Advantage And Limitations Of Concrete

Concrete is a material that forms the basis of our modern society. Any aspect of our daily lives does not depend directly or indirectly on concrete. Almost all of daily activities include using directly or indirectly concrete structures. Our goods may be transported by trucks travelling on concrete superhighways, at concrete piers in harbors protected by concrete break waters, or by airplanes landing and taking off on concrete runways (Mindess and Young 1981).
The durability of concrete is affected by the content of fluids added into the concrete, which can be water, CO2, and O2. The hydrated cement paste of concrete is a porous binder with an interconnected pore system randomly distributed. These interconnected pores are responsible for the

Concrete is a brittle material with low tensile strength and high compressive strength. Thus, concrete should generally not be loaded in tension and reinforcing steel is used to resist tensile forces. The low ductility of concrete means that concrete lacks toughness compared to metals. Even in compression, concrete has a fairly low strength to weight ratio, and a high load capacity requires relatively large masses of concrete (Mindess and Young 1981).
Concrete is composed of cementitious material, fine and coarse aggregates, additives and water. Additives are usually added to the concrete mixture to increase workability or accelerate/decelerate the process of curing. Cement is composed primarily of calcium silicates, calcium aluminates, and calcium alumina ferrites. Calcium silicates are responsible for the strength that the cement will develop upon hydration. The second component is the aggregates which roughly cover approximately 75 % of the volume of the concrete mixture. Adequate materials, as well as proper curing will ensure the quality and durability of the concrete (Mindess and Young