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SVENSK STANDARD
SS-EN 480-11:2005
Fastställd 2005-10-07
Utgåva 2

Tillsatsmedel till betong, bruk och injekterings-

bruk – Provning –
Del 11: Luftporkarakteristika i hårdnad betong

Admixtures for concrete, mortar and grout –

Test methods –
Part 11: Determination of air void characteristics in
hardened concrete

ICS 91.100.30
Språk: engelska
Publicerad: november 2005
© Copyright SIS. Reproduction in any form without permission is prohibited.
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Europastandarden EN 480-11:2005 gäller som svensk standard. Detta dokument innehåller den officiella
engelska versionen av EN 480-11:2005.

Denna standard ersätter SS-EN 480-11, utgåva 1.

The European Standard EN 480-11:2005 has the status of a Swedish Standard. This document contains the
official English version of EN 480-11:2005.

This standard supersedes the Swedish Standard SS-EN 480-11, edition 1.

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EUROPEAN STANDARD EN 480-11

NORME EUROPÉENNE
EUROPÄISCHE NORM September 2005

ICS 91.100.30 Supersedes EN 480-11:1998

English Version

Admixtures for concrete, mortar and grout - Test methods - Part

11: Determination of air void characteristics in hardened
concrete

Adjuvants pour bétons, mortiers et coulis - Méthodes Zusatzmittel für Beton, Mörtel und Einpressmörtel -
d'essai -Partie 11: Détermination des caractéristiques des Prüfverfahren - Teil 11: Bestimmung von
vides d'air dans le béton durci Luftporenkennwerten in Festbeton

This European Standard was approved by CEN on 28 July 2005.

CEN members are bound to comply with the CEN/CENELEC Internal Regulations which stipulate the conditions for giving this European
Standard the status of a national standard without any alteration. Up-to-date lists and bibliographical references concerning such national
standards may be obtained on application to the Central Secretariat or to any CEN member.

This European Standard exists in three official versions (English, French, German). A version in any other language made by translation
under the responsibility of a CEN member into its own language and notified to the Central Secretariat has the same status as the official
versions.

CEN members are the national standards bodies of Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France,
Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia,
Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and United Kingdom.

EUROPEAN COMMITTEE FOR STANDARDIZATION

COMITÉ EUROPÉEN DE NORMALISATION
EUROPÄISCHES KOMITEE FÜR NORMUNG

Management Centre: rue de Stassart, 36 B-1050 Brussels

© 2005 CEN All rights of exploitation in any form and by any means reserved Ref. No. EN 480-11:2005: E
worldwide for CEN national Members.
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EN 480-11:2005 (E)

Contents

Page
Foreword ..........................................................................................................................................................3
1 Scope ...................................................................................................................................................4
2 Normative references .........................................................................................................................4
3 Terms and definitions.........................................................................................................................4
4 Principle...............................................................................................................................................5
5 Equipment ...........................................................................................................................................6
5.1 General ................................................................................................................................................6
5.2 Specimen preparation ........................................................................................................................6
5.3 Microscopical analysis .......................................................................................................................6
6 Specimen production and preparation..............................................................................................7
6.1 Specimen production .........................................................................................................................7
6.2 Preparation of test surface.................................................................................................................7
7 Microscopic procedure.......................................................................................................................8
7.1 Basic procedure ..................................................................................................................................8
7.2 Values recorded ..................................................................................................................................9
8 Calculations.......................................................................................................................................10
8.1 Data obtained ....................................................................................................................................10
8.2 Total traverse length.........................................................................................................................10
8.3 Total air content ................................................................................................................................10
8.4 Total number of chords measured ..................................................................................................10
8.5 Specific surface of the air.................................................................................................................11
8.6 Paste: air ratio ...................................................................................................................................11
8.7 Spacing factor ...................................................................................................................................11
8.8 Micro-air content ...............................................................................................................................11
8.9 Air void distribution ..........................................................................................................................11
9 Test report .........................................................................................................................................13
Annex A (informative) Theoretical basis of calculation involved in Table 1 ............................................15
Annex B (informative) Worked example of the calculation of air void distribution .................................18

2
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EN 480-11:2005 (E)

Foreword
This European Standard (EN 480-11:2005) has been prepared by Technical Committee CEN/TC 104
“Concrete and related products”, the secretariat of which is held by DIN.

This European Standard shall be given the status of a national standard, either by publication of an identical
text or by endorsement, at the latest by March 2006, and conflicting national standards shall be withdrawn at
the latest by March 2006.

This document is part of the series EN 480 "Admixtures for concrete, mortar and grout – Test methods" which
comprises the following

Part 1 Reference concrete and reference mortar for testing

Part 2 Determination of setting time

Part 4 Determination of bleeding of concrete

Part 5 Determination of capillary absorption

Part 6 Infrared analysis

Part 8 Determination of the conventional dry material content

Part 10 Determination of water soluble chloride content

Part 11 Determination of air void characteristics in hardened concrete

Part 12 Determination of the alkali content of admixtures

Part 13 Reference masonry mortar for testing mortar admixtures

Part 14 Admixtures for concrete, mortar and grout - Test methods - Part 14: Measurement of corrosion
susceptibility of reinforcing steel in concrete - Potentiostatic electro-chemical test method 1)

This document is applicable together with the other standards of the EN 480 series.

This document supersedes EN 480-11:1998.

According to the CEN/CENELEC Internal Regulations, the national standards organizations of the following
countries are bound to implement this European Standard: Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Czech Republic,
Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania,
Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland
and United Kingdom.

1) This part is under preparation

3
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EN 480-11:2005 (E)

1 Scope
This document describes a test method for determination of the air-void structure in a hardened concrete sample
which contains entrained air. The air-void structure is described by means of the following parameters, which are
defined in Clause 3.

i) Total air content

ii) Specific surface of air void system

iii) Spacing factor

iv) Air-void size distribution

v) Micro air content

The method as described is only suitable for use on hardened concrete specimens where the original mix
proportions of the concrete are accurately known and the specimen is representative of these mix proportions.
This will generally be the case only where the concrete concerned is produced in a laboratory.

2 Normative references
The following referenced documents are indispensable for the application of this document. For dated
references, only the edition cited applies. For undated references, the latest edition of the referenced
document (including any amendments) applies.

EN 480-1, Admixtures for concrete, mortar and grout – Test methods – Part 1: Reference concrete and
reference mortar for testing;

EN 934-2, Admixtures for concrete, mortar and grout – Part 2: Concrete admixtures –Definitions, requirements,
conformity, marking and labelling

ISO 1920-3, Testing of concrete - Part 3: Making and curing test specimens

3 Terms and definitions

For the purposes of this European Standard, the following terms and definitions apply.

3.1
air void
space enclosed by the cement paste that was filled with air or other gas prior to the setting of the paste. This
does not refer to voids of submicroscopic dimensions, such as the porosity inherent in a hydrated cement
paste. For the purposes of this test method, all voids within the cement paste are considered that are visible at
the test magnification with an intercepted chord length of up to 4 mm, other than obvious cracks

3.2
total air content A
proportion of the total volume of the concrete that is air voids; expressed as a percentage by volume

3.3
paste content P
proportion of the total volume of the concrete that is hardened cement paste, expressed as a percentage by
volume. This is the sum of the proportional volumes of cement, mixing water and any admixtures present. For
the purposes of this test method it is calculated from the batch weights of the test concrete.

4
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EN 480-11:2005 (E)

3.4
specific surface of air void system Į
calculated parameter representing the total surface area of the air voids divided by their volume; units are mm-
1
. The calculation method used is based on the average chord length and is valid for any system of spherical
voids

3.5
spacing factor
calculated parameter related to the maximum distance of any point in the cement paste from the periphery of
an air void, measured through the cement paste; units are mm. The calculation of this parameter assumes
that all air voids present are of uniform size and are evenly distributed through the cement paste such that the
model system has the same total volume and surface area as the real system

NOTE This model is an approximation; the value obtained is probably larger than the actual value.

3.6
air-void distribution
set of calculated values of the number and/or volume of air voids of various diameters within the hardened
cement paste

NOTE The model used for this calculation assumes that only voids having diameters of certain discrete values are
present. This model will therefore lie between the real case and the single diameter model that is used in the calculation of
the spacing factor. A graphical representation of the distribution can be obtained by plotting the volume of air attributable
to each size of void, either as a volume percentage of the cement paste or as a proportion of the total air content.

3.7
micro air content A300
calculated parameter representing the air content attributed to air voids of 0,3 mm (300 µm) diameter or less.
The value for this parameter is obtained during the calculation of the air void distribution

3.8
traverse line
One of a series of lines across the polished specimen face traced by the relative motion of the microscope and
specimen during the test

3.9
length of traverse Ttot
total distance traversed across the surface of the specimens during the test measurement. It is made up of two
parts, the total traverse across the surface on solid phases, Ts, and across air voids, Ta, in each case the units
are mm

3.10
chord length l
distance along the traverse line across an air void, units are µm

3.11
chord length classification
chord lengths across individual air voids are classified into classes based on the length of the chord. The total
number of chords in any particular class, i, is designated by Ci. in8.9 and Table 1 contain details of the boundary
values for the classes

4 Principle
Hardened samples of air-entrained concrete are sectioned perpendicular to the original free upper surface to
produce specimens for analysis. These specimens are then ground and polished to produce a smooth flat
surface finish suitable for microscopic investigation.

5
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EN 480-11:2005 (E)

The air void structure is examined by scanning along a series of traverse lines running parallel to the original free
upper surface. The number of air voids intersected by the traverse lines are recorded, as are the individual chord
lengths of the traverse across the air voids.

A mathematical analysis of the recorded data then allows a description of the air void system in terms of the
required parameters.

Other methods of air void analysis such as the point count method may be used provided that they can be
shown to give essentially the same results for the air void parameters required as the method described herein.
In the case of dispute the method described in this document shall be used.

5 Equipment

5.1 General

The following list of equipment has been found suitable for this test. Other apparatus may be used if it can be
shown to produce satisfactory results. Not all the equipment may be required for individual test measurements.

5.2 Specimen preparation

a) Diamond saw;

b) Grinding machine. One or more instruments able to provide a finished surface of the required quality.
These include instruments with a cast iron disc, usually with a minimum diameter of 400 mm, used in
conjunction with silicon carbide powder of various grain sizes (typically 120, 60, 30, 16 and 12 µm) or
instruments with special grinding discs of the varying grain sizes;

c) Refrigerator and oven;

d) Various chemicals for treatment of the polished surface, including; glycerol, stamp ink (matt or dull black,
not water soluble), zinc paste and gypsum powder (grain size ≤ 3 µm).

5.3 Microscopical analysis

a) A motorised or hand operated cross traverse table. This consists of a platform, on which the specimen
rests, which is mounted on lead screws by means of which it can be moved smoothly in two
perpendicular directions. One lead screw is required for movement in a direction perpendicular to and two
lead screws for movement parallel to the original upper surface. The lead screws should be capable of
providing a measure of the total distance travelled to an accuracy of 1 %;

b) Lighting equipment;

c) A means of recording the traverse distances and the total number of air voids traversed, divided into
classes based on the individual chord lengths;

d) Stereoscopic microscope, magnification (100 ±10) x. The instrument used must be capable of providing
the necessary resolution to classify the chords measured into classes as detailed in section 7.2. Other
forms of imaging may be used, such as a television camera mounted on the microscope with linked
monitor. In these cases the image used for measurements shall be selected so as to produce results for
voids counted which are consistent with those produced using direct visual examination through a
microscope.

NOTE Use of imaging systems of other magnification may lead to differences in the diameter of the smallest visible
voids. These may lead to counting variations and different values for calculated parameters.