Join the Beton team!
Beton is looking for a Laboratory Manager to join our team. The Laboratory Manager will be responsible for maintenance and operation of laboratory and testing equipment. The Laboratory Manager will schedule […]
Testing
“Classic” alkali-silica reaction
“Classic” alkali-silica reaction is a reaction between alkalis in cement and reactive silicate minerals in susceptible aggregates. The reaction creates a gel that absorbs water and expands, resulting in the […]
Lies, damned lies and statistics
Statistics were part of our everyday lives long before anyone had heard of COVID-19. Pick up a newspaper any day of the week and see how many stories you find […]
What is a pooled sample?
The engineers’ code of ethics requires us to “hold paramount the safety, health, and welfare of the public“. Here’s one way public health officials use statistics to do just that. […]
Hot-weather concreting
As the weather warms up, it’s good to review best practices for hot-weather concreting. The American Concrete Institute defines hot-weather concreting as “one or a combination of the following conditions […]
Making use of marginal fly ash
Electric utilities are under pressure to reduce carbon emissions and other pollutants from their power stations. More and more, they are shutting down their coal-fired plants in favor of natural […]
How many cylinders: a pot roast story
Acceptance testing reflects the compressive strength of the concrete as delivered to the jobsite. We make the cylinders and keep them at the site for 24 hours under—we hope!—controlled conditions, […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]