• The word “concrete” originates from the Latin word • Concrete is one of the most widely used construction

“concretus”, which means to grow together. material

• This name was chosen perhaps due to the fact that this
material grows together (by means of a chemical reaction
called “hydration”) from a visco-elastic, mouldable liquid
into a hard, rigid rock-like substance.
• Present consumption of concrete in the world is about 11
billion metric tonnes every year
• Global usage of Concrete is 2nd to water

Prepared By: Dr. Fareed Ahmed Memon Prepared By: Dr. Fareed Ahmed Memon

Reasons Why Concrete is the Most Widely Used Material

• It is a composite material which is mixture of:
 Availability of the raw materials
• Portland Cement
 Its ease for preparing
• Fine Aggregate  Fabricating in all sorts of conceivable shapes
• Coarse Aggregate  Possesses high compressive strength and not subjected to
• Water corrosive effects Energy and Carbon Footprints
• Air, and in some cases  Low energy and carbon foot-print Energy CO2
• Admixtures  Low maintenance cost
(GJ/m3) (kg/T)
Steel 236 3000
 Durable and long lasting Glass 56 2100
 Fully recyclable Concrete 6.3 147
Wood 2.4 124
Prepared By: Dr. Fareed Ahmed Memon Prepared By: Dr. Fareed Ahmed Memon

• Because of the chemical reaction, the cement and water • Concrete with its numerous advantages over other
form a paste that hardens and binds the aggregates together constructional materials is used in almost all the civil
to form a rock like mass called “Concrete”. engineering construction works such as:
• Building Construction
Cement Powder • Highways
• Railways
Cement + Water Cement Paste
• Water retaining structures
Cement Paste + Fine Aggregate Mortar • Docks & Harbours
Mortar + Coarse Aggregate Concrete • Airports
• Tunnels & etc

Prepared By: Dr. Fareed Ahmed Memon Prepared By: Dr. Fareed Ahmed Memon
• The addition of embedding certain other materials in
concrete and adopting special manufacturing processes
result in different concretes for use in specific situations.
Some of which are:
• Light weight Concrete
• Heavy weight Concrete
• High–strength Concrete
• Ultra high strength or Reactive powder Concrete
• Prestressed Concrete

Prepared By: Dr. Fareed Ahmed Memon

• Air–entrained Concrete
• Self-Compacting Concrete
• Fibre-reinforced Concrete
• Geopolymer Concrete
• Self-compacting Geopolymer Concrete

Prepared By: Dr. Fareed Ahmed Memon