Table of Contents
Background
Concrete is a hardened building material created by combining a chemically inert mineral aggregate (usually sand, gravel, or crushed stone), a binder (natural or synthetic cement), chemical additives, and water. Although people commonly use the word “cement” as a synonym for concrete, the terms in fact denote different substances: cement, which encompasses a wide variety of fine-ground powders that harden when mixed with water, represents only one of several components in modern concrete.
As concrete dries, it acquires a stone-like consistency that renders it ideal for constructing roads, bridges, water supply and sewage systems, factories, airports, railroads, waterways, mass transit systems, and other structures that comprise a substantial portion of the U.S. wealth. According to the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), building such facilities is in itself one of the nation’s largest industries and represents about 10 percent of the gross national product. Over $4 billion worth of hydraulic cement, a variety which hardens under water, is produced annually in the United States for use in $20 billion worth of concrete construction. The value of all cement-based structures in the United States is in the trillions of dollars—roughly commensurate with the anticipated cost of repairing those structures over the next twenty years.
The words cement and concrete are both of Latin origin, reflecting the likelihood that the ancient Romans were the first to use the substances. Many examples of Roman concrete construction remain in the countries that encircle the Mediterranean, where Roman builders had access to numerous natural cement deposits. Natural cement consists mainly of lime, derived from limestone and often combined with volcanic ash. It formed the basis of most civil engineering until the eighteenth century, when the first synthetic cements were developed.
The earliest manmade cement, called hydraulic lime, was developed in 1756, when an English engineer named John Smeaton needed a strong material to rebuild the Eddystone lighthouse off the coast of Devon. Although the Romans had used hydraulic cement, the formula was lost from the collapse of their empire in the fifth century A.D. until Smeaton reinvented it. During the early nineteenth century several other Englishmen contributed to the refinement of synthetic cement, most notably Joseph Aspdin and Isaac Charles Johnson. In 1824 Aspdin took out a patent on a synthetic blend of limestone and clay which he called Portland cement because it resembled limestone quarried on the English Isle of Portland. However, Aspdin’s product was not as strong as that produced in 1850 by Johnson, whose formula served as the basis of the Portland cement that is still widely used today. Concrete made with Portland cement is considered superior to that made with natural cement because it is stronger, more durable, and of more consistent quality. According to the American Society of Testing of Materials (ASTM), Portland cement is made by mixing calcareous (consisting mostly of calcium carbonate) material such as limestone with silica-, alumina-, and iron oxide-containing materials. These substances are then burned until they fuse together, and the resulting admixture, or clinker, is ground to form Portland cement.
Although Portland cement quickly displaced natural cement in Europe, concrete technology in the United States lagged considerably behind. In America, natural cement rock was first discovered during the early 1800s, when it was used to build the Erie Canal. The construction of such inland waterways led to the establishment of a number of American companies producing natural cement. However, because of Portland cement’s greater strength, many construction engineers preferred to order it from Europe, despite the additional time and expense involved. Thomas Edison was very interested in Portland cement and even cast phonograph cabinets of the material. When United States industry figured out how to make Portland cement during the early 1870s, the production of natural cement in America began to decline.
After the refinement of Portland cement, the next major innovation in concrete technology occurred during the late nineteenth century, when reinforced concrete was invented. While concrete easily resists compression, it does not tolerate tension well, and this weakness meant that it could not be used to build structures—like bridges or buildings with arches—that would be subject to bending action. French and English engineers first rectified this deficiency during the 1850s by embedding steel bars in those portions of a concrete structure subject to tensile stress. Although the concrete itself is not strengthened, structures built of reinforced concrete can better withstand bending, and the technique was used internationally by the early twentieth century.
Another form of strengthened concrete, prestressed concrete, was issued a U.S. patent in 1888. However, it was not widely used until World War II, when several large docks and bridges that utilized it were constructed. Rather than reinforcing a highly stressed portion of a concrete structure with steel, engineers could now compress a section of concrete before they subjected it to stress, thereby increasing its ability to withstand tension.
Today, different types of concrete are categorized according to their method of installation. Ready- or pre-mixed concrete is batched and mixed at a central plant before it is delivered to a site. Because this type of concrete is sometimes transported in an agitator truck, it is also known as transit-mixed concrete. Shrink-mixed concrete is partially mixed at the central plant, and its mixing is then completed en route to the site.
Raw Materials
Structural concrete normally contains one part cement to two parts fine mineral aggregate to four parts coarse mineral aggregate, though these proportions are often varied to achieve the strength and flexibility required in a particular setting. In addition, concrete contains a wide range of chemicals that imbue it with the characteristics desired for specific applications. Portland cement, the kind most often used in concrete, is made from a combination of a calcareous material (usually limestone) and of silica and alumina found as clay or shale. In lesser amounts, it can also contain iron oxide and magnesia. Aggregates, which comprise 75 percent of concrete by volume, improve the formation and flow of cement paste and enhance the structural performance of concrete. Fine grade comprises particles up to. 20 of an inch (five millimeters) in size, while coarse grade includes particles from. 20 to. 79 of an inch (20 millimeters). For massive construction, aggregate particle size can exceed 1.50 inches (38 millimeters).
Aggregates can also be classified according to the type of rock they consist of: basalt, flint, and granite, among others. Another type of aggregate is pozzolana, a siliceous and aluminous material often derived from volcanic ash. Reacting chemically with limestone and moisture, it forms the calcium silicate hydrates that are the basis of cement. Pozzolana is commonly added to Portland cement paste to enhance its densification. One type of volcanic mineral, an aluminum silicate, has been combined with siliceous minerals to form a composite that reduces weight and improves bonding between concrete and steel surfaces. Its applications have included precast concrete shapes and asphalt/concrete pavement for highways. Fly ash, a coal-burning power plant byproduct that contains an aluminosilicate and small amounts of lime, is also being tested as a possible pozzolanic material for cement. Combining fly ash with lime (CaO) in a hydrothermal process (one that uses hot water under pressure) also produces cement.
A wide range of chemicals are added to cement to act as plasticizers, superplasticizers, accelerators, dispersants, and water-reducing agents. Called admixtures, these additives can be used to increase the workability of a cement mixture still in the nonset state, the strength of cement after application, and the material’s water tightness. Further, they can decrease the amount of water necessary to obtain workability and the amount of cement needed to create strong concrete. Accelerators, which reduce setting time, include calcium chloride or aluminum sulfate and other acidic materials. Plasticizing or superplasticizing agents increase the fluidity of the fresh cement mix with the same water/cement ratio, thereby improving the workability of the mix as well as its ease of placement. Typical plasticizers include polycarboxylic acid materials; superplasticizers are sulphanated melamine formaldehyde or sulphanated naphthalene formaldehyde condensates. Setretarders, another type of admixture, are used to delay the setting of concrete. These include soluble zinc salts, soluble borates, and carbohydrate-based materials. Gas forming admixtures, powdered zinc or aluminum in combination with calcium hydroxide or hydrogen peroxide, are used to form aerated concrete by generating hydrogen or oxygen bubbles that become entrapped in the cement mix.
Cement is considered a brittle material; in other words, it fractures easily. Thus, many additives have been developed to increase the tensile strength of concrete. One way is to combine polymeric materials such as polyvinyl alcohol, polyacrylamide, or hydroxypropyl methyl cellulose with the cement, producing what is sometimes known as macro-defect-free cement. Another method entails adding fibers made of stainless steel, glass, or carbon. These fibers can be short, in a strand, sheet, non-woven fabric or woven fabric form. Typically, such fiber represents only about one percent of the volume of fiber-reinforced concrete.
The Manufacturing Process
The manufacture of concrete is fairly simple. First, the cement (usually Portland cement) is prepared. Next, the other ingredients—aggregates (such as sand or gravel), admixtures (chemical additives), any necessary fibers, and water—are mixed together with the cement to form concrete. The concrete is then shipped to the work site and placed, compacted, and cured.
Preparing Portland cement
- 1 The limestone, silica, and alumina that make up Portland cement are dry ground into a very fine powder, mixed together in predetermined proportions, preheated, and calcined (heated to a high temperature that will burn off impurities without fusing the ingredients). Next the material is burned in a large rotary kiln at 2,550 degrees Fahrenheit (1,400 degrees Celsius). At this temperature, the material partially fuses into a substance known as clinker. A modern kiln can produce as much as 6,200 tons of clinker a day.
- 2 The clinker is then cooled and ground to a fine powder in a tube or ball mill. A ball mill is a rotating drum filled with steel balls of different sizes (depending on the desired fineness of the cement) that crush and grind the clinker. Gypsum is added during the grinding process. The final composition consists of several compounds: tricalcium silicate, dicalcium silicate, tricalcium aluminate, and tetracalcium aluminoferrite.
Mixing
- 3 The cement is then mixed with the other ingredients: aggregates (sand, gravel, or crushed stone), admixtures, fibers, and water. Aggregates are pre-blended or added at the ready-mix concrete plant under normal operating conditions. The mixing operation uses rotation or stirring to coat the surface of the aggregate with cement paste and to blend the other ingredients uniformly. A variety of batch or continuous mixers are used.
- 4 Fibers, if desired, can be added by a variety of methods including direct spraying, premixing, impregnating, or hand laying-up. Silica fume is often used as a dispersing or densifying agent.
Transport to work site
- 5 Once the concrete mixture is ready, it is transported to the work site. There are many methods of transporting concrete, including wheelbarrows, buckets, belt conveyors, special trucks, and pumping. Pumping transports large quantities of concrete over large distances through pipelines using a system consisting of a hopper, a pump, and the pipes. Pumps come in several types—the horizontal piston pump with semi-rotary valves and small portable pumps called squeeze pumps. A vacuum provides a continuous flow of concrete, with two rotating rollers squeezing a flexible pipe to move the concrete into the delivery pipe.
Placing and compacting
- 6 Once at the site, the concrete must be placed and compacted. These two operations are performed almost simultaneously. Placing must be done so that segregation of the various ingredients is avoided and full compaction—with all air bubbles eliminated—can be achieved. Whether chutes or buggies are used, position is important in achieving these goals. The rates of placing and of compaction should be equal; the latter is usually accomplished using internal or external vibrators. An internal vibrator uses a poker housing a motor-driven shaft. When the poker is inserted into the concrete, controlled vibration occurs to compact the concrete. External vibrators are used for precast or thin in situ sections having a shape or thickness unsuitable for internal vibrators. These type of vibrators are rigidly clamped to the formwork, which rests on an elastic support. Both the form and the concrete are vibrated. Vibrating tables are also used, where a table produces vertical vibration by using two shafts rotating in opposite directions.
Curing
- 7 Once it is placed and compacted, the concrete must cured before it is finished to make sure that it doesn’t dry too quickly. Concrete’s strength is influenced by its moisture level during the hardening process: as the cement solidifies, the concrete shrinks. If site constraints prevent the concrete from contracting, tensile stresses will develop, weakening the concrete. To minimize this problem, concrete must be kept damp during the several days it requires to set and harden.
Quality Control
Concrete manufacturers expect their raw material suppliers to supply a consistent, uniform product. At the cement production factory, the proportions of the various raw materials that go into cement must be checked to achieve a consistent kiln feed, and samples of the mix are frequently examined using X-ray fluorescence analysis.
The strength of concrete is probably the most important property that must be tested to comply with specifications. To achieve the desired strength, workers must carefully control the manufacturing process, which they normally do by using statistical process control. The American Standard of Testing Materials and other organizations have developed a variety of methods for testing strength. Quality control charts are widely used by the suppliers of ready-mixed concrete and by the engineer on site to continually assess the strength of concrete. Other properties important for compliance include cement content, water/cement ratio, and workability, and standard test methods have been developed for these as well.
The Future
Though the United States led the world in improving cement technology from the 1930s to the 1960s, Europe and Japan have since moved ahead with new products, research, and development. In an effort to restore American leadership, The National Science Foundation has established a Center for Science and Technology of Advanced Cement-Based Materials at Northwestern University. The ACBM center will develop the science necessary to create new cement-based materials with improved properties. These will be used in new construction as well as in restoration and repair of highways, bridges, power plants, and waste-disposal systems.
The deterioration of the U.S. infrastructure has shifted the highway industry’s emphasis from building new roads and bridges to maintaining and replacing existing structures. Because better techniques and materials are needed to reduce costs, the Strategic Highway Research Program(SHRP), a 5-year $150 million research program, was established in 1987. The targeted areas were asphalt, pavement performance, concrete structures, and highway operations.
The Center for Building Technology at NIST is also conducting research to improve concrete performance. The projects include several that are developing new methods of field testing concrete. Other projects involve computer modeling of properties and models for predicting service life. In addition, several expert systems have been developed for designing concrete mixtures and for diagnosing causes of concrete deterioration.
Another cement industry trend is the concentration of manufacturing in a smaller number of larger-capacity production systems. This has been achieved either by replacing several older production lines with a single, high-capacity line or by upgrading and modernizing an existing line for a higher production yield. Automation will continue to play an important role in achieving these increased yields. The use of waste byproducts as raw materials will continue as well.
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