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.
 … Definition …

• Simple definitions :-
–Concrete = filler + binder
–Water + cement = paste
–Paste + fine aggregates = Mortar
 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 limestone containing argillaceous
(clayey) impurities.
• 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 (PC)

• PC 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 PC.
 Concrete
• Aggregates are another main ingredient of
concrete, and which include sand, crushed stone,
clay, gravel, slag, and shale.
• Plain concrete made of PC 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 4-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 (HSC).
 High …
• Since the 1960s, the development of HSC
has made significant progress due to 2
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.
 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 (HPC)
• It 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 concrete, such as
placement and compaction without
segregation, long-term mechanical
properties, higher early-age strength, 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 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 incorporating fine steel fibers,
flexural strength of 50 MPa can be
reached.
 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 additives

Classification Additives
Macro Defect Free (MDF) Polymers
Fiber Reinforced Concrete (FRC) Different fibers
Densified with Small Particles Large amount silica fume
(DSP) concrete
Polymer concrete Polymers
 Factors influencing concrete properties

1. w/c ratio (or w/b or w/p ratio): The influence

of w/c on the concrete compressive strength has
been known since the early 1900s, leading to
Abrams’s law:
A
fc  1.5 ( w / c )
B
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 (MAS)
– Aggregate grading
– Aggregate shape and texture
– Sand/coarse aggregate ratio
– Aggregate/cement ratio
4. Admixtures
5. Mixing procedures
6. Curing
 Hydration
• Hydration refers to the reaction of cement and
water leading to the hardening of the paste.
• Hydration is an exothermic process that leads to
heat generation.
• The hydration process is divided into five
stages.
Fig. Illustration of the Different Stages of Hydration
 Hydration stages 1
• In the mixing stage, significant heat is generated
due primarily to the immediate reaction between
C3A and water, which produces Calcium Aluminate
Hydrate (CAH).
• The generated heat could cause flash set, defined
as early stiffening of the concrete.
 Hydration stages 1
• However, gypsum (a source of sulfate) also dissolves and
reacts with the dissolved aluminate to produce ettringite
(C-A-S-H).
– This reaction reduces the amount of heat and decreases the
possibility of the flash set.
• Therefore, hydration in the first 15 minutes is a delicate
balance between the aluminate and the sulfate in solution.
• Once the gypsum is depleted, the ettringite layer reacts with
C3A to form monosulfate, which has minimal effect on
concrete physical properties.
 2nd
stage - dormancy
• The concrete remains plastic without heat
generation.
stage during which concrete should be placed and
finished.
• The formation of ettringite is responsible for this
dormant period, as it slows the hydration and the
heat generation, but it contributes to the early
concrete strength.
 3 stage - hardening
rd

• Hardening, is when concrete starts to stiffen, and

hydation products continue to increase.
• It is dominated by the silicate reactions that
produce Calcium Silicate Hydrate (C-S-H).
• The C3S reaction is responsible for the early
strength gain, while the C2S reaction contributes to
long-term strength gain and low permeability.
 3 stage …
rd

• C-S-H is a major contributor to concrete strength

and low permeability.
• Calcium hydroxide (CH) is another product of the
reactions of C3S and C2S with water.
• This product causes a weak plane in the concrete
structure, and provides a high pH value that allows
C-S-H to be stable.
 4 stage - cooling
th

• In the 4th stage - cooling, concrete shrinks.

• This shrinkage is restrained by friction from the
underlying layers, which results in the buildup of
tensile stresses.
• Cracking can be avoided by sawing the concrete
to relieve the stresses.
 5 stage - densification
th

• During this stage hydration continues as long as

cement and water are present in the mix.
• Curing compounds can be used early in this
stage to keep the concrete moist, and assists in
the continuation of the hydration process.
 Properties of Cement, Paste, and Mortar
• The rate of hydration and, consequently,
the gain in strength increase with an
increase in cement particle size fineness.
• However, an increase in fineness can lead to
an increase in permeability in the long term.
• In general, 95% of cement particles are
smaller than 45 μm, while the average
particle is around 15 μm.
 Fineness of PC
• The Blaine test is typically used for measuring fineness of
cement particles.
• The underlying principle of this test is that the
permeability of a powder decreases as the size of
particles decreases.
• The test measures the time required for a standard
volume of air to flow through a standard volume of PC,
and compares it to the time required for the air to flow
through a reference material.
– Typical values for Blaine fineness of PC range from 300 to 450 m2/kg.
 Density of cement particles

• The density of cement particles without air between

them is measured using the ASTM C188 or AASHTO
T133 procedure.
– This density ranges from 3100 to 3250 kg/m 3.

• The bulk density includes the volume of air between

particles, and depends on the level of compaction.
– Uncompacted PC has a density of about 830 kg/m 3; it has a
density of about 1650 kg/m3 when consolidated with vibration.
 Setting
• Cement specifications include limits on the
initial set, when the paste loses its fluidity,
and the final set, when the paste attains
some hardness.
• These two time limits are determined using
the Vicat test according to the ASTM C191 or
AASHTO T131 procedure.
 Cement composition
• A powerful tool that has been used to identify the cement
composition and its interaction with other paste and concrete
compounds is thermal analysis.
• The main concept in this analysis is heating a small sample to
high temperatures.
• The increase in temperature causes some compounds to
react or decompose.
• The analysis identifies these processes by recording the time
and temperature at which these changes take place.
 Thermogravimetric analysis (TGA)
• TGA measures the change in mass of a sample under a
change in temperature.
– Each compound has a specific temperature at which it
decomposes.
• Consequently, a change in mass within a specific
temperature range identifies the presence of a particular
chemical compound.
– For example, Ca(OH)2 decomposes to water vapor and CaO at a
temperature between 400°C and 500°C.
 TGA …

• Therefore, the amount of weight loss at this

temperature can be used to determine how
much Ca(OH)2 was originally present in the
sample, and gives an indication of the
degree of hydration that has taken place
in a sample.
 Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC)

• This method measures the heat released or

absorbed to identify the presence of a compound.
• It does not rely on the loss of mass, therefore it
can still identify a compound if it melts
without vaporizing.
• DSC can be used to determine which compounds
are present at different stages of hydration.