Advances in materials applied in civil engineering

https://doi.org/10.1016/S0924-0136(00)00611-7Get rights and content

Abstract

This paper outlines the problems of the construction materials being used in civil engineering at the end of the 20th century and also of the construction materials of the future. The progress that have been made in the domain of basic construction materials such as steel and concrete over the 19th and 20th centuries is analysed. It is described how new materials such as carbon fibre reinforced polymer, high-strength concrete and high-performance concrete, create the possibilities of a further development. New opportunities for modern glued-timber structures are also presented. The limitations of the application of glass and plastics as construction materials are indicated.

Introduction

Civil engineering — the art of construction of all kinds of buildings — has been at man’s service since the beginning of civilisation evolution. These buildings are dwelling as well as public buildings, industrial buildings, bridges, viaducts, tunnels, roads and railways, highways and airports, liquid reservoirs and loose-material containers, weirs, dams, offshore structures, TV towers, and a lot of other structures that form the environment that we live in.

Human activity in the field of civil engineering goes far back into the past, when man observing nature around him began to imitate and to improve it in order to create safer and better living conditions. Moreover, relatively early he noticed that his engineering “works” apart from reliability, durability and functionality had to have elements of harmony and beauty. The same opinion was expressed by Socrates when he said that everything created by man should be functional, durable and beautiful.

The development of civil engineering in the course of centuries meant a constant struggle with available materials, spans, or height, active loads and the forces of nature — water, fire, wind and earthquakes. Some of those elements have primary and the other secondary significance. Amongst those mentioned first, an essential role has always been attributed to the influence of the material on construction development.

First of all, ancient communities had at their disposal natural materials such as stone and timber. In the course of time, they learned how to use clay to form bricks, an artificial stones, which were first dried only in the sun and then baked. In the main civilisation centres (the Middle East, the Near East, and the Mediterranean region) the hot climate and inconsiderate economy led, in a short time, to the elimination of timber as a building material. It did not happen in the wood-abounding countries of Middle and Eastern Europe, Scandinavian and the Asiatic part of Russia.

Stone and brick — brittle materials — dominated civil engineering in the region of European civilisation for several centuries: from stone pyramids in Egypt 3000 years b.c. until the so-called First Industrial Revolution in England (the turn of the 18th and 19th centuries). They were suitable building materials for erecting walls and columns but at the same time, due to their low tensile bending strength, they caused a lot of problems in horizontal elements. Therefore a vaulted arch that was popular in ancient Rome, semicircular in its primary form, was the pattern that was to be employed for elements or structures of larger span.

The arch in the course of time became lighter and less massive. The ratio of span-to-width of piers carrying vertical and horizontal loads became increasingly greater. During the early Middle Ages no improvements were implemented. It was not until Gothic and the Renaissance that new forms and ideas were introduced. However, still they were always based on elements that were in the forms of arches, curvilinear vaults with more and more developed forms (e.g. cloister vault, cross vault, barrel vault, lierne vault). The arch changed from semicircular to segmental (e.g. Ponte Vecchio in Florence) and finally to elliptical (e.g. Ponte Santa Trinita in Florence). Stone and brick cupolas based on a circle or a polygon appeared as an alternative construction solution (e.g. Santa Maria del Fiore in Florence).

In the Baroque, Rococo and Neo-classicism the basic construction forms were not changed and only various ornaments and adornments were added. It was a complete change in the way of the perception of the world that has its roots in the Renaissance and then the Enlightenment that made civil engineering free from the enchanted circle of vertical pier and arch or double-curved roof.

Section snippets

Steel: basic construction material of the 19th and 20th centuries

Steel and cement are two relatively new building materials that were introduced at the turn of the 18th and 19th centuries. First cast iron, then puddled and cast steel and finally refined and high strength steel proved to be very good construction materials. They are so-called ductile materials that have high tensile and compressive strength. This strength enables the construction of steel bent elements with spans that some years ago were beyond consideration. The subsequent improvements of

Carbon fibre reinforced polymer: a structural material of the future

Application of CFRP (carbon fibre reinforced polymer), the material that has been used until now in space and aviation techniques and professional sport, exemplifies this phenomena. EMPA — the Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Testing and Research in co-operation with the BBR, Stahlton and SIKA companies, are the pioneers in introducing this material to world engineering.

CFRP is composed of very thin carbon fibres with a diameter of 5–10 μm, embedded in polyester resin. The commercial

Concrete: basic construction material of the 20th century

The other “invention” of the First Industrial Revolution that caused progress in civil engineering was cement. So-called “portland cement” that was patented in 1824 by J. Aspdin proved to be an excellent hydraulic binder that was used for the production of a new material — concrete. This material is relatively cheap and easy to produce. Based on aggregates and water present in nature and using the cement mentioned above, it was possible to “cast” various shapes of elements and structures. Soon

High-performance concrete: a structural material of the future

The transition from high strength plain concrete (class up to C50) to HSC and HPC was possible due to some additives such as silica fume and superplasticisers, to plain concrete [7], [8].

Silica fume, a by-product of the ferrosilicon production process, contains some 98% of pure SiO2 and has a very large specific surface of 25 m2/g, nearly 80 times greater than the specific surface of Portland cement. It has strong pozzolanic properties and, together with calcium hydrate Ca(OH)2, forms stable

Other advanced elements in concrete structural materials

From amongst many, two may be mentioned.

  • 1.

    The introduction of glass (GF), carbon (CF) and aramid (AF) fibres as tendons to prestressed structures [4]. These tendons are usually used as either wires or wire strands with about 60–65% epoxy resin matrix fibres, modified appropriately. Their main advantage is lightness (density about five times lower than that of steel), and similar strength, lower modulus of elasticity and lower failure elongation than those of steel (see Table 1, [12]). The σε

The renaissance of wood

Wood has always been one of the basic building materials. However, considering its limited life (15–25 years) and lack of moisture resistance and fire resistance, wooden buildings have always been only temporary. That is why only few such buildings have survived (e.g. Kappelbrücke bridge in Lucerne, from 1333).

In the 20th century, despite such competitive materials as steel and concrete, wood retained its significant role in building in many developed countries (USA, Canada, Russia). It was

Other construction materials

Materials such as glass or plastic must not be neglected in this account. So far both have been used to produce finishing details of buildings. However, there is already on the Polish market [17]: armoured glass (flameproof Pyroshield, fire-protecting and fireproof Pyrostop and Pyrodur), and multilayer laminated glass (called multifloat: Standard — safety glass, Atak stop — breaking-proof, Supreme — bullet-proof, Hartfloat — hardened, structural glass).

Many of these types of glass have high

References (19)

  • D.J. Brown, Bridges. Three Thousand Years of Defying Nature, Mitchell Bazley, London,...
  • U. Meier, Carbon fibre-reinforced polymers: modern materials in bridge engineering, Struct. Eng. Int. 1...
  • U. Meier, H. Meier, CFRP finds use in cable support for bridge, Mod. Plastics 4...
  • J. Piekarski, Współczesne rozwiązania konstrukcji lin do mostów i innych podwieszonych konstrukcji inżynierskich,...
  • U. Meier, N. Winkler, Carbon fibre reinforced polymer cables for cable stayed bridge, Materiał informacyjny firmy BBR...
  • J. Szczygieł, Mosty z betonu zbrojonego i sprężonego, WKiŁ, Warszawa,...
  • High strength concrete, State of the Art Report, FIP/CEB Bulletin d’Information, No. 197,...
  • K. Flaga, Refleksje na temat zastosowania betonów wysokowartościowych w Polsce, Przegląd Budowlany 6...
  • G. König, H. Berger, R. Grimm, G. Simsch, Utilization of High-strength Concrete in Europe, Part 1, FIP Notes, 4...
There are more references available in the full text version of this article.

Cited by (43)

  • Effects of self-healing cracks in bacterial concrete on the transmission of chloride during electromigration

    2017, Construction and Building Materials
    Citation Excerpt :

    Concrete materials have the advantages of high compressive strength, better fireproofing and durability, easiness in obtaining materials [1], which have been widely used in many practical projects like water conservancy and hydropower, traffic, industrial and civil construction.

  • Effects of waste PET as coarse aggregate on the fresh and harden properties of concrete

    2016, Construction and Building Materials
    Citation Excerpt :

    Plastic shrinkage cracking is the dominant cause for reducing performance in cement-based composites [15–17]. Other options have been developed and adopted in reusing waste PET bottles as aggregates in mortars and concrete composites [18,19]. The majority of these studies related to reusing waste PET bottles as a partial and/or full replacement of fine aggregate (sand) in both mortar and concrete [1,20–29].

  • Effect of crack orientation on fatigue behavior of CFRP-strengthened steel plates

    2016, Composite Structures
    Citation Excerpt :

    One of the major challenges confronting civil engineering community today is extending the service life of degraded metallic structures, especially aging road and railway bridges. A considerable number of these structures were built around the world in the last century [1,2]. However, their design capacity does not comply with current traffic volumes, which has raised concerns regarding the safety of these bridges.

  • Study of mechanical properties of corroded steels embedded concrete with the modified surface length

    2016, Construction and Building Materials
    Citation Excerpt :

    The degradation processes of reinforced concrete structures (RCS) throughout time are unavoidable [1], especially in harsh environments where the material can react with the environment, causing corrosive phenomena that may affect the service state and durability of the concrete structure [2–5], resulting in major economic losses [6] and giving rise to the need for an in-depth study of this phenomenon.

View all citing articles on Scopus
View full text