Sustainability and Quality of Precast Concrete

When reading of the concrete that the ancient Romans used, and learning of their unique mixture of volcanic ash and slaked lime (“pozzolana”) I find it most interesting that this concrete still proves to be standing in some places today! It is said to be less sturdy than what we use here in America (Andrews, 2012) but no doubt it gave modern civilization the ingenuity to create what we use today.

A specific subset of recycled aggregates is recycled concrete aggregates (RCA) where the masonry content is limited to not more than five per cent. The performance characteristics of RCA are better than RA and consequently there are fewer restrictions on the use of RCA in concrete (BS 8500-2)

Nevertheless, this was a standard concrete technique in history, the Romans decided to strengthen their concrete mixture with another substance.

The Romans didn’t invent concrete however, it was how they mixed and what material they used in their concrete, that made it special. They used a material called pozzolana as the basis for the mixture. This chocolate colored material was essentially the ashes originating from volcanoes found near Greek settlements (Kamm, n.d.). With this new

Rome popularized concrete and began using it extensively around 300 BC (Brewer, n.d.). The second

All ancient cultures around the world, are Identified with the way in which they choose to build their cities and connecting infrastructure. The Romans seem to have been the king of architecture, especially when, they as a people were able to build a lot of public buildings, which are grand in size and opulence. Many of these structures still exist today, The Colosseum, and Pantheon. But the Romans were able also to build roads, bridges, and aqueducts. All of these things mentioned above were ONLY made possible by two things, Concrete and arches ! Let’s talk about concrete. It was a Roman invention and I have taking a direct quote from our reading to describe what concrete is;

Concrete is the ultimate building block of society; there are a plethora of ways that it has been used. Romans were some of the first, in recorded history, to use it; they used it to build their aqueducts and even the Colosseum. If anything, the Romans were some of the first to make huge developments in concrete, and they were some of the first to actually use concrete on a large scale. America has also used concrete on a large scale, using concrete to build the Hoover Dam and the Grand Coulee Dam. Those examples show how concrete is an incredibly strong and durable building material that has remained standing after all these years and will continue to be the primary

According to Yegul (Accessed 2015), Roman concrete or opus caementicium was developed around 45 BCE. Concrete was used by the Romans as a building material because it converts to a hard surface like a rock when mixed in the right combination of components. It takes three components to make a concrete substance. The three substances are an aggregate such as limestone, a binding agent such as clay or mud, and water.

Although, cement has been a naturally occurring substance that has been used by Egyptians, Chinese, and Greeks in its rudimentary forms, evidence have shown that the Romans were the first to construct the earliest forms of concrete.() In the third century BCE, the Romans discovered that the mixing of volcanic ash with lime mortar, a workable paste, aggregates, sand and gravel, formed a hard rock

Although our reading states "the indubitably Roman invention of concrete." (Kamm, 2009), concrete was used on a smaller scale for thousands of years before the Romans emerged. The earliest records of cement being used dates to the Nabateans, the likely builders of Petra, with evidence showing use as early as 6500 BCE (Gromicko

This is the most recent type of concrete formwork. It’s an emerging tech for RCC construction as well as architectural design work. This materials’ flexibility creates the ability to make concrete of any shape.

The precast components used are a combination of abutment footings and caps, wingwall sections and parapets, end posts, and approach slabs designed, manufactured, and installed by Oldcastle Precast Rehoboth. Mass.

The development of concrete was a major step forward for Romans. Its strength, flexibility, convenience and low cost - when compared to any other building material - made arch, vaults and domes much easier to build. Roman concrete was typically made from a mixture of lime mortar, water, sand and pozzolana, a fine, ochre-colored volcanic earth, which set well even

In order to discuss concrete; one must first mention cement. Cement is a water-based binder used to bind other building materials together. It is used in the production of mortar and concrete during the construction process. Concrete is a material used in construction, made by mixing aggregate, cement, small stones and water. Cement is important because it hold structures together. Many sources states concrete was invented 1756 by a British Engineer named John Smeaton. He did so by mixing pebbles as a coarse aggregate into a powdered brick into the cement. Years layer in 1824, a English inventor named Mr Joseph Aspdin created the first true artificial cement by burning ground limestone and clay together. He is also noted for creating today’s popular concrete; Portland cement. Many buildings use concrete because of its strong element. It solidifies then hardens after mixing with water and placement due to the chemical process known as hydration. Water reacts with the cement, which bonds the other components together, eventually creating a stone-like material. Concrete is used to make pavements, pipe, various structures, foundations, roads, bridges, brick walls and so on. It is either produced site-cast or pre-cast. Site-cast Concrete is standard concrete that is poured into site-specific forms and cured on site; the concrete is created on the actually construction site. Precast concrete is a construction

Messina, n.d.).) state that it was invented by them. This is perhaps a semantic debate, since the Romans were responsible for a significant development that was not substantially enhanced until 1894 with the introduction of Portland cement.