You can walk, live, and drive everywhere on concrete’s, but have you ever thought that this unassuming material makes up such a big portion of your life? Concrete is needed in modern infrastructure and building skyscraper cities as well as roads that sink into the rural countryside. Truly, concrete has many facades beneath what is skinned to the eye.
In this post, I will reveal the seemingly endless versatility, durability, and most importantly the role in society, of concrete. Let us dive deeper!
Concrete is One of the Most Widely Used Materials in the World
Jokingly speaking, concrete is the foundation of modern life, and indeed, it literally serves that purpose. It is the second most consumed substance in the world, coming in only after water. On average, the world uses approximately thirty billion tons of concrete every year but why is concrete’s so popular? Concrete is so remarkable due to its versatility and durability, making it a material that is so widely consumed across the globe.
This material is perfect for extreme weather conditions and extraordinary longevity, aiding in small projects and massive constructions alike.
It’s not an overstatement saying that the development of most modern cities and transportation infrastructure as we know would be incredibly difficult without.
Concrete and Cement Are Not the Same
A lot of people mistakenly believe that cement and concrete’s are interchangeable. They are not. Water, aggregates, and cement are all ingredients of concrete. The end result of combining all these ingredients, as well as water, is called a product. Therefore, one cannot function without the other, and concrete requires cement in order to exist.
The term “post tension concrete’s construction” refers to a type of concrete that combines sand and gravel or crushed stone, water. When combined, these components undergo a chemical reaction called hydration whereby everything is incorporated together. The resultant product is the robust material known as concrete.
The vital ingredient used in concrete, cement, is produced with limestone, clay and some other raw ingredients through a crushing and heating process to create a fine powder. Cement consists of about 10 to 15% of concrete’s mix; the rest of the mixture, especially the aggregates, are important in providing strength and durability to the concrete.
Concrete Was Used to Build The Great Wall of China
Indeed one of the wonders of the world is able to withstand harsh climate conditions due to concrete. Originally the Great Wall of China, which is over 13,000 miles long, used to be built using a blend of constituents such as lime and sticky rice mortar.
The durable and ancient concrete’s construction gave walls extraordinary strength and resilience, which enabled it to brave hundreds of years of natural erosion.
This fact marks the beginning of modern construction techniques as historians put it, which goes to show that even in ancient times, the use of concrete’s was well appreciated. Ancient usage of concrete wasn’t exclusively for the Great Wall, as other Romans created wondrous structures like the Pantheon and aqueducts using primitive concrete’s formulas, many of which remain to this day.
Concrete Gets Stronger Over Time
Unlike most materials that become weaker or deteriorate with age, concrete gets stronger as time passes. This feature is a result of hydration that is still ongoing, where water molecules are still actively engaging with cement even after the concrete’s has set.
This feature of long-term enhancement makes concrete a particularly dependable material. The Hoover Dam makes an excellent example. Officially opened in 1936 and using over 3 million cubic yards of concrete’s, which is enough to pave a two-lane highway from San Francisco to New York City. All these decades later, the dam still functions while increasing in strength.
It is fascinating to discover that the Hoover Dam serves as another example of how engineers had to manage during hydration, and utilized innovative cooling methods, further proving that concrete’s peculiar attributes can broaden engineering scope.
Concrete is Sustainable and can be Recycled
The notoriously sturdy concrete is actually sustainable when it is properly cared for. Many people do not know that concrete’s can be recycled and used in other further processes alleviating the impact on the environment. During the demolishment of old concrete’s structures, there is a process where the concrete is reduced to smaller bits which can then be used as aggregate to be newly built into new structures.
Recycled concrete’s tends to be seen in new forms in roads, driveways, retaining walls, or as a base layer for new concrete. Recycling concrete’s leads to a decrease in the need for newly mined natural aggregates, space for landfills, and carbon emission caused by the manufacture of new materials.
Recycled concrete’s allows notable infrastructure to be built while aiding with the limitless afford of practicing eco-friendly actions, policies, and practices, especially with the increase attention towards eco-sustainable construction.
Recognizing the Limitless Characteristics and Toughness of Concrete
At its finest, concrete’s does not simply makes for uprights and bridges, they are the physical representation of an idea that suggests why buildings and infrastructure is constructed, which is literally chest deep. And with that, in modern-day ranging from classic structures and skyscrapers or busy urban roads to village sidewalks, concrete is a former of major underpinning our civilization as it strongly impacts on significantly.
Learning these brilliant truths pertaining to concrete’s deepens one’s understanding underscoring the fierce durability, versatility, and sustainability.
It is a substance that is always advancing, meeting current and future demands. If this blog made you want to find out other creative applications of concrete or eco-friendly construction materials, just keep searching with us. The narratives of the globe’s most vital substances are still ongoing.
