Procedure-

1. Weigh about 200g of cement and add 0.78 times the water required to give a cement paste of standard consistency ( 0.78P, where ‘P’ is the consistency of cement).

2. Oil the mould and keep it on a smoothly oiled glass sheet. Fill the prepared cement paste inside the mould such that the rims of the mould are carefully held together.

3. Put another oiled glass sheet over the mould and put a small weight on top of this arrangement. Now, immediately submerge the entire setup in the water bath at a temperature of 27 ± 2° C for around 24 hours.

4. Pull out the assembly from the water bath and determine the distance between the two pointers of the apparatus to the nearest 0.5 mm. Record this as L1.

5. Again submerge the mould in the water bath at a temperature of 27 ± 2°C. Bring the water to a boil for 25 to 30 minutes with the mould kept submerged in it and let it boil for 3 hours.

6. Take out the mould from the water and let it cool for some time. Then, measure the distance between the two indicator points. Record this as L2.

7. The difference between the two readings (L1-L2) denotes the expansion of cement.

8. Repeat the procedure as mentioned above for another set of readings and calculate the mean of the two values to determine the expansion of cement.