Public health, safety, and welfare
For the 2019-2020 school year, the ABET criteria for student outcomes include “an ability to apply engineering design to produce solutions that meet specified needs with consideration of public health, […]
Insights
Concrete exposure classes
Concrete exposure classes are part of a decades-long trend toward performance specifications. Traditionally, specifications were prescriptive. That is, they specified what the concrete must be. So there might be limits […]
The ethics of technical writing
While looking for something else, I happened on the National Society of Professional Engineers (NSPE) Rules of Practice regarding engineering communications. Here’s what they say about the ethics of technical […]
Natural cement in Minnesota and beyond
When we think of cement, it’s usually portland cement, which is made from limestone and clay. In Minnesota, we have to import portland cement because most of the carbonate rock […]
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, […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]