Concrete

Concrete is a composite construction material that is composed of cement (commonly Portland

cement) and other cementitious materials such as fly ash and slag cement, aggregate (generally a
coarse aggregate made of gravels or crushed rocks such as limestone, or granite, plus a fine
aggregate such as sand), water, and chemical admixtures.

The word concrete comes from the Latin word "concretus" (meaning compact or condensed), the
past participle of "concresco", from "com-" (together) and "cresco" (to grow).

Concrete solidifies and hardens after mixing with water and placement due to a chemical process
known as hydration. The water reacts with the cement, which bonds the other components
together, eventually creating a robust stone-like material. Concrete is used to make pavements,
pipe, architectural structures, foundations, motorways/roads, bridges/overpasses, parking
structures, brick/block walls and footings for gates, fences and poles.

Outer view of the Roman Pantheon, still the largest unreinforced solid concrete dome. A modern building: Boston City Hall (completed 1968) is largely constructed of concrete

History

Concrete has been used for construction in various ancient civilizations. An analysis of ancient
Egyptian pyramids has shown that concrete was employed in their construction.

During the Roman Empire, Roman concrete (or opus caementicium) was made from quicklime,
pozzolana, and an aggregate of pumice. Its widespread use in many Roman structures, a key
event in the history of architecture termed the Roman Architectural Revolution, freed Roman
construction from the restrictions of stone and brick material and allowed for revolutionary new
designs both in terms of structural complexity and dimension.

Concrete, as the Romans knew it, was a new and revolutionary material. Laid in the shape of
arches, vaults and domes, it quickly hardened into a rigid mass, free from many of the internal
thrusts and strains that trouble the builders of similar structures in stone or brick.
Composition

There are many types of concrete available, created by

varying the proportions of the main ingredients below. By
varying the proportions of materials, or by substitution for
the cemetitious and aggregate phases, the finished product
can be tailored to its application with varying strength,
density, or chemical and thermal resistance properties.

The mix design depends on the type of structure being built,

how the concrete will be mixed and delivered, and how it
will be placed to form this structure

Cement

Portland cement is the most common type of cement in general usage. It is a basic ingredient of
concrete, mortar, and plaster. English masonry worker Joseph Aspdin patented Portland cement
in 1824; it was named because of its similarity in colour to Portland limestone, quarried from the
English Isle of Portland and used extensively in London architecture.

Water

Combining water with a cementitious material forms a cement paste by the process of hydration.
The cement paste glues the aggregate together, fills voids within it, and allows it to flow more
freely.Less water in the cement paste will yield a stronger, more durable concrete; more water
will give an freer-flowing concrete with a higher slump.Impure water used to make concrete can
cause problems when setting or in causing premature failure of the structure.

Aggregates

Fine and coarse aggregates make up the bulk of a concrete mixture. Sand, natural gravel and
crushed stone are mainly used for this purpose. Recycled aggregates (from construction,
demolition and excavation waste) are increasingly used as partial replacements of natural
aggregates, while a number of manufactured aggregates, including air-cooled blast furnace slag
and bottom ash are also permitted.

Reinforcement

Concrete is strong in compression, as the aggregate

efficiently carries the compression load. However, it
is weak in tension as the cement holding the aggregate
in place can crack, allowing the structure to fail.
Reinforced concrete solves these problems by adding
either steel reinforcing bars, steel fibers, glass fiber, or
plastic fiber to carry tensile loads.
Use of concrete in infrastructure
Mass concrete structures

These include gravity dams such as the Itaipu, Hoover Dam and the
Three Gorges Dam and large breakwaters. Concrete that is poured
all at once in one block (so that there are no weak points where the
concrete is "welded" together) is used for tornado shelters.

Reinforced concrete structures

Reinforced concrete contains steel reinforcing that is designed and

placed in structural members at specific positions to cater for all the stress conditions that the
member is required to accommodate.

Prestressed concrete structures

Prestressed concrete is a form of reinforced concrete that builds in compressive stresses during
construction to oppose those found when in use. This can greatly reduce the weight of beams or
slabs, by better distributing the stresses in the structure to make optimal use of the reinforcement.
For example a horizontal beam will tend to sag down. If the reinforcement along the bottom of
the beam is prestressed, it can counteract this.In pre-tensioned concrete, the prestressing is
achieved by using steel or polymer tendons or bars that are subjected to a tensile force prior to
casting, or for post-tensioned concrete, after casting.

Concrete textures

When one thinks of concrete, oftentimes the image of a dull, gray concrete wall comes to mind.
With the use of form liner, concrete can be cast and molded into different textures and used for
decorative concrete applications. Sound/retaining walls, bridges, office buildings and more serve
as the optimal canvases for concrete art. For example, the Pima Freeway/Loop 101 retaining and
sound walls in Scottsdale, Arizona, feature desert flora and fauna, a 67-foot (20 m) lizard and 40-
foot (12 m) cacti along the 8-mile (13 km) stretch. The project, titled "The Path Most Traveled,"
is one example of how concrete can be shaped using elastomeric form liner.

A 67-foot concrete lizard basks in the 40-foot cacti decorate a

Three textures of concrete sun, featured on a sound/retaining sound/retaining wall in
featured in Scottsdale, AZ, wall in Scottsdale, AZ. Scottsdale, AZ.
created with form liner.
Building with concrete

Concrete is one of the most durable building materials. It provides superior fire resistance
compared with wooden construction, can gain strength over time. Structures made of concrete
can have a long service life. Concrete is the most widely used construction material in the world
with annual consumption estimated at between 21 and 31 billion tonnes.

Environmentally sustainable

With its 100-year service life, concrete conserves resources by reducing the need for
reconstruction. Its ingredients are cement and readily available natural materials: water,
aggregate (sand and gravel or crushed stone). Concrete does not require any CO2 absorbing trees
to be cut down. The land required to extract the materials needed to make concrete is only a
fraction of that used to harvest forests for lumber.

Energy efficiency

Energy requirements for transportation of concrete are low because it is produced locally from
local resources, typically manufactured within 100 kilometers of the job site. Once in place,
concrete offers significant energy efficiency over the lifetime of a building . Concrete walls leak
air far less than those made of wood-frames. Air leakage accounts for a large percentage of
energy loss from a home. The thermal mass properties of concrete increase the efficiency of both
residential and commercial buildings.

Fire safety and quality of life

Concrete buildings are more resistant to fire than those constructed using wood or steel frames.
Since concrete does not burn and stops fire from spreading, it offers total fire protection for
occupants and their property. Concrete reduces the risk of structural collapse and is an effective
fire shield, providing safe means of escape for occupants and protection for firefighters.
Furthermore, it does not produce any smoke or toxic gases and does not drip molten particles,
which can spread fire. Neither heat, flames nor the water used to extinguish a fire seriously affect
the structure of concrete walls and floors making repairs after a fire a relatively simple task.

Recycling and recyclable

A nearly inert material, concrete is suitable as a medium for recycling waste and industrial
byproducts. Fly ash, slag and silica fume are used in making concrete, which helps reduce
embodied energy, carbon footprint and quantity of landfill materials. The process of making
cement also uses waste materials. Tires have high energy content and can supplement coal as
fuel in the kiln. Industrial byproducts such as ash from coal combustion, fly ash from power
stations as well as mill scale and foundry sand from steel casting provide the silica, calcium,
alumina and iron needed for making cement. Even kiln dust, a solid waste generated by cement
manufacturing, is often recycled back into the kiln as a raw material. Old concrete that has
reached the end of its service life can be recycled and reused as granular fill for road beds.