Questions tagged [concrete]
For questions about the material concrete, or its application in an engineering context. Concrete is a composite material composed mainly of water, aggregate, and cement.
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How to determine the resistance provided by cement mortar?
I am attaching a steel rail and post guardrail to the coping of an existing parapet. The actions produced by the guardrail on the coping incur at point A as shown below.
However, how do I find out if ...
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Why there are two equations to calculate effective depth for concrete beams? Eurocode
Are these the same? if so, why there are two equations given? is there a specific purpose? like, combining the equations for the ease of calculation etc?
Why there are two equations to calculate ...
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Why is the frustum of a cone used to slump test of concrete and not a cylindrical tube?
While performing the slump test for knowing the workability of a concrete mix one uses a tube having the shape of frustum of a cone in order to conduct the test. Why is not a cylindrical tube used ...
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How to calculate the available anchorage length in reinforce concrete design?
Hello everyone I am taking a course on RC this semester and I am kinda bumped out by all of the terminology here.
The main question I have is what is the difference between anchorage length and ...
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Question about commercial mix concrete design
What should I do here? Drying the aggregates prior to mixing make sense to me but would it be costly?
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What does$ Ast = N16 @ 175mm $centres means in designing reinforced concrete?
I have the following problem, which I already know the general steps into solving.
My general approach is: calculate I cracked as we are already told that the section is cracked, and then finally use ...
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Consequential differences between World Trade Center (1973-2001) with steel columns and concrete columns? [closed]
How long would the World Trade Center (1973-2001) have stood after the large commercial passenger aircraft impact if the columns had been made of concrete?
The perimeter columns were steel according ...
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XPS foam panel as decoupling membrane for concrete pour over existing concrete slab?
Mortared bricks have been removed from a 50-year-old 12' x 12' concrete slab patio, leaving a rough surface and exposing a curved crack in the concrete which is about six feet long.
If small-diameter ...
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Is there a substance i could treat concrete with to make it not scratched by steel?
Is there a substance i could use that would harden the surface of concrete enough to make it resist scratching by steel?
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Concrete Strut and tie- modeling: Why can a tie and a strut cross at a point without forming a node?
I'm reading this source about concrete strut and tie design.
Here is a picture from the site:
I'm curious, why isn't there a node at the point where the lower tie crosses the middle diagonal strut? ...
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Question on plastic limit theorems and reinforced concrete
The lower plastic limit theorem is stated in Wikipedia as follows:
If an equilibrium distribution of stress can be found which balances the applied load and nowhere violates the yield criterion, the ...
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Once stopped, is it possible to achieve full cement hydration?
Several sources state that if hydration is stopped during cement curing, is not possible to resume it, and final strength will be compromised. But so far, I haven't found a reliable explanation.
I ...
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Building Engineering - Lightning Conductor [duplicate]
I went on a new building, for installing many "details" before people relocating inside. On the roof, I saw a very intriguing things about lightning conductor : they are inside walls, packed ...
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Modeling of a strap beam/foundation tie beam
The purpose of a strap beam (or tie beam - i'm not sure of the exact expression on english) as far as I know, is to enable foundation (horizontal) stifness.
So my question is: how to model them ...
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Live and dead loads on lift core (passenger and cargo)
According to Eurocode or even better - JUS standards (if there is someone from EX-JU countries here), what are the dead and live load values and schemes for reinforced concrete lift core for both ...
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Reinforced concrete by steel, poor durability, why?
I've been reading up about reinforced concrete, as it is one if not the cheapest way how to build (with some solid foundation). I found out that it actually has quite poor durability (50-100 years or ...
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where did the concrete splitting test calculated stress formulat come from?
In compression test of cylindrical concrete sample we get the normal stress easily by dividing failure force by sample cross section, but how we can explain the formulat used to determine tensile ...
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Why we say prestressed concrete is "more efficient"?
In my class my teacher said that prestressed concrete is more efficient, and when asked why he talk because of the constructing process. I believe because you have no cracked section hence you can use ...
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Are there any ways to know whether the element has failed under loading, while knowing only limited properties?
I opt to check whether a precast concrete wall (no reinforcements, only concrete) withstand both vertical and lateral loading condition but the only properties I know are the Young's Modulus, density, ...
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How to calculate the required prestressed jacking pressure to apply to a pre-tension concrete beam?
How does the fabricant of prestressed pre-tensioned beams calculate the equivalent pressure in the hydraulic jack (in bars) to the design prestress force (in kN)? Are there factors to multiply like a ...
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Jointed reinforced concrete tie-bar smoothness
We know that in Jointed Reinforced Concrete pavements we use dowels and tie bars. Why are dowel bars Smooth and tie bars are deformed? Dowels are used to transfer about 40% of the load from one slab ...
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Where to place air, water and electric cables in a composite beam [closed]
If water, gas and electrical cables have to pass through three (3) openings
provided in the cross section shown in Figure 2, with tangible and scientific
arguments specify the adequate opening for ...
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Creep coefficient over time
I came across 2 creep coefficient diagram. First one is from Eurocode, second one is from elsewhere. I think the second one make sense, As the time progress, the creep coefficient shall increase, ...
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Small building basement foundation moisture: permeable vs impermeable
I understand that moisture is the enemy of interiors. I know that the standard basement foundation for a house-sized building uses moisture barriers on the outside of concrete retaining walls to ...
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Exactly what makes steel-concrete composite beam better than pure steel?
A composite action beam may have a concrete section the top, carrying the compression load, and steel at the bottom, carrying tension.
But I have always thought that concrete had lower strength for a ...
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Are concrete screws suitable for repeated removal and reinstallation?
Is a concrete screw like the HILTI HUS3 removable?
I.e. can it be repeatedly unscrewed and reinstalled as required? Will this damage the fixing or the hole in the concrete?
We're thinking about using ...
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Why does a beam in shear crack at 45 degrees?
Why does a beam in shear like in this picture crack at 45 degrees instead of vertically? This is called "Punching shear", and requires concrete reinforcement at an angle:
Assuming that the ...
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Why do air entrainment admixtures improve the freeze-thaw resistance of concrete?
It is stated on here that:
Air-entraining admixtures cause small stable bubbles of air to form uniformly through a concrete mix. The bubbles are mostly below 1 mm diameter with a high proportion ...
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How do extra building levels affect the foundation design apart for the extra load?
I have been talking to some structural engineers trying to find one to design foundations for my contemplated bespoke building based on hi-cube 40-ft shipping containers. The initial concept is just ...
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What's the difference between Creep and Dynamic Viscous Damping?
What's the mechanism behind each phenomenon and what's the difference between them?
Why is Creep considered in the Constitutive Equation (taken as an inelastic strain) while damping is considered in ...
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How to calculate load bearing capacity of a floating pavement?
Given tire load of a vehicle, how do I calculate load bearing capacity of a non-reinforced concrete pavement floating on a layer of heat insulation material, which is on the RC base? I can't figure ...
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Can anyone help me with the concept of bearing stresses in steel reinforcement in Reinforced Concrete?
When there is tension reinforcement(steel) embedded in concrete, does it not also undergo bearing stresses on account of the weight of the concrete and other forces which are acting above the steel? ...
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Modern equivalent concrete strength to 'Class Ws 3/4" '
Consider the following extract from a UK reinforced concrete detail drawing dated 1970:
What is the modern equivalent to this concrete class?
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Why is the stress distribution on concrete approximated like this?
I'm reading here on reinforced concrete. It is explained there that in calculations, the actual stress distribution is replaced by a constant stress distribution over some limited distance from the ...
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Is it possible to measure the concrete workability by a mobile app one day? [closed]
After studying all methods that can measure the concrete slump, I found 62 devices that service this purpose at the same time these devices are expensive and not practical enough, for this reason the ...
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Why railroad concrete tie tips become dry first after a rain?
I've witnessed this phenomenon:
Why are only the tie tips dry? Why are only the stones around the tips dry? This is a railroad in Ukraine in the morning after a rain at night. Around 80% of observed ...
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Concrete pad over filled, in-ground pool better with or without wall support?
We are currently having a project done in our backyard to: (1) fill an in-ground pool and (2) build a "sport court" (with a large concrete pad and some tiles) over top.
The pool demolition ...
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Trapping heat by curing of concrete under plastic sheets
Although curing of concrete under plastic sheets is a recognized technique, I have some doubts about it.
I think that the plastic sheets may trap heat coming from the exothermic reaction, which will ...
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How to choose the dimensions for a prestressed I-beam?
I need to design a simply supported symmetric I-beam (for a school problem). However, I can't find much information about the selection of the section or if there exist any standards for that. the ...
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Tiled/block pavement used to pave high traffic roadway?
We're normally paving the high-traffic road with concrete or asphalt. While for sidewalk/garden, we use pave block/tiles (either concrete or else)
Common reason is because pave block/tiles doesn't ...
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Any Idea of This China's "Transparent Concrete"?
I am currently make an attempt to make miniaturized version of this China's solar highway on my garage
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zK8FvzI3yDA
Just so i can re-evaluate the performance
However, I ...
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Control joint and contraction joint in concrete
What is the difference between a control joint and a contraction joint in concrete? I mean, a control joint is to control the cracks in concrete due to temperature or shrinkage etc... I understand it. ...
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water leak through subterranean cable penetrations in concrete
See the image below for the detail of 4 no. cable ducts that run from a trench in a raft foundation (on the left) through an approximately 1 m square penetration in the raft foundation, through soil (...
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can ceramic be used as a building material?
From what I read, concrete has much lower compressive strength than ceramics. So why aren't we using ceramics to build? Is it because ceramic failure is difficult to predict? Because it's hard to ...
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Why is there this perforated pipe inside this vertical construction joint in a reinforced concrete wall?
The picture below shows a veritcal construction joint of an approximately 50 years old reinforced concrete industrial structure. The expansion joint was likely originally sealed with a flexcell which ...
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Can aggregate gain almost 200 grams of water when submerged in water for a day?
I'm doing this special project where I have to make concrete using a Martian simulant provided from a commercial source.
I measured it as 500 grams initially, then submerged it in water for a day. It ...
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Why do we use the strain-controlled test for the compressive strength of concrete?
As you all now, a typical stress-strain curve for concrete under compression can be seen in any reinforced concrete design textbook. The decreasing part of the curve (post-peak) can be obtained by ...
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The design of precast concrete-- are they the same with cast-in situ design?
I am curious as to how different is precast concrete design than conventional cast-in situ reinforced concrete design as far as structural engineering is concerned.
To my mind, they should be the ...
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How does Gypsum Concrete work?
When mixed with water how does gypsum act as a binder in creating concrete?
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Raised plywood false floor for heavy equipment usages
I have a electronics assembly company, and we run two assembly lines. They consist of several machines, with the heaviest being around 4000lbs, on 6 metal casters. We currently have the line on a ...
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