Browse all of our concrete science related research briefs below, or explore by topic via the links in the right side bar (on desktop browsers) or at the bottom of this page (on mobile browsers).
Concrete Science Research Brief: Setting from Statistical Principles
June 1, 2011
A new approach to quantitatively model the formation of cement hydration products, including their mechanical properties is proposed based on basic statistical mechanics. With the bottom-up...
Concrete Science Research Brief: Clinker Grinding at Breaking Point
May 1, 2011
This research highlights that the grinding technology currently in use in the cement industry has significant reserves for substantial energy efficiency improvements. The atomistic approach...
Concrete Science Research Brief: What’s in Your Concrete? (Part 2)
April 1, 2011
This research combines nanoindentation and multivariate statistics to characterize quantitatively the mechanical response and volume fractions of phases in hardened cement paste. The comparable...
Concrete Science Research Brief: Clinker: When Impurities Matter
March 1, 2011
This research highlights the critical role of guest ions on available reactive sites in alite and belite. The novel understanding of the role of impurities on reactivity opens the possibility for...
Concrete Science Research Brief: What’s in Your Concrete? (Part 1)
February 1, 2011
Concrete is defined by its properties in the hardened state. However, these are known to depend strongly on the chemical make-up created by the tens of chemical hydration reactions that take place...
Concrete Science Research Brief: Toughness Simply by Scratching
January 1, 2011
Scratching a weaker material with a tougher one is no doubt the most elemental conceptualization of a materials test ever conceived by mankind. This research highlights the relevance of the...
Concrete Science Research Brief: C-S-H: Water, Water Everywhere
December 1, 2010
This research highlights the importance of the water content within C-S-H on the properties of this nanoscale phase. As water content decreases, the stiffness and strength of the individual...
Concrete Science Research Brief: The Hidden Forces of Setting
November 1, 2010
This research highlights the importance of the interaction forces between the liquid and solid components of cement hydration (clinker, CH, C-S-H, pore solution etc). The approach holds the...
Concrete Science Research Brief: Locking Mercury into Concrete
October 1, 2010
This research suggests that C-S-H can safely host mercury while maintaining full chemical stability and mechanical performance, when less than 2% of calcium sites are exchanged for mercury. To...
Concrete Science Research Brief: Fly Ash is Critical For C-A-S-H
September 1, 2010
This research highlights the beneficial role of aluminum substituting for calcium on chemical stability and performance of C-A-S-H. It suggests that a high amount of aluminum provided by a larger...