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Why on earth do you move 28 tonnes of cement from southern England to the US to put out a fire! I am of course joking - badly. Portland is in Dorset (UK) and
by gerdesj 4y ago
Why on earth do you move 28 tonnes of cement from southern England to the US to put out a fire!
I am of course joking - badly.
Portland is in Dorset (UK) and is where the eponymous stuff was first extracted along with stone.
This is a novel way to put out fires but a logical one if the temperatures are right. Conc can burn if it's too hot - and it sets/cures with an exothermic reaction. That's why you have to pour it carefully in huge quantities (think dams).
- sbaiddn 4y agoI thought that was funny. Nerdy, but funny. I also am puzzles by the viability of using exothermic cement to smother a rxn
- gerdesj 4y agoPerhaps they had loads of the stuff lying around and found a use for it but conc doesn't work how most people think it does. It is a chemical reaction when you mix and pour it and it does not simply dry out. That's why it works underwater if you are careful to stop currents from winnowing out the cement from the aggregate. It also gives off a lot of heat in volume when curing if you are not careful.
- mnw21cam 4y agoPortland cement isn't called Portland cement because it comes from Portland. It is called that because when set it looks like the stone that could be quarried from Portland. It wasn't originally extracted from Portland.