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Is it beyond our capabilities to come up with a new composition of concrete that involves finer grains of sand? Maybe it is not as strong, but it seems like ne

Is it beyond our capabilities to come up with a new composition of concrete that involves finer grains of sand? Maybe it is not as strong, but it seems like necessity should involve some compromises.

dmurray 8y ago
I've thought the same thing every time I read a sand article. Surely this is a promising field in materials science, but I never hear anything about it.
CGamesPlay 8y ago
I think that's basically plaster of paris? Practical Engineering did a good demonstration of different concrete ingredients: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UOHURuAf5iY&vl=en https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UOHURuAf5iY&vl=en
- maxerickson 8y ago
  Plaster of Paris is a different cement than the Portland Cement mostly used in concrete. A big difference is that it isn't waterproof.
hexane360 8y ago
It's pretty easy to increase the grain size of a material - ceramics processing does it all the time with spray dryers. The problem comes down more to a) composition and b) cost of processing. Sand is highly naturally refined - rivers and the ocean break down almost everything but silica, and the entire erosion process acts like one giant particle size sorting machine. "clay" and "silt" etc. are purely descriptions of size; they can vary widely in chemical makeup, and most of those variations will negatively impact concretion.
tomatotomato37 8y ago
A push to switch over to manufactored sand would work well enough. I'm sure once the technology improves and the big players successfully vertical integrate it into their own process than the demand for natural will drop, like what happened with paper companies switching over to their own tree plantations over harvesting random forest
anfilt 8y ago
Different grains sizes and shape effect strength. There are different grades of concrete. So while it might be acceptable for some things. Moreover any major civil engineering project is going to make sure a proper Sieve analysis is performed on all the concrete filler material. to make sure it conforms to the requirements.
trhway 8y ago
>new composition of concrete that involves finer grains of sand i think the new building technologies based on 3D printing may be an opening for the finer grain sand.
DoctorOetker 8y ago
perhaps some kind of solar pairwise sintering?

Is it beyond our capabilities to come up with a new composition of concrete that involves finer grains of sand? Maybe it is not as strong, but it seems like necessity should involve some compromises.

dmurray 8y ago

I've thought the same thing every time I read a sand article. Surely this is a promising field in materials science, but I never hear anything about it.

CGamesPlay 8y ago

I think that's basically plaster of paris? Practical Engineering did a good demonstration of different concrete ingredients: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UOHURuAf5iY&vl=en https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UOHURuAf5iY&vl=en

maxerickson 8y ago
Plaster of Paris is a different cement than the Portland Cement mostly used in concrete. A big difference is that it isn't waterproof.

hexane360 8y ago

It's pretty easy to increase the grain size of a material - ceramics processing does it all the time with spray dryers. The problem comes down more to a) composition and b) cost of processing. Sand is highly naturally refined - rivers and the ocean break down almost everything but silica, and the entire erosion process acts like one giant particle size sorting machine. "clay" and "silt" etc. are purely descriptions of size; they can vary widely in chemical makeup, and most of those variations will negatively impact concretion.

tomatotomato37 8y ago

A push to switch over to manufactored sand would work well enough. I'm sure once the technology improves and the big players successfully vertical integrate it into their own process than the demand for natural will drop, like what happened with paper companies switching over to their own tree plantations over harvesting random forest

anfilt 8y ago

Different grains sizes and shape effect strength. There are different grades of concrete. So while it might be acceptable for some things. Moreover any major civil engineering project is going to make sure a proper Sieve analysis is performed on all the concrete filler material. to make sure it conforms to the requirements.

trhway 8y ago

>new composition of concrete that involves finer grains of sand i think the new building technologies based on 3D printing may be an opening for the finer grain sand.

DoctorOetker 8y ago

perhaps some kind of solar pairwise sintering?