All buildings such as malls, stores, offices, houses and
apartments and all roads such as highways and sidewalks are all made of
concrete. Before there is no formal construction of houses and roads but today,
concrete structures are the best choice to have. concrete is the most commonly
used man-made material on Earth. It is an important construction material used
extensively in buildings, bridges, roads, and dams. It uses range from
structural applications, to paving’s, pipes, and drains. this concrete is a
composite material with cement, water, aggregate such as gravel, sand, and
rock, and the steel that if build together will form a workable paste which
then gradually strengthens over time. There are types of concrete being used in
every construction, as the high-density concrete which is it is a kind of
heavyweight concrete that has a greater density than the other types, it
provides high-grade protection from x-rays and radiation and usually used in
nuclear power plants and other such buildings. The other concrete is the
reinforced concrete which is a versatile composite and one of the most
extensively used materials in modern construction. With the use of steel,
wires, screen, and cables installed in concrete before it sets to enhance its
overall strength. The other is precast concrete which is prepared, cast and
cures off-site, usually in a controlled factory environment using reusable
molds. It can be joined to other elements to form a full structure, these are
used typically for wall, panels, beams, columns, floors, staircases, pipes,
tunnels and more. Another type of concrete is a prestressed concrete is a
structural material that provides for proposed, engineering stresses to be
located in portions to prevent the stresses that will occur when they are
subject to loading. It combines the high durability compressive qualities of
concrete with the great tensile strength of steel. There is also a
glass-reinforced concrete or glass-fiber, this is commonly used to form
exterior cladding panels. This is made from high-strength, alkaline-resistant
glass fibers enclosed in a concrete matrix.
This concrete has numerous positive aspects, such as it
is a comparably inexpensive material and has a relatively long life span with
less sustaining demands. It is strong in compression and before it settles, it
is a very malleable substance that can easily be molded. And lastly, it is
non-combustible, unlike plastic materials. Concrete is characterized by
aggregate or cement used or by the technique used to assemble it. The
water-to-cement ratio is the determining factor in ordinary structural concrete
with lower water content in stronger concrete. Concrete strength is determined
by force required to pound it and is estimated in pounds per square inch or
kilograms per square centimetre. Strength can be affected by multiple variables
including dampness and temperature. Concrete has a relatively high embodied
energy, resulting from its extraction, assembling, and transportation, today
waste materials can also be included within the concrete mix such as pulverized
fuel ash and recycled crushed aggregate. Concrete is a very tough,
low-maintenance material and can provide thermic mass, helping diminish the
energy expenditure of buildings operation.
