Water Absorption Test For Roof Tiles

Water absorption test is conducted to quantify the moisture quantity that roofing tile will consume. When water absorption is considerably higher, the tile leads to undesirable cracking. Therefore, the purpose of this test is to determine the aptness of the tile for application. Roofing tile should contain considerably low absorption capacity, specifically in environments susceptible to rainfall, freezing, and thawing cycles. Water absorption is indicated as a ratio by weight of water against the dry weight of the individual tiles.

Different types of codes are found in American Standard for Testing Materials and Indian Standard for water absorption test. According to ASTM C373, standard water absorption on non-porous tiles is 0.1-0.5% whereas the porous products can expose water absorption in the range 9-15%.

Purpose of the Test

To ascertain the proportion of water absorption of roofing tile.

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Gadget

Balance or scale, of sufficient strength, appropriate to weigh correctly to 0.01 g.
Oven, subject to retain a least temperature of 150 C.

Specimen

To conduct this test, two tiles should be utilized from the sample chosen.

Method

Dry the chosen tiles in an oven at a temperature of 105 ° to 110 °C until they gain constant weight and then cool and weigh (M1).
After getting cool, submerge the dry specimen fully in clean water at 27±2°C for 24 hours.
Take out each specimen, cleanse the surface water cautiously with a damp cloth and weigh the specimen closer to a gram (M2) within 3 minutes as soon as the specimen is taken out from the tank.

Computation

Percentage of water absorption is calculated with the following equation:

W=((M2-M1)/M1)*100

Here,

W denotes water absorption of the specimen that is provided in percentage.
M1 denotes weight of dry specimen.
M2 denotes weight of the specimen after 24 hours submerging in clean water.