Introduction to Concrete

CONCRETE DEFINITION AND

HISTORICAL
DEVELOPMENT
• The word “concrete” is derived from the
Latin
concretus, meaning “to grow together.”
• Concrete is a composite material
composed of coarse granular material (the
aggregate or filler) embedded in a hard
matrix of material (the cement or binder)
that fills the space among the aggregate
particles and glues them together.
• The simplest definition of concrete can
be written as:-
– concrete = filler + binder
 Naming of concrete

• Depending on binder used,

concrete can be named in
different ways.
→ Non hydraulic cement concrete;
→ Hydraulic cement concrete;
→ Asphalt concrete;
→ Polymer concrete.
 History of concrete
• Non-hydraulic cement concretes are
the oldest used in human history.
• As early as around 6500 B.C, non-
hydraulic cement concretes were
used by the Syrians and spread
through Egypt, the Middle East,
Crete, Cyprus, and ancient Greece.
• The non-hydraulic cements used at
that time were gypsum and lime.
 History ……….
• Historically Romans used pozzalana,
animal fat, milk, and blood as
admixtures for building concrete.
• To trim down shrinkage, they were
known to have used horsehair.
• Historical evidence shows that the
Assyrians and Babylonians used clay as
the bonding material.
• Lime was obtained by calcining
limestone.
 Gypsum and lime
• The Egyptians used gypsum mortar
in construction, and the gypsum was
obtained by calcining impure
gypsum.
– E.g. the Pyramid of Cheops.
• The Chinese also used lime mortar to
build the Great Wall in the Qin
dynasty (220 B.C)
 Hydraulic lime
• A hydraulic lime was developed
by the Greeks and Romans using
containing limestone
argillaceous
impurities. (clayey)
• Thus, hydraulic lime mortars were
used extensively for hydraulic
structures from second half of the
first century
B.C to the second century AD.
 Hydraulic
lime
• Smeaton conducted extensive
experiments with different limes and
Pozzolans, and found that limestone
with a high proportion of clayey
materials produced the best hydraulic
lime for mortar to be used in water.
• He made concrete by mixing coarse
aggregate (pebbles) and powdered
brick and mixed it with cement, very
close to the proportions of modern
concrete.
 Calcining impure
limestone
• After Smeaton’s work, development
of hydraulic cement proceeded
quickly.
• James Parker of England filed a
patent in 1796 for a natural
hydraulic cement made by calcining
nodules of impure limestone
containing clay.
• Vicat of France produced artificial
hydraulic lime by calcining synthetic
mixtures of limestone and clay.
 Modern Portland cement

• Portland cement was invented

by Joseph Aspdin of England in
1824.
• Isaac Johnson who first burned
the raw materials to the
clinkering temperature in 1845
to produce modern Portland
cement.
 Concrete
• Aggregates are another main ingredient
of concrete, and which include sand,
crushed stone, clay, gravel, slag, and
shale.
• Plain concrete made of Portland cement
and aggregate is usually called the 1st
generation of concrete.
• The 2nd generation of concrete refers
to
steel bar-reinforced concrete.
• Prestressed concrete was referred to
as the 3rd generation of concrete.
 Reinforced concrete
• Coignet started experimenting with
iron- reinforced concrete in 1852 and
was the first builder ever to use this
technique as a building material.
• In 1853, he built the first iron-reinforced
concrete structure; a four-story house
at 72 Rue Charles Michels (Paris).
• The first RC bridge was built in 1889 in
the Golden Gate Park in San Francisco,
California.
 High compressive
strength
• Pursuing high compressive strength has
been an important direction of concrete
development.
• As early as 1918, Duff Adams found
that the compressive strength of a
concrete was inversely proportional to
the water- to-cement ratio.
• Before 1960s concrete with a
compressive strength of 30 MPa was
regarded as high- strength concrete.
 High compressive
• strength
Since the 1960s, the development of
HSC has made significant progress due
to two main factors:
1. The invention of water-reducing
admixtures (WRA) and
2. The incorporation of mineral admixtures,
such as silica fume, fly ash, and slag.
• WRA is a chemical admixture that can
help concrete keep good workability
under a very low w/c; the latter are
finer mineral particles that can react
with a hydration
product in concrete, Ca(OH)2, to
make concrete microstructure denser.
 High Strength Concrete
(HSC)
• In the 1980s, the industry was able
to produce a 95-MPa concrete to
supply to the 225 West Whacker
Drive building project in Chicago.
• The highest compressive strength of
130 MPa was realized in a 220-m-
high, 58-story building, the Union
Plaza constructed in Seattle,
Washington.
 High-Performance Concrete
• It (HPC)
is defined as a concrete that can
meet
special performance and uniformity
requirements, which cannot always be
achieved routinely by using only
conventional materials and normal
mixing, placing, and curing practices.
• The requirements may involve
enhancement of the characteristics of
segregatio
concrete, such long-as mechanic
placement and
properties,
compaction higher
n, withoutearly-age strength,
term al
better toughness, higher volume
stability, or longer service life in severe
environments.
 Ultra-High-Strength Concrete
(UHSC)
• In the 1990s, a new “concrete” with a
compressive concrete strength higher
than 200 MPa was developed in France.
• The UHSC has reached a compressive
strength of 800 MPa with heating
treatment.
• However, it is very brittle, hence,
incorporating fibers into UHSC is
• necessary.
After fine fibers,
flexural strength of steel
incorporating can
reached 50 be
. MPa
 Characteristics of concrete

• Advantages of concrete
• Economical: The 3 major components of
concrete
are available in every corner of the world
→
avoiding the transport expenses.
• Ambient temperature-hardened material
• Ability to be cast
• Energy efficient
• Excellent resistance to water
• High-temperature resistance
• Ability to consume waste
• Ability to work with reinforcing steel
• Less maintenance required
 Limitations of
concrete
– Quasi-brittle failure mode
– Low tensile strength
– Low toughness (ductility)
– Low specific strength (strength/density
ratio)
– Formwork is needed
– Long curing time
– Working with cracks

Three failure modes of

materials
 Types of
concrete
• Classification in accordance with unit
weight

Classification Unit Weight (kg/m3)

Ultra-lightweight < 1200
concrete
Lightweight concrete 1200 < UW < 1800
Normal-weight concrete ∼2400
Heavyweight concrete >3200
 Classification in accordance
with compressive
strength
Compressive Strength
Classification
(MPa)
Low-strength concrete < 20
Moderate-strength
concrete 20–50
High-strength 50–150
concrete
Ultra-high-strength
concrete > 150
 Classification in accordance
with additives
Classification Additives
Macro Defect Free Polymers
(MDF)
Fiber Reinforced Different fibers
Concrete (FRC)
Densified with Small Large amount silica
Particles (DSP) fume
concrete
Polymer concrete Polymers
 Factors influencing
concrete
1. w/c ratio properties
(or w/b or w/p ratio):
The
influence of w/c on the concrete
compressive strength has been known
since the early 1900s (Abrams, 1927),
leading to Abrams’s law:
A
fc B 1.5( w /

 c)
where fc is the compressive strength, A is an
empirical constant (usually 97 MPa), and B is a
constant that depends mostly on the cement
properties (usually 4).
2. Cement content: Cement paste has
3 functions in concrete: binding,
coating, & lubricating.
3. Aggregate
– Maximum aggregate size
– Aggregate grading
– Aggregate shape and
texture
– Sand/coarse aggregate
ratio
– Aggregate/cement ratio
4. Admixtures
5. Mixing procedures
6. Curing
 Questions
• Why is concrete so popular?
• What are the weaknesses of
concrete?
• What are the factors
influencing concrete properties?
• How would you like to improve
concrete workability (fluidity or
cohesiveness)?
• How can you enhance
concrete compressive strength?