Embodied carbon in concrete
The January 2020 issue of Architect, the journal of the American Institute of Architects, quotes Julie Buffenbarger in its article on zero-net-carbon structural materials. Seeking to reduce the carbon footprint […]
Insights
ASCE concrete canoe competition: what we learned
Every year the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) sponsors a concrete canoe competition. Winners of the regional competitions, along with a few wildcard teams, are eligible for the national […]
MacDonald’s article focuses on seamless concrete floors
Beton’s Kevin MacDonald wrote an article for the Winter 2019/2020 issue of Development magazine about seamless concrete floors for industrial and warehouse applications. Concrete slabs on ground usually have joints […]
Thermal control plans minimize cracking in mass concrete
Specifications for mass concrete require thermal control plans to control cracking. Historically, mass concrete meant dams, but many other structures may be large enough —or have high enough portland-cement contents […]
Specifications for high-performance concrete
When I was a graduate student in the 1980s, papers about high-performance concrete nearly always started out by explaining that “high performance” means more than high strength. Then they went […]
Concrete “permeability” tests
For the most part, so-called concrete “permeability” tests measure something other than permeability. Permeability is the ease with which fluids can move through a porous material. That matters because most […]
I-91 Brattleboro Bridge relied on MacDonald’s expertise
Beton’s Kevin MacDonald designed the concrete mixture proportions and performed thermal control modeling for the I-91 Brattleboro Bridge in Vermont. The bridge took First Place in the Infrastructure Division of […]
Concrete sample size: how big is big enough?
When you submit a concrete sample for petrographic examination, how big a sample do you need? That is, what’s the appropriate concrete sample size? We’ve discussed in previous posts how […]
Buffenbarger featured in ENR article and at ACI session
Julie Buffenbarger, our senior scientist and sustainability principal, was recently quoted in the article, Voices of the Concrete Sector, in the October 14/21 issue of the Engineering News- Record. When […]
Do we expect too much from ASTM C1202?
We often — mistakenly — refer to ASTM C1202, “Standard Test Method for Electrical Indication of Concrete’s Ability to Resist Chloride Ion Penetration,” as the Rapid Chloride Permeability test. Permeability […]