Measurement of skeletal density and porosity of construction materials using a new proposed vacuum pycnometer

•A vacuum pycnometer was proposed for sekeletal density measurement.•To evaluate its accuracy, it was performed on various construction materials.•It can be applied to the materials in both powder form and 5-centimeter cube.•The difference in density was less than 6% compared to a commercial gas pycnometer.•The characteristics of other traditional methods were also discussed.