What is Concrete? The Evolution of the Pyramids, Soil Cement and Construction: An informational piece on what concrete is including it’s history throughout time, and more.
Concrete has been around for a very long time. It was present in many ancient civilizations, including Ancient Egypt, Rome and Greece. The Egyptians used mud mixed with straw to make bricks for the pyramids, but it was the Romans who would eventually create a mixture that is much closer to modern concrete. This mixture included lime, pozzolana (ash from Mount Vesuvius) and volcanic rock.
If you were to travel back in time to Ancient Egypt you would not find any buildings made of concrete. You might be able to find evidence of the materials used to create their structures though; things like cement, sand and gravel. The Great Pyramid of Giza is one of the Seven Wonders of the World, but it is not made out of concrete. It was constructed with limestone on the outside and as a filler inside with granite and marble.
Soil cement is mainly used as pavement sub base or as a base course for asphaltic concrete pavements. It could also be used for slope protection works or embankment stabilization depending on certain factors such as gradation and clay
Concrete is a building material composed of cement, sand, aggregate and water. The mixture of cement and water forms a paste that binds the sand and aggregate together. Concrete is used in many structural applications throughout the world. This article discusses the evolution of concrete through time by describing the history of soil cement, concrete and construction.
The Pyramids
When most people think of ancient concrete they think of the pyramids in Egypt. The Egyptians used natural substances to produce a crude form of concrete. They used gypsum (a mineral containing calcium sulfate dihydrate) as an accelerator and lime (calcium carbonate) as a binder to create a mortar-like material that they shaped into blocks or poured into molds for building structures. The Egyptians didn’t realize that their use of gypsum created a reaction with the lime causing it to harden faster than normal. Although this combination was very crude by today’s standards, it produced structures that have lasted over 5000 years and are still standing today!
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. Cements used in construction are usually inorganic, often lime or calcium silicate based, and can be characterized as either hydraulic or non-hydraulic, depending on their ability to set in the presence of water (see hydraulic and non-hydraulic lime plaster).
Cementitious materials such as Lime, Pozzolana, and Portland cement are often added to the binder to modify its properties. Concrete has been used for many amazing things throughout history including architecture, infrastructure and more.
Soil Cement: Soil-cement is a highly compacted mixture of soil/aggregate, cement, and water. It is widely used as a low-cost pavement base for roads, residential streets, parking areas, airports, shoulders, and materials-handling and storage areas. Its advantages of great strength and durability combine with low first cost to make it the material of choice for these uses.
Concrete is the creation of a composite material, commonly called cement. Concrete is made up of cement, water, sand and gravel. The cement, usually Portland cement, is the most expensive ingredient and is the primary “binder” that holds the aggregates together.
Concrete has been in existence for thousands of years and traces of concrete are found in ancient Greece, Rome, Turkey and Egypt. In fact, ancient Egypt’s pyramids are basically huge blocks of concrete made from gypsum and lime. Evidence also shows that ancient Romans used concrete to build their famous aqueducts, structures like the Coliseum and Pantheon.
The first major innovation in concrete was Joseph Aspdin’s development of Portland Cement in the early 19th century. This was soon followed by John Smeaton who demonstrated that mixing limestone with clay produced a stronger concrete than what had previously been available.
Soil-cement is a mixture of Portland cement, natural soil, and water used to form a hard semi-rigid paving surface. It is most often used in highways or as a sub-base for asphalt or other forms of paving but it can also be used as a cheap stand-alone paving surface for driveways, sidewalks, patios or garage floors
Concrete is the most widely used building material in the world. It is simple and economic to make and if the Egyptians had known the secret they could have made it 4000 years ago. To make concrete there are four basic materials you need: Portland cement, sand, aggregate (stone) and water (more on these later). Concrete, longevity wise, outlasts all other building materials by hundreds of years. The Pyramids of Giza, the oldest of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World were built using concrete.
The word concrete comes from the Latin word “concretus” (meaning compact or condensed) as well as from “concrescere” (meaning to grow together). Concrete has been created for centuries, but nobody knew exactly how it was made until 1756 when John Smeaton discovered its ingredients. He mixed three parts limestone with one part clay and heated it in a kiln until it formed a hard substance called clinker. This clinker was then ground into powder and mixed with water, sand, and gravel to create concrete.
Concrete is strong under compression but weak under tension; this is why it must be reinforced with steel bars or wires. When water is added to Portland cement, a chemical reaction takes place
Concrete is a composite building material made from the combination of a binder, which is typically cement, rough and fine aggregates, which are usually stone and sand, and water. These ingredients are mixed together to make concrete, which can be poured and molded into various shapes when wet. Concrete is used for many construction projects because it has many beneficial properties such as high compressive strength and good thermal insulation properties.
The evolution of concrete is said to have begun in the early 4th millennium B.C., when ancient builders discovered that adding volcanic ash to the mix allowed them to set underwater. This discovery was later improved on by the Romans with the addition of lime to the mixture. The Romans also used pozzalanic ash, or pulverized brick, in their cement. While these techniques were impressive for their time, modern concrete has come a long way in its recipe.
History of Concrete
Concrete’s history dates back thousands of years with ancient civilizations such as Mesopotamia using clay, gypsum and lime mortars in their pyramids and other structures. One of the first large-scale uses of modern concrete technology occurred in 1849 when the Englishman Joseph Aspdin developed portland cement (named after the high-
Concrete is a manmade material that was invented in the Roman Era. The Romans discovered that by combining volcanic ash, lime, and seawater, they could create a product that would harden over time. The earliest use of concrete was in the construction of the Roman Baths. These baths were created by pouring concrete between layers of bricks and stones to create complex structures.
As time progressed, the use of concrete became more common. It has been used for nearly everything imaginable, from protecting against erosion to building homes and roads.
The Evolution of Concrete
Over time concrete technology advanced rapidly throughout Europe and the Americas. In the early 1900s basic tests were developed to determine the compressive strength (the ability to resist breaking under pressure) of hardened concrete. These tests helped to provide information on how much stress concrete can withstand before it breaks or fails.
These tests allowed engineers to develop specifications for concrete mixes around these strengths so that they can be designed according to their intended use. For instance, a sidewalk would not require as strong of a mix as a bridge foundation would need!
Concrete Today
Concrete continues to be used all over the world today! Building codes in each state have established certain requirements for designing and constructing concrete buildings so that they will be