Unit Weight Of Building and Construction Materials/ Its Importance/ How to Calculate the Unit Weight of Materials

 

In this post, we are going to learn the unit weight of different building materials used in construction.

So, Let’s Get Started.

Before starting we should know that  

What is the Unit Weight and Why it is important?

Unit Weight is also known as Specific weight. Unit weight is the weight of the material per unit volume.

As we know that the volume is quantified in terms of liters or m³ and weight is measured in terms of Kg or KN. The Unit weight of materials is the weight of material/unit volume which means the Unit weight is expressed in Kg/L or KG/m³ or KN/m³.

The unit weight of building material is very important from the design perspective of a building. A structural design engineer should have complete knowledge of the unit weight of materials. 

 

BUILDING MATERIALS                                               UNIT WEIGHT

PCC (Plain Cement Concrete)	24 KN/m3
RCC (Reinforced Cement Concrete)	25KN/m3
Portland Cement	14KN/m3
Cement Mortar	20KN/m3
Water	10KN/m3
Dry Sand	16KN/m3
River Sand	18.4KN/m3
Wet sand	11KN/m3 to 20KN/m3
Bricks	16 to 19.2 KN/m3
Bitumen	10.4KN/m3
Brick Masonry	19.2KN/m3
Cement plaster	20KN/m3
Lime plaster	17KN/m3
Broken Bricks	14.2KN/m3
Dry, Loose Earth	12KN/m3
Dry, Loose Sand	14.4-17KN/m3
Silt	21KN/m3
Igneous rock	27KN/m3
Sedimaentary rock	26KN/m3
Metamorphic rock	27KN/m3
Mud	16KN/m3
Granite	24.5KN/m3
Marble	26.5KN/m3
Aggregate	17.5KN/m3
Lime concrete	19KN/m3
Clay (Dry)	16KN/m3
Clay (Damp)	17.6KN/m3
Gravel	20KN/m3
Ballast	17.2KN/m3
Chalk	22.4KN/m3
Willow Timber	420Kg/m3
Teak Timber	650Kg/m3
Sal Timber	10KN/m3
Asbestos Cement Sheet	12 to 15.6Kg/m3
Glass	24-27.2KN/m3
Charcoal	530Kg/m3
Tin	72KN/m3
Nickel	8.9KN/m3
Clinker	750Kg/m3
Copper	89KN/m3
Stainless Steel	74.5KN/m3
Aluminium	27KN/m3
Ice	910Kg/m3
Slag	15KN/m3

 

How to Calculate the Unit Weight of Materials

Here we can calculate the unit weight of any material but we have to know the density of that material. For that we have;

Formula of density = kg/m3

Now we have to eliminate m3 from the denominator to get the specific weight or unit weight.

As we know that the volume is measured in m3, so we can multiply density by volume.

Unit weight = Density*volume

Unit weight = (kg/m3) * m3 

This is the simplest method to calculate the unit weight of building materials.

So, that’s all for the List of Unit Weight of Building Materials.

If you have any questions/suggestion or I missed something, then please let me know in the comment section.

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