Instrument to Determine the Water/Cement Ratio of Fresh Cementby
Richard Proce Advisor: Dr. B. D. Huggins The construction industry currently has no accurate method of quickly
determining the water-to-cement ratio of fresh cement. This project considers
the implementation of an instrument to determine this quantity quickly
and accurately. This instrument is based on an open-ended coaxial resonator
being operated in the microwave frequency range. The resonator's open end
can be modeled as a fringing capacitance. This effective capacitance can
be altered by inserting the open end into a dielectric medium, changing
resonance frequencies of the device. By using a microprocessor to sweep
a frequency range as well as collect data these resonant frequencies can
be determined. The processor can then use the data to calculate the effective
fringing capacitance and the dielectric constant of the fresh cement. There
is a direct correlation between the dielectric value and the desired water-to-cement
ratio. The final device will have provisions for calibration as well as
the ability to self-test its hardware.
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