Half the Time the World Is Ending
i know this will bore you, but i’m postin anyway 
for the past 2+ weeks, i’ve been frequenting the civil engineering laboratory almost every normal day from 9am to 5pm to work on my not-so-awesome pornographic production final year project. first, due to the absence of a handful of, figuratively, testing equipment, i had to show off my carpentry skills in building them.
impression? ok maybe not yet
after all those measuring, wrapping, piercing, pounding, sticking, shouting, sweating… (i know what you’re thinking) not to mention some self-inflicting pain moments thanks to the *$^!@%# hammer, i finally managed to assemble the parts together into proper apparatus.
sieve stability test equipment
the l-box and v-funnel equipment
before this, i had to go down to klang and also to stesen janakuasa elektrik sultan salahuddin abdul aziz shah in kapar to obtain some materials for my concrete casting. the distance is one thing, the physical work required to carry them is another.
sultan salahuddin abdul aziz power station
even the white pea gravel aggregates (i think that’s what they’re called) have to be prepared by sieving out the size i do not want. after the preparation of apparatus and materials, the casting begins.
sieve analysis to filter aggregate sizes
concrete mixing in action (breathing in cement every day ain't cool)
outcome of a very watery self-compacting concrete mix
before i move on, please take note that my mix is not those ordinary concrete mix which frame your house. the mix i’m researchin on is actually a new high-strength concrete technology started in japan which is supposingly stronger than the usual and does not require a vibrator (unlike normal concrete mix). therefore, a serious problem i faced here is this concrete mix hardens relatively fast compared to the normal mix. this gives me insufficient time to conduct 4 tests without this issue gettin in the way.
failed slump flow test
failed v-funnel test
failed l-box test
sien you know, everything also fail. as long as 1 of the 4 tests fails, that concrete mix is considered fail to fulfil the requirements of self-compacting concrete. all i can say is my final year project involves numerous trial and error, which means multiple mixing, testing, casting and cleaning. try cleaning up a concrete mix that hardens so fast, it got annoyingly stuck in your equipment/tray/wheelbarrow etc and that requires a lot of scraping and shovelling. 
anyway, that is basically my every-day-life this semester, with little or no time for entertainment. sad, isn’t it?
