• yermaw@sh.itjust.works
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    1 day ago

    Thats pretty shocking to my untrained ass. I always assumed they did mass-produced sand, grinding up their own stones and stuff.

    • sparkyshocks@lemmy.zip
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      1 day ago

      River sand is the right amount of jaggedness to where it can pour and settle into the right density in cement to have the right strength in the finished concrete. Ocean/beach sand works, too, but needs to be rinsed with fresh water, and is usually pretty valuable where it is (for beach resorts and what not).

      They’re testing for how to use different types of sand (desert sand, manufactured sand, recycled sand) and testing the pouring characteristics and resulting concrete strength, so that they can make reasonable decisions on when it’s worth using substitutes.

      • fruitycoder@sh.itjust.works
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        11 hours ago

        Civil engineering really is just the study of concrete isn’t it

        No shade, just amazed I’m always nearing more about concrete lol

        • sparkyshocks@lemmy.zip
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          11 hours ago

          Yeah, one of the issues I’ve read about happening for concrete failures was that some construction crews are under enormous pressure to salvage concrete that had been mixed too early, or delayed in pouring, or whatever, and where the concrete pouring characteristics cause issues (or crews add unauthorized water or things to slow down curing and then alter the characteristics of the poured concrete without the engineers’ awareness).

          It’s wildly counterintuitive to those of us who don’t work in the space.