Considerations on the nominal and real content of hydraulically active materials in conglomerates

Abstract

A major cause of the deficiencies and failures of conglomerates, in addition to those due to the workmanship, which are not being considered here, are due either to poor cement content, or to the use of poor quality cement. By poor cement quality it is here understood, not those cements which because of their strength fall within the lowest grade of the P.C.C.H. 64 (since they would be satisfactory within the requirements called for in this specification), but those that have been obtained by the dilution of clinkers of good or excellent quality with other inert materials. From the point of view of the quality of the cement in all respects, it is far worse and more dangerous to use these inadequate cements, whose «real» proportioning is less than the «nominal» one, under comparable conditions. When both circumstances operate simultaneously, the possible damage could be very considerable.