New Project Addendum-Concrete

As of right now, the new project we alumni are getting our hands on is concrete. Now before I get into detail, let me explain what concrete is. A common misconception is that concrete and cement are the same, which is undoubtedly false. Cement is a chemical binder that holds all the components of concrete together. It is usually made from limestone. Concrete is a composite material made with three specific things: Aggregate, Cement, and Water. Aggregate is basically a construction stew composted of sand, gravel, crushed stone, slag, recycled concrete and some geosynthetic aggregates. Concrete is the most used man made material in the world. Tonnes and tonnes are used yearly by companies around the world. What makes concrete so popular is that its extremely cheap, water resistant, fire resistant, shock resistant, erosion resistant, widely available, very strong, and long lasting(I'm talking centuries long lasting). It's also one of the oldest construction material; used since the Ancient Roman years. 

OK. Now that you got some knowledge on that, lets progress to denizen. I don't know what our project is going to be just yet. Once I find out, I'll update the blog. Currently we were just finishing two things. A concrete mixture test and a concrete slump test. Te concrete mixture test was a trial and error test to see what mixtures of concrete were the best when we put them to the test in the strength test. We let the mixtures harden and dropped them from a specific height. We would record the amount of damage the concrete sustained. If the concrete was damaged badly, there was too little water. If there was little to no damage, the concrete had a good mixture. After we found out our optimum formulas, we go to the slump tests. Concrete slump tests are test made for freshly made concrete to test their flexibility and strength. There are three types of slump out comes: Collapse, Shear, and True Slump. A collapse is self explanatory. The whole slump, which the concrete is placed in called a slump core, falls apart into a pile of gelatinous goop. A shear is when the slump maintains part of its shape, but one side collapsed or sunk in. A true slump is the optimum slump. It is when the slump keeps its shape but sinks slightly, buckling the middle to cause it to sink at least 1/3 of its size. This is an important step because our mixtures must achieve a true slump in order for the concrete to be optimal.

Currently, we just finished our slump test and strength test. Now we move onto the phase we our currently in; Strength test II. But now its a twist. Previously, we each got our own chocolate bunnies(which was delicious by the way J.A) that we ate and took the plastic moldings they came in. Today, well yesterday, we sprayed the moldings with PAM to prevent sticking and poured in concrete with two different compositions. The normal one had just concrete. Nothing more. Nothing less. The experimental one had nylon fibers placed into it to see if that will improve the structural integrity of the concrete. We will make more bunnies then put them into a stress test to see when the bunnies will crack at what weight. Personally, I believe this is fun. And i believe it can only get better.