ABSTRACT
The latest emerging category of the traditional ceramics are the concretes, which are really composites consisting of rock, gravel, and sand, bonded together by some type of cement. Portland cements, which have been around for a little more than 100 years, contain compounds of calcium, silicon, aluminum, and oxygen [e.g., tricalcium aluminate (Ca3Al20 6)]. The chemical reactions and resulting properties of concretes are well understood and form a technology rather than an art, as compared to some of the older traditional ceramics.
