Concrete and Culture: a material history

Wiigwaas: Building with Birch in the Great Lakes

“…To illustrate this point, Calder looks to the Pyramid of Khufu, the largest at Giza, writing that "Estimates suggest that it cost around 78 million days of labour, spread over a force of tens of thousands of labourers, probably working for more than a decade." 3 Given current rates of consumption among US residents, every seven people in America use more energy over their course of their lifetimes than the pyramid required for construction. 4 While those seven Americans also consume 28 times more energy than their contemporaries in Bangladesh, 5 their everyday lives likely aren't comparable to the luxurious standard once reserved for the Egyptian Pharaoh.…”

Performance of engineered fibre reinforced concrete (EFRC) under different load regimes: A review

“…In 1824, Portland cement was patented, which later proved to be the most important concrete construction material [15,16]. Today, concrete is regarded as one of the most considerable and universal materials in building construction because of its ability to withstand compressive stress, its heat resistance, durability and enormous flexibility of shape [17]. Concrete is classified as a quasi-brittle material, and there are many small deformations before failure [18].…”

“…In the past, researchers investigated the extent to which the fibres of materials with good tensile properties could be used to reinforce concrete to obtain the required enhancement, as shown in Figure -2 [5,17]. Figure -2 shows the impact of polypropylene (PP) fibre reinforcement on the mechanical properties of concrete, whereby tensile and flexural strengths are significantly increased without any negative influence on compressive strength at the highest percentage of fibre volume (0.3%).…”