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What happens when super plasticizer is added to concrete?

Since from the start the concrete has gone through several tests, experiments and additions in order to make it suitable for some specific situation and specific condition where normal concrete is not considered feasible or effective.  Admixtures are basically chemicals or compounds that are added in suitable proportion into the concrete in order to change and vary some specific property…
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Ready Mix Concrete Definition Types Advantages

Ready mix concrete as the name suggest is the concrete that is already mixed in suitable proportions before arrival at site either on agitating trucks or dumpers as per the requirement of slump or material.  Basically the ready-mix concrete is mixture of binding agent…
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Transparent or Translucent Concrete

Have you ever seen a façade or cladding giving look of a rock-hard material but still gives you a see-through and translucent look inside the building? .  The widest used construction material, which is sustainable and reliable as well, is getting a makeover by…
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Glass Fiber Reinforced Concrete

Fiberglass is basically a matrix in which very fine fibers of glass exists. Fiberglass material is usually used for making of boats or for temporary sheds like sometimes on the roof tarus. That is the reason where ever the word fiber glass is touched ones always thinks of it as insulation boards or boats etc. In fiber glass a reinforced plastic-glass polymer is mixed in a polymer and if instead of…
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Top 10 Concrete Structures of the World

1 | Pantheon, Romepossibly by Apollodorus of Damascus, c126 AD The ancient Romans didn’t have reinforced concrete (that is, strengthened with steel) but they had concrete, and used it to such heart-stopping effect on the Pantheon that no one has really been able to…
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Honeycombing in concrete, causes and remedies

The finishing in concrete works is vital as for sure the final touches depend on it. The poor finish of concrete is not only wrong from aesthetic point of view but also it shows the strength and integrity of the concrete structure. Besides many defects in concrete one important is honeycombing.  Hollow spaces and cavities left in concrete mass on surface or inside the concrete mass where…
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Concept of Reinforced Earth

Reinforcement in the form of steel or synthetic strips called geo-strips are placed within an embankment, containing soil in various layers compacted mechanically; the granular material of embankment is linked by means of friction. The embankment becomes a self supporting structure, such a structure is called reinforced earth structure. Earth Reinforced with Geo-strips and Reinforced Earth…
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What is slab?

Structural Concrete Slabs are constructed to provide flat surfaces, usually horizontal, in building floors, roofs, bridges, and other types of structures. The slab may be supported by walls, by reinforced concrete beams usually cast monolithically with the slab, by…
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Complete Design of Cantilever Retaining Wall [pdf]

Cantilever Retaining wall is a reinforced cement concrete (RCC) Structure that is used to retain and hold back loose soil and gravel behind where there are abrupt changes in slope beyond their natural and stable angle of repose. Complete Design of Cantilever Retaining…
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Retaining Walls, the support soil needs to stand up

We know that soil or any other loose granular material has a safe angle of repose at which the soil or material can withstand without any requirement of confinement or support. But due to practical and property restrictions we in some cases need to cut or fill the soil at some unstable angle which if unsupported might cause failure of the slope. Concrete Retaining Wall If we provide…
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Concrete testing by Ultrasonic Pulse Velocity (UPV)

How many times as a civil engineer, you have to test a concrete? Hunh! So many Times! But most of the time you find concrete cubes and cylinders being crushed by Compression Testing Machine (CTM) in the laboratory. Now that broken cylinder or cube is useless for you, although you can recycle it but even then a recycled material can never meet the standard of first class material. Think about…
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