What is concrete?
The material is a mixture of cement, aggregate (e.g. gravel or sand) and mixing water. The mixed concrete can harden in the air or under water. A chemical reaction causes the mixture to become warm and expel the mixing water. The end product is very hard and is also known as artificial stone.
What properties does concrete have?
The building material is malleable. Workability, setting behavior, hardening and durability can be influenced by the choice of additive. Basically, the properties of the concrete depend on the water-cement ratio, compaction and surface quality.
Other important properties for concrete are compressive strength, cube strength and cylinder strength (abroad).
Where is the material used?
- Building construction (residential construction, industrial construction, skeleton construction, prefabricated construction, shells, cooling towers)
- Civil engineering (tunnel construction, caissons, pipes, piles, diaphragm walls)
- Transport construction (bridges, roads, runways)
- Hydraulic engineering (dams, port facilities, piers, locks, underwater construction)
- General (foundations, walls, columns, beams, ceilings)
What types of concrete are there?
- Cement concrete: Consists of cement, water, aggregates and possibly additives to influence certain properties
- Fresh concrete: Will only be mixed on site
- Precast: Pre-produced concrete parts are delivered to the construction site and are immediately ready for further processing
- Waterproof concrete
- Concrete with high Frost protection
- Concrete with high Resistance to chemical attacks
- Concrete with high Wear resistance
- Underwater concrete
- Concrete for high operating temperatures
- Light-, Normal- and Heavy concrete
What testing methods and examination aspects are there for concrete?
- Determination of compressive strength by compression tests
- Analyses of the raw materials (cements, additives and admixtures)
- Determination of splitting and bending tensile strength
- Determination of joint compressive strength
- Determination of adhesive shear strength
- and much more.
