ADVANCED CONSTRUCTION LECTURE 1: HISTORY CONCRETE
CONSTRUCTION HISTORY CONCRETE
What is concrete?
- A blend of aggregates bound together by a hydraulic binder= stiffens out when water is
added
- It is simply a blend of aggregates, normally natural sand and gravel or crushed rock.
These are bound together by a hydraulic binder e.g. Portland Cement and activated by
water to form a dense semi homogenous mass.
- Concrete is very strong in resisting compression. In use where tensile stresses have
to be accommodated reinforcement is incorporated into the concrete to absorb tension.
Concrete is the most widely used construction material. It allows flexibility in structural
form as it can be moulded into a multiplicity of shapes.
➔ Small stories:
o Concrete is the second most used material on earth after water
o Concrete production contributes 5% of annual global CO2 production.
o Concrete in the middle of the Hoover Dam, opened in 1936, is still drying out
o The largest ever, unreinforced concrete dome construction is the Pantheon in
Rome, which is over 2000 years old
Terms:
- Isotropic= same characteristics in all directions, as strong in all directions (iron)
➔ Homogeneous isotropic (cast iron)
➔ Inhomogeneous isotropic (CLT)
- Anisotropic= different characteristics in all directions, weak and string direction (timber)
➔ Inhomogeneous anisotropic= reinforced concrete
- External anisotropy= you can make a shape with by example steel, it is strong in one
direction, but not in all directions (I- H profile)
- Internal anisotropy= reinforced concrete, uses two materials
➔ It has two layers of structural control: you can choose the shape in an intelligent way, so
it doesn’t use too much material but it’s still strong enough and you can choose the
number of reinforcement, so you have two factors that have an impact on the strength
Historical overview concrete
Around 300 BC: the Romans start to build extensively using "opus caementicium"
- The next significant advancement in Roman lime-mortar was the addition of crushed
tiles and brick, composed of burned clay. With the burned clay-lime mix, Romans had
discovered their first hydraulic cement. Romans used this water resistant mortar,
known by the Ancient Romans as opus signinum, to build water infrastructure such as
the many aquaducts, used to carry water over large distances into the city, and the many
castella, large cisterns used to hold, filter, and distribute water throughout the city
(Vitruvius, c. 15 BC).
- The most significant change in Ancient Roman lime mortar was the accidental addition
of pozzolana, the sand-like volcanic ash known as pitsand to the Ancient Romans.
Lime mortar was often mixed with sand. In fact, Vitruvius accounts of three types of
sand, each with varying properties. These included river sand, marine sand, and
pitsand, sand that was excavated from the ground in pits surrounding Naples. These
sands frequently were interchanged in the lime mortar and eventually, the Ancient
Romans realized the pitsand, actually strengthened the mortar and allowed for
,ADVANCED CONSTRUCTION LECTURE 1: HISTORY CONCRETE
underwater curing. With this, Romans had discovered their second form of hydraulic
cement. The pozzolana-lime based cement was used to construct large maritime and
structural works that needed the upmost highest bonding quality.
➔ The sand was only there in the region of Pompeii, so it was very regional
- The Ancient Roman’s concrete consisted of a mix of volcanic ash or also known as
Pozzolana, lime, and water to make a mortar. The mortar was then mixed with the
aggregate, often chunks of rock, to create Ancient Roman concrete. Once the mortar and
aggregates mixed, they needed to be placed and eventually would harden to give the
concrete its strength. The volcanic ash or Pozzolana contains both silica and alumina
which proved crucial for a chemical reaction.
- When saltwater comes into contact with Ancient Roman Concrete, a chemical reaction
happens between the Pozzolana, lime, and saltwater to create a rare crystal called
Tobermorite. This makes that you can use this mortar underwater.
- In Ancient Rome, Vitruvius eludes that they used two materials with pozzolanic
properties. The first one, Vitruvius referred to as pitsand. Pitsand was the natural sand-
like pozzolanic ash that was found by digging large open holes close to the surface.
The second pozzolan material the Ancient Romans used was crushed brick, which was
burned clay. Although today we consider both burned clay and natural pozzolanic ash as
pozzolonic materials, in Vitruvius’s writing, pozzolana only refers to the volcanic ash
known as pitsand.
Antique concrete walls, Ostia IT, 3rd century BC
For the Romans’ grander and more artful structures, as
well as their landbased infrastructure requiring more
durability, they made cement from a naturally reactive
volcanic sand called harena fossicia. For marine
structures and those exposed to fresh water, such as
bridges, docks, storm drains and aqueducts, they used a
volcanic sand called pozzolana. These two materials
probably represent the first large-scale use of a truly
cementicious binding agent. Pozzolana and harena
fossicia react chemically with lime and water to hydrate
and solidify into a rock-like mass that can be used
underwater.
➔ The bricks here were only used as a mall, where they pour in the concrete
➔ A lot of times the seawater took away a most of the pozzolana before it even had the
chance to react with the water and dry, that’s why it sometimes was not so successfull
Pantheon in Rome, 125 AD
The Pantheon Dome is one of the most famous structures built
from Ancient Roman concrete that can be seen in-person
today. The dome was completed around 125 AD, during the
reign of Emperor Hadrian. The Pantheon Dome was designed
as a temple for the Roman gods. At the time of construction, it
was the largest dome built. And today it is the largest
unreinforced concrete dome. The Romans were very cautious
and creative when designing and constructing the Pantheon
Dome. The aggregates used in the concrete became lighter
,ADVANCED CONSTRUCTION LECTURE 1: HISTORY CONCRETE
as the dome was constructed towards the middle. This allowed the
middle of the dome to be less dense thus putting less stress on the dome
itself. Currently, researchers are exploring how the Ancient Roman
concrete technology can be utilized to make modern concrete more
durable.
How do the Romans pass the knowledge and information?
➔ Roman guilds and legions (ambachten en legioenen)
Another secret to the success of the Romans was their use of trade guilds. Each trade had a
guild whose members were responsible for passing their knowledge of materials, techniques
and tools to apprentices and to the Roman Legions. In addition to fighting, the legions were
trained to be selfsufficient, so they were also trained in construction methods and engineering.
Three direct causes led to losing the knowledge of hydraulic cement.
- Firstly, the poor economic state and lack of funding halted major construction projects.
With little construction occurring for over a century, the demand of knowledgeable
craftsmen and contractors vastly decreased.
- Secondly, the barbarian sack of 410 AD caused the few remaining craftsmen and
contractors to flee to the countryside. Once out of the city, these families continued on
substance living in which knowledge of hydraulic concrete quickly became unwarranted.
- Lastly, as the Middle Ages progressed, political and economic focus moved away from
Rome and into Northern European cities such as London, Paris, and Cologne. Thus, the
natural pozzolanic ash that was vital for the hydraulic cement was geographically
absent. As a result, the knowledge of hydraulic cement was thus forgotten for over a
millennium.
Now there’s a big gap to the 18 th century
Eddystone Lighthouse, Plymouth, John Smeaton, 1759
After the fall of the Roman Empire in 476 AD, the techniques for making
pozzolan cement were lost until the discovery in 1414 of manuscripts
describing those techniques rekindled interest in building with concrete. It
was not until 1756, when an English civil engineer named John Smeaton
was tasked with the rebuilding of the Eddystone lighthouse that hydraulic
lime cement was rediscovered.
Smeaton experimented heavily on lime with many different admixtures and
eventually discovered a hydraulic lime by combining clay with quicklime.
The clay Smeaton used contained multiple impurities that shared similar
chemical compounds with the pozzolanic ash the Romans used. With this,
Smeaton had developed the first hydraulic cement in over a millennium.
Smeaton’s clay-lime cement opened to the door to the advancement of modern cement.
In 1796, James Parker, a cement manufacturer, showed that by grinding the burned lime into
powder, the gel making process was greatly accelerated and improved. The finely powdered
, ADVANCED CONSTRUCTION LECTURE 1: HISTORY CONCRETE
form of quicklime and clay has a large surface area to volume ration and thus increases the total
surface area in which hydration can more readily take place with the additions of water.
Since then, it has been common practice to produce cement in a finely powdered form that can
be mixed with water and hydrated on site. By the way: after 126 years, the Eddystone Lighthouse
failed due to erosion of the rock upon which it stood.
Portland cement
Smeaton's invention would soon be adapted by another inventor from Leeds. Joseph Aspdin
was born in 1779 and learned his trade as a bricklayer and plasterer
In 1824, Aspdin invented Portland cement by burning finely limestone, cooling it, and then
adding clay and burning it again in a kiln until the carbon dioxide was removed. It was named
“Portland” cement because it resembled the high-quality building stones found in Portland,
England. It’s widely believed that Aspdin was the first to heat alumina and silica materials to the
point of vitrification, resulting in fusion. This process was called “sintering”. Aspdin refined his
method by carefully proportioning limestone and clay, pulverizing them, and then burning the
mixture into clinker, which was then ground into finished cement.
This concrete mixture did not depend upon CO2 (just water which chemically reacts, joining
molecules together in what is an inorganic polymer), nor did it need volcanic ash, but could be
produced from minerals quarried in Leeds where Aspdin lived. He used coal for heating from
mines nearby.
Concrete boat, Joseph-Louis Lambot, 1848
Joseph-Louis Lambot is the inventor of ferro-
cement, which led to the development of what is
now known as reinforced concrete. It is around
1841 that he started constructing water tanks
using cement mortar (masonry) and iron
reinforcement most likely in the form of iron rods,
chicken wire (which was invented in Britain in 1844
and used for shipping crates) and possibly barrel bands that were easily available with the arrival
of the machine age. In 1848 he constructed his first boat using the same system, which he
tested on ponds on the estate.
➔ First one to use reinforced concrete, but didn’t take a patent on it. We know Monier as
the inventor of reinforced concrete
Arrangement of bars at Monets concept, 1849
Joseph Monier, a French gardener, was among many who noticed this. At age 23, he began
working at the famous Tuileries Gardens in Paris, where he was responsible for the orangery. In
order to strengthen the concrete containers, he reinforced them with embedded iron meshes.
The conventional wisdom of the 19th century held that the iron mesh would expand and
contract as the temperature varied and this flexing would crack the concrete sooner. But Monier
proved otherwise. Joseph Monier would become one of the biggest promoters of reinforced
concrete. He exhibited his invention at the Paris Exposition of 1867, and took out a patent the
same year.
CONSTRUCTION HISTORY CONCRETE
What is concrete?
- A blend of aggregates bound together by a hydraulic binder= stiffens out when water is
added
- It is simply a blend of aggregates, normally natural sand and gravel or crushed rock.
These are bound together by a hydraulic binder e.g. Portland Cement and activated by
water to form a dense semi homogenous mass.
- Concrete is very strong in resisting compression. In use where tensile stresses have
to be accommodated reinforcement is incorporated into the concrete to absorb tension.
Concrete is the most widely used construction material. It allows flexibility in structural
form as it can be moulded into a multiplicity of shapes.
➔ Small stories:
o Concrete is the second most used material on earth after water
o Concrete production contributes 5% of annual global CO2 production.
o Concrete in the middle of the Hoover Dam, opened in 1936, is still drying out
o The largest ever, unreinforced concrete dome construction is the Pantheon in
Rome, which is over 2000 years old
Terms:
- Isotropic= same characteristics in all directions, as strong in all directions (iron)
➔ Homogeneous isotropic (cast iron)
➔ Inhomogeneous isotropic (CLT)
- Anisotropic= different characteristics in all directions, weak and string direction (timber)
➔ Inhomogeneous anisotropic= reinforced concrete
- External anisotropy= you can make a shape with by example steel, it is strong in one
direction, but not in all directions (I- H profile)
- Internal anisotropy= reinforced concrete, uses two materials
➔ It has two layers of structural control: you can choose the shape in an intelligent way, so
it doesn’t use too much material but it’s still strong enough and you can choose the
number of reinforcement, so you have two factors that have an impact on the strength
Historical overview concrete
Around 300 BC: the Romans start to build extensively using "opus caementicium"
- The next significant advancement in Roman lime-mortar was the addition of crushed
tiles and brick, composed of burned clay. With the burned clay-lime mix, Romans had
discovered their first hydraulic cement. Romans used this water resistant mortar,
known by the Ancient Romans as opus signinum, to build water infrastructure such as
the many aquaducts, used to carry water over large distances into the city, and the many
castella, large cisterns used to hold, filter, and distribute water throughout the city
(Vitruvius, c. 15 BC).
- The most significant change in Ancient Roman lime mortar was the accidental addition
of pozzolana, the sand-like volcanic ash known as pitsand to the Ancient Romans.
Lime mortar was often mixed with sand. In fact, Vitruvius accounts of three types of
sand, each with varying properties. These included river sand, marine sand, and
pitsand, sand that was excavated from the ground in pits surrounding Naples. These
sands frequently were interchanged in the lime mortar and eventually, the Ancient
Romans realized the pitsand, actually strengthened the mortar and allowed for
,ADVANCED CONSTRUCTION LECTURE 1: HISTORY CONCRETE
underwater curing. With this, Romans had discovered their second form of hydraulic
cement. The pozzolana-lime based cement was used to construct large maritime and
structural works that needed the upmost highest bonding quality.
➔ The sand was only there in the region of Pompeii, so it was very regional
- The Ancient Roman’s concrete consisted of a mix of volcanic ash or also known as
Pozzolana, lime, and water to make a mortar. The mortar was then mixed with the
aggregate, often chunks of rock, to create Ancient Roman concrete. Once the mortar and
aggregates mixed, they needed to be placed and eventually would harden to give the
concrete its strength. The volcanic ash or Pozzolana contains both silica and alumina
which proved crucial for a chemical reaction.
- When saltwater comes into contact with Ancient Roman Concrete, a chemical reaction
happens between the Pozzolana, lime, and saltwater to create a rare crystal called
Tobermorite. This makes that you can use this mortar underwater.
- In Ancient Rome, Vitruvius eludes that they used two materials with pozzolanic
properties. The first one, Vitruvius referred to as pitsand. Pitsand was the natural sand-
like pozzolanic ash that was found by digging large open holes close to the surface.
The second pozzolan material the Ancient Romans used was crushed brick, which was
burned clay. Although today we consider both burned clay and natural pozzolanic ash as
pozzolonic materials, in Vitruvius’s writing, pozzolana only refers to the volcanic ash
known as pitsand.
Antique concrete walls, Ostia IT, 3rd century BC
For the Romans’ grander and more artful structures, as
well as their landbased infrastructure requiring more
durability, they made cement from a naturally reactive
volcanic sand called harena fossicia. For marine
structures and those exposed to fresh water, such as
bridges, docks, storm drains and aqueducts, they used a
volcanic sand called pozzolana. These two materials
probably represent the first large-scale use of a truly
cementicious binding agent. Pozzolana and harena
fossicia react chemically with lime and water to hydrate
and solidify into a rock-like mass that can be used
underwater.
➔ The bricks here were only used as a mall, where they pour in the concrete
➔ A lot of times the seawater took away a most of the pozzolana before it even had the
chance to react with the water and dry, that’s why it sometimes was not so successfull
Pantheon in Rome, 125 AD
The Pantheon Dome is one of the most famous structures built
from Ancient Roman concrete that can be seen in-person
today. The dome was completed around 125 AD, during the
reign of Emperor Hadrian. The Pantheon Dome was designed
as a temple for the Roman gods. At the time of construction, it
was the largest dome built. And today it is the largest
unreinforced concrete dome. The Romans were very cautious
and creative when designing and constructing the Pantheon
Dome. The aggregates used in the concrete became lighter
,ADVANCED CONSTRUCTION LECTURE 1: HISTORY CONCRETE
as the dome was constructed towards the middle. This allowed the
middle of the dome to be less dense thus putting less stress on the dome
itself. Currently, researchers are exploring how the Ancient Roman
concrete technology can be utilized to make modern concrete more
durable.
How do the Romans pass the knowledge and information?
➔ Roman guilds and legions (ambachten en legioenen)
Another secret to the success of the Romans was their use of trade guilds. Each trade had a
guild whose members were responsible for passing their knowledge of materials, techniques
and tools to apprentices and to the Roman Legions. In addition to fighting, the legions were
trained to be selfsufficient, so they were also trained in construction methods and engineering.
Three direct causes led to losing the knowledge of hydraulic cement.
- Firstly, the poor economic state and lack of funding halted major construction projects.
With little construction occurring for over a century, the demand of knowledgeable
craftsmen and contractors vastly decreased.
- Secondly, the barbarian sack of 410 AD caused the few remaining craftsmen and
contractors to flee to the countryside. Once out of the city, these families continued on
substance living in which knowledge of hydraulic concrete quickly became unwarranted.
- Lastly, as the Middle Ages progressed, political and economic focus moved away from
Rome and into Northern European cities such as London, Paris, and Cologne. Thus, the
natural pozzolanic ash that was vital for the hydraulic cement was geographically
absent. As a result, the knowledge of hydraulic cement was thus forgotten for over a
millennium.
Now there’s a big gap to the 18 th century
Eddystone Lighthouse, Plymouth, John Smeaton, 1759
After the fall of the Roman Empire in 476 AD, the techniques for making
pozzolan cement were lost until the discovery in 1414 of manuscripts
describing those techniques rekindled interest in building with concrete. It
was not until 1756, when an English civil engineer named John Smeaton
was tasked with the rebuilding of the Eddystone lighthouse that hydraulic
lime cement was rediscovered.
Smeaton experimented heavily on lime with many different admixtures and
eventually discovered a hydraulic lime by combining clay with quicklime.
The clay Smeaton used contained multiple impurities that shared similar
chemical compounds with the pozzolanic ash the Romans used. With this,
Smeaton had developed the first hydraulic cement in over a millennium.
Smeaton’s clay-lime cement opened to the door to the advancement of modern cement.
In 1796, James Parker, a cement manufacturer, showed that by grinding the burned lime into
powder, the gel making process was greatly accelerated and improved. The finely powdered
, ADVANCED CONSTRUCTION LECTURE 1: HISTORY CONCRETE
form of quicklime and clay has a large surface area to volume ration and thus increases the total
surface area in which hydration can more readily take place with the additions of water.
Since then, it has been common practice to produce cement in a finely powdered form that can
be mixed with water and hydrated on site. By the way: after 126 years, the Eddystone Lighthouse
failed due to erosion of the rock upon which it stood.
Portland cement
Smeaton's invention would soon be adapted by another inventor from Leeds. Joseph Aspdin
was born in 1779 and learned his trade as a bricklayer and plasterer
In 1824, Aspdin invented Portland cement by burning finely limestone, cooling it, and then
adding clay and burning it again in a kiln until the carbon dioxide was removed. It was named
“Portland” cement because it resembled the high-quality building stones found in Portland,
England. It’s widely believed that Aspdin was the first to heat alumina and silica materials to the
point of vitrification, resulting in fusion. This process was called “sintering”. Aspdin refined his
method by carefully proportioning limestone and clay, pulverizing them, and then burning the
mixture into clinker, which was then ground into finished cement.
This concrete mixture did not depend upon CO2 (just water which chemically reacts, joining
molecules together in what is an inorganic polymer), nor did it need volcanic ash, but could be
produced from minerals quarried in Leeds where Aspdin lived. He used coal for heating from
mines nearby.
Concrete boat, Joseph-Louis Lambot, 1848
Joseph-Louis Lambot is the inventor of ferro-
cement, which led to the development of what is
now known as reinforced concrete. It is around
1841 that he started constructing water tanks
using cement mortar (masonry) and iron
reinforcement most likely in the form of iron rods,
chicken wire (which was invented in Britain in 1844
and used for shipping crates) and possibly barrel bands that were easily available with the arrival
of the machine age. In 1848 he constructed his first boat using the same system, which he
tested on ponds on the estate.
➔ First one to use reinforced concrete, but didn’t take a patent on it. We know Monier as
the inventor of reinforced concrete
Arrangement of bars at Monets concept, 1849
Joseph Monier, a French gardener, was among many who noticed this. At age 23, he began
working at the famous Tuileries Gardens in Paris, where he was responsible for the orangery. In
order to strengthen the concrete containers, he reinforced them with embedded iron meshes.
The conventional wisdom of the 19th century held that the iron mesh would expand and
contract as the temperature varied and this flexing would crack the concrete sooner. But Monier
proved otherwise. Joseph Monier would become one of the biggest promoters of reinforced
concrete. He exhibited his invention at the Paris Exposition of 1867, and took out a patent the
same year.
