Alternative cements Q & A
Q: I’m a designer who’s concerned about carbon emissions. Are alternative cements more environmentally-friendly than portland cement? A: It depends. The best way to find out if an alternative cement […]
Insights
Poems for the Sons of Martha
This is the time of year for graduations. Unfortunately, there won’t be the usual ceremonies and other gatherings to mark the occasion this year. Instead, we offer some classic poems–and […]
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, […]
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 […]