of substances.
- Some chemical properties are:
 Corrosion resistance
◦ Corrosion is a gradual chemical or electro
chemical attack on a metal by its surroundings
so that the metal is converted into an oxide,
salt or some other compound.
 Oil & petrol resistance:
◦ ability of material to withstand attack by
liquid, fuels etc.
◦ Oil & petrol resistant must be taken choosing
floor covering for garage, industrial building,
service station etc.

 Acid resistant & alkali resistant:

◦ ability of material to withstand attack by acid
& alkali respectively.
Thermal properties of material
 Important in the
structure where there is
frequent change in
temperature.
1. Specific heat capacity:
 It is defined as the
amount of heat required
to raise the temperature
of unit mass of material
by 1⁰C.
2. Thermal conductivity (K):
 amount of heat transmitted in unit time
through unit area over unit length
perpendicular to the direction of heat
flow when the temperature gradient
across the heat considering unit is 1⁰C.
Electrical Properties

- It indicates the ability of material to permit or

resist the flow of electricity.
- Following are the electrical properties of material:

 Resistivity - Electrical property of material that

resists the flow of electricity through it.
R.A
Resistivity, ρ =
l
Where, R = resistance of the conductor
A = cross section area of the
conductor
l = length of the conductor
 Conductivity - reciprocal of resistivity. i.e. material
provides an easy path for the flow of electricity
through it.
1 l
σ= =
ρ R.A

 Temperature coefficient of resistance - indicate

the variation of resistivity with temperature.
ρ−ρo 1
αT=
ρo T−To
Where,
Ρ = resistivity at temp. T
ρo= resistivity at temp. To
T and To are degrees kelvin
Electrical Properties cont. ..

 Dielectric strength - insulating capacity of

a material against high voltages. A dielectric
is an insulation.

 Thermoelectricity
– production of small
voltage in the junction between two dissimilar
metals when they are joined together.
Magnetic Properties

 Such properties of material create a

magnetic field in the surrounding.
- Magnetic properties arise from the spin of
electrons and orbital motion of electrons
around the atomic nuclei.
- Study of magnetic properties is necessary
as it helps to know the structure and
behavior of the matter.
Magnetic Properties of Materials
 Ferromagnetic: material with a
permanent magnetic dipole

 Paramagnetic: material attracted by a

magnetic field

 Diamagnetic: material repulsed by a

magnetic field

 Non-magnetic: material insensitive to a

magnetic field
 Define the term ductility and resilience.
Determine the young’s modulus and
Poisson’s ratio of metallic bar of length
60cm, breadth 6cm, when subjected to an
axial tensile load of 500KN. The increase
in length as 0.09cm and decrease in depth
is 0.005cm
Griffith theory for brittle
fracture:

 Fracture is a separation of a body caused

either by physical or chemical forces into
two or more parts resulting in the
creation of new surface.
 When the fracture of material occurs
without or with less plastic deformation
the fracture phenomenon is known as
brittle fracture.
 The fracture of brittle material was
studied by A. A. Griffith in 1920.
 He suggested that, “in any brittle non metallic
substances such as glass, minute crack or fissures
particularly occurring at the surface acts as stress
raiser by concentrating stresses at their tips.”
 It means energy required for fracture of
brittle material is not uniformly distributed
over the volume of materials. But their
region of energy concentrated is produced
by minute faults & cracks in the materials.
Griffith theory of brittle fracture:
Crack propagation criterion:
 Consider a through thickness crack of
length 2a, subjected to a uniform
tensile stress σ, at infinity.
 Crack propagation occurs when the
released elastic strain energy is at least
equal to the energy required to
generate new crack surface.
The stress required to create the new crack
surface is given as follows :
where,
σ = critical stress
E = Young’s modulus of elasticity
γs= Surface energy per unit area
a = half of length of an internal cracks

Note:
Fracture stress depends upon:
• Crack size
• Properties of material
Hardness & Toughness test of
Construction materials
Hardness tests
 One of the most simple & useful property of
metal is hardness.
 Hardness is used to find out many qualities
of a metal.
 indicate resistance to abrasion, scratching,
cutting or shaping.
 It may denote strength, stiffness, brittleness
etc.
 The hardness of the material implies the
resistance to deform or indentation.
Three types of hardness tests:
1) Scratch hardness test
 determines scratching & abrasion
quality of a metal when scratched by
a standard substance.
 The standard substances are either
minerals or files.
 Some minerals have been given
hardness numbers from 1 to 10 on
the Mohr scale.
 The softest mineral on this scale is
talc.
 Diamond has the maximum hardness
of ten (10).
 determined by trial method like
which minerals scratch a smooth
surface of substance & which mineral
can be scratched by the substance.
Mohr scale
 Another method is filling. The mineral to
be tested is rubbed against a standard file
or vice-versa & it is noted whether a
visible cut is produced or not on the
metal surface.
 The visible cut on the metal surface is
produced if the hardness is lower than
that of the file.
2) Indentation hardness test or penetration test
 based on the principle of forcing a hard material
called an indenter against a flat surface of the
metal whose hardness is to be measured under a
fixed load depending upon its hardness.
 The metal resists deformation & finally an
impression is made by the indenter on the
surface of the metal.
 The diameter or depth of the impression
determines the hardness of the metal & after the
measurement it could be converted into a
relative quantitative value.
 Some of the indentation hardness tests
are:
◦ Brinell hardness test
◦ Rockwell hardness test
◦ Vickers hardness test
 i) Brinell hardness test
 The test consist in
forcing a steel ball of
diameter, D under a
load P into the test
piece & measuring the
mean diameter of the
indentation left in the
surface under test
after removal of the
load.
ii) Rockwell hardness test
 In this method, Rockwell test
machine measures the depth
of impression, the
measurement is read on the
dial of the micrometer which
is connected to the indenter,
 The indenter in Rockwell
hardness testing machine is
either a steel ball, hard steel
ball or a carefully ground
diamond cone.
 Ball size varies from 1.5 mm
to 3 mm diameter
Method:
 A completely flat specimen is supported by the
Anvil of the machine which is raised up by a
jack-screw until the specimen comes in contact
with the indenter.
 A minor load is then applied by raising Anvil.
 The final load is then applied by releasing a
system of levers which forces the indenter
down onto the surface of the specimen.
 Before the reading of dial-gauge, the laser is
taken, the major load is removed leaving the
indenter in the new position but only under
the minor load of 10 kg.
 iii) Vickers hardness test
 This test is similar to Brinell hardness
test.
 In this test indenter is a diamond
pyramid having four side.
 The angle between opposite side is
136⁰. The indenter size is square.
 The load is automatically applied &
released after the correct time.
 The specimen is removed from the
indenter & diagonal of the impression
is measured using microscope &
illuminating lamp.
3) Rebound hardness test
 In this test, the specimen at which hardness is
determined by dropping on a small diamond
pointed hammer, on the surface &
observing the height of rebound.
 A steel cylinder hammer is dropped from a height
of 25 cm through a glass tube on the surface to
be tested.
 The height of the rebound is used as a measure of
hardness of surface.
 The surface to be tested should be smooth, free
from oil and tube should be truly vertical.
Impact Test:
 When materials are subjected to a
sudden stress or shock, the behavior of
the material will not be as that in the case
of hardness test.
 Impact test is performed for very rapid
stresses & the impact load is applied by
swinging pendulum which collides with
the specimen.
 Charpy test:
A standard specimen of 55
mm long 10 mm square
section with U-Notched
facing downward is
supported at each end.
i. Striking energy of the iii. The test piece is
testing machine stroked by hammer in a
should 30 kg force- plane of symmetry of
meter & the difference notched & on the side
between the supports opposite to the notched.
is 40 mm. Then impact strength of
ii. Notched in 5 mm the material is noted from
deep rounded off at dial gauge.
the base with a radius
of 1 mm.
 iv. The impact strength is the energy
absorbed per unit volume during the
fracture of the materials.
Izod test:
 The test consist
breaking of the
specimen by one
blow from a swinging
hammer.
 The specimen is
placed vertically with
bottom of the
Notched. In the same
plane, the blow is
stroked.
for your kind attention