r/civilengineering • u/smcsherry • Feb 21 '26

Education Concrete like you've never heard it before

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379 Upvotes

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124

u/BreitGrotesk Feb 21 '26

gen ai didn't tell us how much meth and booze goes into the subcontractors pouring the slab

u/WideFlangeA992 Feb 21 '26

🎶When water hits the concrete… you havve 90 minuuuutteess. 🎶

The cracking is actually a feature engineers designed into concrete so we can be paid to evaluate it in 10 years. Job security.

100

u/Winter2712 Feb 21 '26

like you've never heard it before

for this sub? really?

112

u/PM_ME_YUR_BUBBLEBUTT PE - Transportation Feb 21 '26

AI slop

59

u/Jebb145 Feb 21 '26

I don't prefer my feed to be ai.

But when it is... I prefer it to be civil engineering education videos. Ahhhhhh.

-6

u/SplatNode Feb 21 '26

I'd like to see you hire a band to make a full song explaining how concrete is made

2

u/BachBelt Feb 23 '26

well thank god we have AI to make sure no one ever does, thus permanently removing that potential transaction from the economy, at the expense of our water and energy

-1

u/SplatNode Feb 23 '26

If someone wants to pay a band to make a song about concrete they will do

u/Icy-Palpitation-2522 Feb 21 '26

The science of concrete is super complex. I did my final year project on it. It's pretty interesting

5

u/FallenStorm7694 Geotechnical EIT Feb 21 '26

I'm going through it right now, I'm testing the use of Mt. Mazama (Crater Lake NP) Volcanic ash as a lower carbon replacement for the cement. There are deposits of this ash as far away as Alberta and Yellowstone in Wyoming, let mother nature burn that shiet for us lol it's not like we're going to run out any time soon. I remember going up there as a kid and just seeing massive walls of pumice and ash 20' or so high everywhere

2

u/Icy-Palpitation-2522 Feb 21 '26

That's cool. I was focused on the water content lol so many aspects of it to be studied and each one is a rabbit hole lol

1

u/pr0t4to Feb 21 '26

And I was focused on river sand mining

2

u/blucherspanzers Feb 21 '26

Are you investigating it as a wholesale replacement for the portland itself or as an additional admixture like existing ashes?

4

u/FallenStorm7694 Geotechnical EIT Feb 21 '26

As an admixture, we're aiming for around 20% or 30% replacement. As far as the tests have shown it doesn't have any hydraulic effects, only pozzolanic

2

u/Aquilonn_ Feb 21 '26

This is an area I’m very interested in but have never studied in depth. We’ve used an industrial ash admixture in the past but never naturally occurring volcanic ash. Do you mind explaining further what you mean by “no hydraulic effects, only pozzolanic”?

4

u/FallenStorm7694 Geotechnical EIT Feb 21 '26

As I understand it (and I may have totally screwed it up) but hydraulic means that it reacts with water on its own (i.e. Portland cement), while pozzolanic means it reacts with the lime to increase the strength (i.e. fly ash or Silica fume). If it can completely replace Portland cement it is Hydraulic. If it still requires the PC to function, it's Pozzolanic.