ABSTRACT
Subject of the test is the water requirement at saturation point and maximum density of the grain structure. The procedure gives exact, reproducible results after a short familiarisation period and can be used for the evaluation and selection of fine components, such as cement, fly ash, stone dust, sand and silica fume as well as mixtures of these. The method reliably detects the influences of the particle size distribution and the particle shape. The granulometric optimum of the matrix that can be achieved with the materials available is determined using small quantities of trial mixes only, so that the expenditure of energy and time for concrete suitability tests is reduced to the performace of confirmation tests using the optimised matrix.
