The Versatility of Concrete Taking the versatility of concrete to mean its ‘adaptability to a wide variety of purposes’, this paper looks at what it is about concrete that lends itself to varied uses and how those many uses reflect concrete’s character By Edwin A.R. Trout, manager of Information Services, The Concrete Society hat there are many and varied uses for concrete and steel in the British Empire, it is progress of concrete in the UK: It is 30 years concrete is indicated by the ‘Little book of hoped that its pages will not only be of interest since reinforced concrete was first used in this Tconcrete’ 1, a marketing document issued country, and during that comparatively brief and of use to those already directly and by British Precast around four years ago, indirectly concerned with the subject under space of time it has steadily advanced to a which sets out 100 advantages gained by using review, but that by their advocacy of what is leading position among the materials of concrete. In the introduction its compiler writes practical and economical in civil and construction. …For nearly every class of of concrete: It is the most commonly used architectural engineering, they will also compel engineering structure, it has become the building material in the world; yet we take what the attention of those who may still be holding standard form of construction and the revision it does for granted – too often this means that aloof from the application of the modern of the Building Acts and bye-laws which is now much of what concrete can offer is overlooked . methods of construction dealt with. In fact, this in progress, will render it even more economical Concrete’s undoubted versatility has been a journal should stimulate interest in all and increase its scope for architectural work. gift to those responsible for its marketing appertaining to concrete and steel, and In the near future it will undoubtedly be used over the years. As the author of this paper works especially in questions relating to their to as great an extent in this country as on the for the Concrete Society, running an information application economically, rapidly and safely 2. Continent and in America. service that started out as the library of the The key phrase above is: ‘economically, Reinforced concrete has been used for the Cement & Concrete Association, it begins by rapidly and safely’. These were attributes that construction of buildings of every possible looking at some examples of how concrete’s concrete was seen to offer the construction type, and future publications in this series will versatility has been promoted over the years by industry. From the very first issue, in a column contain illustrations and descriptions of – these organizations. headed ‘New Uses for Concrete’, the journal churches, cinemas, concert halls, dwelling Concrete & Constructional Engineering , the drew attention to how concrete could be, and houses, factories, flats, garages, hospitals, forerunner of the Concrete Society’s Concrete was being, used around the world. hotels, offices, schools, theatres, warehouses magazine, was launched in 1906. Its editor, the In 1933 the Concrete Society’s immediate etc 3. energetic architect Edwin Sachs, was predecessor was established; the Reinforced Only two years later, in 1935, the Cement & determined to win new markets for concrete: Concrete Association quickly issued the first in Concrete Association (C&CA) was founded As a pioneer journal on the application of a series of Reviews. No.1 reflected on the and its promotional magazine, Concrete ‰ December 2011 www.Agg-Net.com 11 as in the factory, and that opens preoccupation. Portland’s superiority over up many more options for Roman cement, for instance, was demonstrated construction – the method of in a series of published tests by John Grant in placing, size of element possible, the 1860s. This adhesive quality permits the flexibility of form, adjustability of continuous pours that characterize concrete construction programme – though construction and allow it to combine with it does leave concrete vulnerable other materials. The development of cements to charges of inconsistency and has constantly progressed and today there are difficulties in quality control. high-strength specialist compounds, such as There is also the composition of Densit’s CRC, which, since the European concrete. To use a well-worn Concrete Building Project at Cardington, has analogy, concrete technology is acted as the ‘glue’ for bonding precast elements. similar to cake-baking – a wide Plasticity Fig.1. A sprayed-concrete railway wagon variety of results can be achieved by mixing a small number of basic ingredients The consistence or workability of concrete in its Quarterly , was launched after the War in July in varying proportions (eg flour, fat and sugar), plastic state can lie at any point on a continuum 1947. The first issue alone featured dams and choosing a binder (eg eggs or milk), and from a flowable slurry to a stiff mix before coastal defences; bridges, railways, motorways combining extras for special effects (eg fruit, reaching solidity. Its plasticity allows the and bus garages; collieries and power stations; spice, chocolate, essence or food colouring). A concrete not only to be moulded, but also affects water treatment and sewage works; farms; and sticky mixture is usually moulded to the the method of production and placement. A stiff houses and flats. Subsequent issues included: required shape and a change of state takes concrete can be simply tipped down into an stadia and swimming pools; churches and place in the presence of heat. The resulting excavation, but not if the destination is remote, prisons; docks, water towers and silos, among material can then be embellished with a range inaccessible or above the point of discharge many others. of surface treatments if desired (icing, chopped from the mixer. The workability of concrete has The sheer variety of building types and nuts etc). Victoria sandwich is conspicuously allowed for increasing mechanical means of construction sectors is enormous, and far different from Dundee loaf, but the two are placement, eg pumping or spraying. wider than those for which competitive identifiably cakes. The cement gun, as it was originally known, structural materials are used. Each rival This mixing of varying constituent materials used for spraying concrete, was developed in material has its natural uses, where it is affects its character and allows the basics of America in 1911 where it had found a niche role employed to optimum effect, but in structural concrete to be adapted to innumerable in, among other things, constructing concrete terms the compass of most is relatively limited. purposes. Some of these characteristics vary bodies for railway wagons immediately after the Where else would asphalt be used except for little and are common to most concretes. The First World War (fig. 1). Sprayed concrete was paving? Glass is used for windows in all classes next section looks at some of these basic introduced to Britain in 1919. of buildings and as cladding in commercial attributes, and their influence on early As concrete mixed for casting on site has a buildings, and though there have been recent applications, before moving on to look at how limited period in which to be discharged, the moves to use glass structurally, eg in bridges, concrete has specialized in different directions mechanics of production are such that concrete this remains highly exceptional. Clay is widely over the years. can be mixed at a distance, in transit, or on site, used for roofing and wall tiles, and in this in a large static batching plant or in a country is dominant in masonry, particularly in Some inherent wheelbarrow. Mobile mixing of concrete has a the residential sector. Timber is used extensively characteristics of plain long history from the Victorian horse-drawn for floors, partitions and cladding, with an mixer and inter-War concrete train, to the ready- increasing role in frames, most noticeably in concrete mixed concrete industry of today. housing and temporary buildings. Steel is, Hydraulicity Formlessness or fluidity of form perhaps, the closest comparable, arising, like Cement is concrete’s active binding constituent, One of the defining characteristics of concrete concrete, in the later 19th century and and the principal cement of the past 170 years is the lack of its own form. It takes up the shape competing for the attention of engineers and – what commentators such as Winn and Howe into which it is moulded while in its plastic state. architects. It dominates in frames for multi- in the early years of the 20th century have called It is cast – pre- or in situ – into a mould or storey buildings; is widely used for floors, the ‘Concrete Age’ – is Portland cement. formwork, or a void to be filled. Whereas roofing and cladding for commercial and However, there have been other cements cement found its initial uses in mortar or industrial buildings; and is extensively used for during that period and certainly there are stucco applied to brickwork, early concrete took bridges, silos, gantries etc. many cementitious materials on the market the form left for it in the ground as foundations, What is it about concrete that allows it to today, but the development of an artificial or as masonry backing or infill for civil compete in so many markets and to be used in hydraulic cement capable of industrial engineering projects. Volume-produced 40-ton so many ways? What are the characteristics – production was the aim of cement pioneers blocks for Admiralty breakwaters constituted both those inherent to the material and those from Smeaton to Aspdin. The hydraulicity of a an early example of precast manufacture, as did imparted by decades of development – that have proportioned mixture of chalk and mud was the work of the London house builder W.H.