About the measurement of the air content in mortar

This paper deals with the measurement of the air content in mortar in relat ion with its density. Air content is useful to predict mechanical strength of mortars, in relation with Feret and Bolomey models. It is shown that the usual method, using a standard aerometer, overestimates the air content ra tio and, consequently, underestimates the mortar density. An original device has been designed in order to improve the measurement of the air content. The measured densities fit in better with the calculated ones. Nevertheless a systematic difference still remains between both densi ty values possibly due to the approximation of the real sample volume.