Concrete Construction Flashcards
What is Concrete?
Composite material, made of coarse and fine aggregate particles and a binding medium
What are main types of coarse aggregates?
Stones and gravels
What are the main types of fine aggregates?
sands
What is the main binding medium in concrete?
Portland cement and water
Modern concrete sometimes uses supplementary cementitous materials
What is the Chemical reaction that Portland cement undergoes with water?
Hydration
Produces solid products through a dissolution and precipitation process
What are the benefits of hydration products?
low solubility, precipitate out as solids on reating cements grain, bond aggregate particles to form a solid mass
What is the difference between paste, mortar and concrete
Paste = Water + Cement Mortar = Paste + Fine Aggregate Concrete = Paste + Fine Aggregate + Coarse Aggregate + admixutres
What are the applications of paste?
Repair work, cavity holes, plastering
Whate are the applications of mortar?
To bind bricks together (primarily)
What are the uses of concrete?
There are many, concrete can be used for foundations, to structural members and everything in between
How much concrete is produced a year?
> 10 billion tonnes (~8 billion m^3)
What are some advantages of concrete?
Widely available raw materials, cost effective, vesatile, easy to use, strong in compression, low maintenance and high durability, functional in a wide range of extreme invironments, fire resistant, good insulator (thermal and acoustic), resistant to cyclic loading and vibrations, and good with rebar.
What are some disadvantages of concrete?
Weak in tension, prone to cracking, undergoes creep, shrinkage and other degredation mechanisms in some conditions.
How much of man made CO2 does concrete account for?
5-8%
Where does most of the carbon footprint of ocncrete come from?
The manufactire of portland cement
