ABSTRACT
This chapter is about the basic knowledge of concrete technology. You will need the information of this chapter for better learning of the other chapters. It introduces the concrete constituent materials and discusses the effect of water content in concrete production. Concrete workability and the tests related to this subject are the other important issues that are mentioned. The hydration reaction and hardening process of concrete is the next subject of this chapter. Concrete curing after pouring is the other important subject for the quality and durability of concrete structures in the future.
The most important concrete mechanical property is the compressive strength that can read in this chapter and you can also read about the effect of water-to-binder ratio on this property. The next related subject to the compressive strength is the tensile and flexural strength and elastic modules of concrete. The subject of concrete permeability and making water tight structures is the next issue of this chapter.
The subject of concrete structures durability and the effect of environment on concrete elements during time mentioned are discussed in the last part of this chapter. According to this subject, this chapter discusses the alkali-aggregates reaction, carbonation reaction, chloride and sulfate attack to concrete elements, and the effect of freeze thaw cycles on the properties of concrete elements.
This chapter is only an introduction to the subjects mentioned above, and you can find more about them in the following chapters
