The Constituent Materials of Concrete

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Portland Cement Association (n.d.) stated that in the simplest form, a blend of paste, stone, sand and water is a concrete. Concrete is one of the fundamental building block of the civilization, contributing to all the structures across the world. Concrete can be viewed in details in term of its constituent materials, properties, durability and concrete mix design and quality control.
Constituent materials are the fundamental materials required to produce concrete. The constituent materials of concrete consist of mainly three materials which are cement, aggregate and water, with admixtures included as addictive to alter the characteristics of the concrete (Scalenghe et al., 2011). “Cement is the chemically active constituent but its reactivity is only brought into effect on mixing with water” (Dhir & Yap, 1984). According to Bye (1999), in the industry, Portland cement, which was developed in 1824 by using calcium carbonate found in calcareous rocks, namely limestone or chalk and silica, alumina, and iron oxide found in sedimentary rock, namely clay or shale. Bye (1999) said that cement is produced by grinding the quarried limestone to powder form, blending it with water and heat with pulverized coal to drive out water at 100°C, carbon dioxide at 800°C and clinker at 1400°C, which is then cooled, grounded and mixed with 1%-5% gypsum to alter it fineness and goes through final grinding and the cement is ready to be distributed to the market. According to Sismondo & Sergio (2009), aggregate, which builds up the majority of the volume stability and the durability of the resulting concrete and is of lower price than cement, is always used to the maximum extend as possible in the production of concrete for maximum profit. Aggregates ar...

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Scalenghe, R., Malucelli, F., Ungaro, F., Perazzone, L., Filippi, N., Edwards, A.C.
(2011). Influence of 150 years of land use on anthropogenic and natural carbon stocks in Emilia-Romagna Region (Italy). Environmental Science &
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Sismondo & Sergio (2009). An introduction to science and technology studies (2nd ed.).
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