{"id":4821,"date":"2026-07-11T09:15:12","date_gmt":"2026-07-11T01:15:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nlscientific.com\/cement-fineness-blaine-air-permeability-test-en-196-6-astm-c204\/"},"modified":"2026-07-11T09:19:53","modified_gmt":"2026-07-11T01:19:53","slug":"cement-fineness-blaine-air-permeability-test-en-196-6-astm-c204","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nlscientific.com\/en_ph\/cement-fineness-blaine-air-permeability-test-en-196-6-astm-c204\/","title":{"rendered":"Cement Fineness \u2014 Blaine Air Permeability Test (EN 196-6 \/ ASTM C204): Method &#038; Apparatus"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><!-- nleeat --><\/p>\n<div class=\"nl-guide-meta\" style=\"border-left:4px solid #10243e;background:#f4f7fb;padding:12px 16px;margin:0 0 20px;font-size:14px;color:#3d4c60\">Written by the <strong>NL Scientific Engineering Team<\/strong> &middot; Reviewed by our <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nlscientific.com\/en_ph\/certifications\/\">ISO\/IEC 17025 (SAMM 835) accredited<\/a> calibration laboratory &middot; Last updated <strong>11 July 2026<\/strong><\/div>\n<p>The <strong>Blaine air permeability test<\/strong> measures the specific surface area of cement \u2014 its fineness \u2014 which governs hydration rate, early strength development and water demand.<\/p>\n<h2>What the Test Measures<\/h2>\n<p>Air is drawn through a compacted bed of cement of defined porosity, and the time for a fixed volume of air to pass is measured. Finer cement packs a denser labyrinth, slowing the airflow; specific surface (cm&sup2;\/g or m&sup2;\/kg) is computed relative to a reference cement of known surface.<\/p>\n<h2>Apparatus Required<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Blaine apparatus: permeability cell, plunger, perforated disc and U-tube manometer (manual) or automatic Blaine unit<\/li>\n<li>Manometer liquid (dibutyl phthalate or light mineral oil) and filter paper discs<\/li>\n<li>Reference cement (e.g. NIST SRM 114 series) for calibration<\/li>\n<li>Balance (0.001 g), timer (0.2 s) and thermometer<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Test Procedure<\/h2>\n<ol>\n<li>Calibrate the cell constant with reference cement at bed porosity 0.500.<\/li>\n<li>Weigh the cement mass to give e = 0.500 for the cell volume; build the bed between filter papers and compact with one plunger stroke.<\/li>\n<li>Draw the manometer liquid to the top line, close the valve, and time its fall between the marked lines.<\/li>\n<li>Run duplicate beds; results must agree within the standard&#8217;s repeatability (about 1&ndash;2%).<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<h2>Calculation &amp; Reporting<\/h2>\n<p>S = S<sub>ref<\/sub> &times; (&radic;t \/ &radic;t<sub>ref<\/sub>) &times; density and temperature corrections per the standard. Report the mean specific surface to the nearest 10 cm&sup2;\/g with bed porosity and temperature.<\/p>\n<h2>Acceptance Criteria<\/h2>\n<p>Ordinary Portland cement typically runs 300&ndash;400 m&sup2;\/kg (3000&ndash;4000 cm&sup2;\/g); rapid-hardening cements 400&ndash;550 m&sup2;\/kg. EN 197 sets no direct fineness limit \u2014 control is against the plant&#8217;s declared values \u2014 while low results correlate with slow early strength.<\/p>\n<h2>Frequently Asked Questions<\/h2>\n<h3>Why is bed porosity fixed at 0.500?<\/h3>\n<p>The Kozeny&ndash;Carman relation behind the method assumes a standard packing. Changing porosity changes airflow resistance independent of fineness, so the mass is always back-calculated to hit e = 0.500 exactly.<\/p>\n<h3>How often must the apparatus be recalibrated?<\/h3>\n<p>Re-determine the cell constant with reference cement after any change of filter paper batch, manometer liquid, or cell components, and at least every six months in routine plant labs.<\/p>\n<h2>Recommended Apparatus<\/h2>\n<p>NL Scientific manufactures the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nlscientific.com\/en_ph\/product\/blaine-air-permeability-apparatus\/\">Blaine Air Permeability Apparatus<\/a> for this method. Browse the full <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nlscientific.com\/en_ph\/product-category\/cement-mortar\/\">Cement &#038; Mortar Testing Equipment<\/a> range or <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nlscientific.com\/en_ph\/contact-us\/\">request a quotation<\/a> from our engineers.<\/p>\n<p><!-- nlfaq --><br \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\">{\"@context\": \"https:\/\/schema.org\", \"@type\": \"FAQPage\", \"mainEntity\": [{\"@type\": \"Question\", \"name\": \"Why is bed porosity fixed at 0.500?\", \"acceptedAnswer\": {\"@type\": \"Answer\", \"text\": \"The Kozeny\u2013Carman relation behind the method assumes a standard packing. Changing porosity changes airflow resistance independent of fineness, so the mass is always back-calculated to hit e = 0.500 exactly.\"}}, {\"@type\": \"Question\", \"name\": \"How often must the apparatus be recalibrated?\", \"acceptedAnswer\": {\"@type\": \"Answer\", \"text\": \"Re-determine the cell constant with reference cement after any change of filter paper batch, manometer liquid, or cell components, and at least every six months in routine plant labs.\"}}]}<\/script><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Written by the NL Scientific Engineering Team &middot; Reviewed by our ISO\/IEC 17025 (SAMM 835) accredited calibration laboratory &middot; Last updated 11 July 2026 The Blaine air permeability test measures&hellip;<\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3787,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[164,180],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4821","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog","category-cement-mortar-testing"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nlscientific.com\/en_ph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4821","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nlscientific.com\/en_ph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nlscientific.com\/en_ph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nlscientific.com\/en_ph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nlscientific.com\/en_ph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4821"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.nlscientific.com\/en_ph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4821\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4838,"href":"https:\/\/www.nlscientific.com\/en_ph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4821\/revisions\/4838"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nlscientific.com\/en_ph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3787"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nlscientific.com\/en_ph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4821"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nlscientific.com\/en_ph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4821"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nlscientific.com\/en_ph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4821"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}