CONCRETE

Introduction  

    Concrete is the material which is commonly used and easily found in construction site.  Concrete is widely used in construction. 

   
    There are different forms of concrete to be used in different structure which are reinforced concrete, pre-stressed concrete, and mass concrete.

     
    Concrete is a mixture of cement, water, and aggregate which takes the shape and texture of its mould or formwork on site when cured at a suitable temperature and humidity, it hardens.  Sometimes, some admixture will be added into the mixture, such as accelerator to accelerate completion of concrete.

     

    When cement is mixed with water to form a fluid paste, the mixture will eventually become stiff and then hard and will stick with the aggregate to form a monolithic whole. 

   
    The chemical reaction takes place between water and cement. The process of their mixture is called Hydration. Hydration is considered to be completed around 28 days. Several basic properties of concrete which are needed in construction  are good workability when fresh mixed, high strength, and good durability.

      The performance of the concrete is affected by the proportion of constituent material, for example water cement ratio. Water cement ratio is also the important factor that influencing the properties of concrete. 

    The proportion of constituent material can be measured by volume. Due to measure the exact volume of the material is difficult, normally we follow their ratio to measure each material in kg/ m³ to produce concrete. 


       Let us look in the later post to understand what actually the cement and aggregate properties.


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