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Concrete or the usually called Portland cement concrete is a mixture of fine and coarse aggregate which are bonded together by a cement paste that hardens over time. Concrete is the base of any building that is built in the modern world. It is often a lime-based cement binder, such as Portland cement but can also be combined with calcium aluminate cement or other hydraulic cement. In fact, rock and sand are also two of the ingredients that are used in concrete. High-quality concrete is used for building, renovation of an old project and also for exterior wall rendering. Both domestic and commercial demands are there for plain and colored concrete.
History of Concrete
Using concrete dates back to 6500 BC when the Nabatean traders used concrete for production of some materials.
Features of Concrete
A variety of concrete is available in the market now a day. However, the main ingredients remain the same. The quality and the pricing of the concrete depends upon the proportions of the core elements present in the concrete.
The three most common deciding factors for the quality of the cement areas:
- Strength
- Density
- Chemical and thermal resistance
The general term “concrete” is most commonly associated with cement, mostly with Portland Cement. For the production of concrete from cement, water is mixed with the powder and aggregate materials to make a slurry paste which can be given a shape typically by pouring it into any form. Hydration, a chemical process helps in the solidification of the concrete into a robust stone-like material. Concrete has a very high compressive strength but has lower tensile strength due to which concrete alone cannot support tall buildings or structures. Concretes are often used with steel bars or bricks to make the structure more rigid and to have a high tensile strength. Some people do ask questions about the acidity or the basicity of concrete and it should be noted that the scale ranges usually from 0 to 14, taking into consideration the usage and for how long it has been kept exposed to air.
Eco-Friendly Usage of Concrete
Eco-friendly usage of the concrete refers to the development of concrete with the same quality using less amount of cement in the process. The green concrete concept came into play with a motto of developing a construction system which can reduce environmental and financial impact over the lifecycle of the structure from creation to destruction. At earlier times, people suffered a lot from respiratory and associated problems by using asbestos and concrete, but now, green and eco-friendly concrete is available in the market, which makes way for larger production, huge consumption, and high-quality building methods.
To use the best material possible the following things were decided to be used:
- Green self-compacting concrete
- Aluminum slip-form work system
- Thermal barrier coating for insulation, water tightness, and Aesthetics.
To make the concrete, a sustainable resource new method of using the concrete came into play. OPC is GGBFS replaced an element used in the mixture of the concrete.
To, test the outputs of the green concrete, 5 different binder proportions was taken into an experiment with the concrete, and their properties were compared, which included:
- Ordinary Portland cement
- Portland Pozzolana cement
- OPC + Fly Ash
- OPC + GGBFS
- OPC + silica Fume
The most successful combination of the green concrete technology was replacing OPC with the GGBFS. Despite replacing the 50% composition of OPS with GGBFS, the results of the test were quite similar to the usage of total OPC composition in Concrete. You can now contact reputed concrete suppliers online to give you the perfect quote and also show you templates for high quality concrete binding processes.
