NEW, COOL, and INTERESTING

New …

Extreme Makeover: Internet Edition – Site Renovation transforms schmitzmix.com Into Your Concrete Connection. To view the press release, click here.

Cool …

• Concrete Plays Key Role In Green Building Design. Click here for details.

• Reactive Powder Concrete | A new material has recently become available in the United States demonstrating greatly improved strength and durability characteristics compared with traditional or even high-performance concrete. Classified as Ultra-High Performance Concrete (UHPC), or Reactive Powder Concrete (RPC), the material consist of a concrete using sand as its largest aggregate and fine steel fibers distributed within the concrete. Learn more by clicking here.

RCP Case Study: Qinghai-Tibet Railway – The Qinghai-Tibet Railway lies in the west area of China at an altitude of more than 4,000 meters. The 576-km railway is being built on frozen earth. The bad climate and sandstorms of the tundra require the concrete of the bridge to have superior mechanical properties and high durability. By adding portland cement, silica fume, super-fine fly ash, and superplasticizers, reactive powder concrete (RPC) is used in the sidewalk systems of bridges with compressive strength of 160 MPa. The research shows that RPC has high strength, excellent frost durability, and impermeability.  Learn more by clicking here (296 KB PDF)

More than 75 global experts presented their research results and practical experiences with Reactive Powder Concrete (RPC) at the International Symposium on Ultra High Performance Concrete, which took place in September, 2004, at the University of Kassel, Germany. To request an English-language version of the Symposium Proceedings, click here.

• Smog-Eating Concrete | A new type of concrete can clear the air by dissolving pollutants.  Using light and air, photocatalytic concrete breaks down organic and inorganic substances responsible for air pollution.  Cement used to make the concrete is treated with titanium dioxide, which reacts with ultraviolet light to decompose pollutants such as smog-forming nitrogen oxides. To learn more, click here.

• Translucent Concrete | A Hungarian architect has combined the world’s most popular building material with optical fiber from Schott to create a new type of concrete that transmits light. A wall made of “LitraCon” purportedly has the strength of traditional concrete but thanks to an embedded array of glass fibers can display a view of the outside world, for example the silhouette of a tree.  Learn more by clicking here.

Several variations of translucent concrete are presently on display as part of a National Building Museum exhibit called Liquid Stone: New Architecture in Concrete. Check out the Liquid Stone web site by clicking here (requires Macromedia Flash Player).  The entire site is fascinating ... Translucent Concrete is featured in Future of Concrete section of the site.

Interesting …

• Blended Fiber Solutions combine an engineered mix of polypropylene fibers and high performance steel fibers, ideal for concrete mixes in commercial slab-on-grade or composite metal deck applications. Click here for details.

• Blended Cements | Cement mixtures containing ordinary portland cement (OPC) and at least one supplementary cementitious material (SCM) are called blended cements. Benefits of blended cements include: Improved concrete workability, lower risk of thermal cracking, improved concrete durability and long-term strength, and reduced in-place concrete cost. To learn more, from an Iowa State University Research Study, click here (214 KB PDF).

For more information on SCMs and ready-mixed concrete, click here (137 KB PDF).

• Self-Compacting Concrete | Self-compacting concrete (SCC) is a relatively new product that sees the addition of superplasticizers and a stabilizer to the concrete mix to significantly increase the ease and rate of flow.  The non-segregating mix fills formwork and encapsulates reinforcement without consolidation, saving time and improving the quality of the in-place concrete. To learn more, click here.

For technical information about SCC, click here (195 KB PDF).

• Pervious Concrete | It looks like a rice crispy treat and leaks like a sieve, which is precisely why it's so attractive to a growing number of Wisconsin communities.  It is called pervious concrete, one of several new and environmentally-friendly technologies developed to help communities better manage the myriad of problems associated with storm water runoff.  To learn more, click here.

An article in Land Development Today provides a good summary of why, in a world of green aspirations and expensive land, pervious concrete is one of the hottest topics for land developers. Click here to view the article.

For technical information about pervious concrete, click here (746 KB PDF).

• Performance-Based Specifications Concrete | A shift to Performance Specifications for concrete focuses on innovation, quality and customer satisfaction.  To learn more about the Prescriptive to Performance Initiative (P2P), click here (157 KB PDF).

A performance specification is a set of instructions outlining the functional requirements and performance characteristics for ready-mixed concrete, based on the specific project application.  Performance specifications leverage the expertise of all parties in the construction process – producers, contractors, engineers, and architects – improving the quality of concrete construction.  They also elevate the performance level of the concrete industry while fostering innovation and market acceptance of new concrete technologies. To learn more, click here (1 MB PDF).

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