r/science • u/mvea Professor | Medicine • Nov 03 '19

Chemistry Scientists replaced 40 percent of cement with rice husk cinder, limestone crushing waste, and silica sand, giving concrete a rubber-like quality, six to nine times more crack-resistant than regular concrete. It self-seals, replaces cement with plentiful waste products, and should be cheaper to use.

https://newatlas.com/materials/rubbery-crack-resistant-cement/
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u/AgentC47 Nov 03 '19

That’s interesting. After reading more posts in this thread it almost seems like ancient Roman’s found this concrete by accident. Is there anyway to compare recent binding tech/research and longevity? I don’t require this kind of concrete personally, I’ve just always been fascinated by the longevity of their work. They were obsessed with building things to last. Kind of the opposite mentality we have now in the digital age. Even in the art world there have been artists purposely creating ethereal constructs.

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u/supbrother Nov 03 '19

The biggest difference here is the load strengths the concrete undergoes, or so I can only assume. Today concrete is used when very high strengths are needed, like with big buildings or with very high traffic transportation situations like highway overpasses and what not. These structures are regularly loaded with thousands of tons of materials in one way or another, and are essentially expected to fail because of it. That's why civil engineering projects like highways are given a life span, you may hear about something being a 30-year project or something like that. Compare this to the Romans, where their structures are smaller and lighter and their traffic is immensely lower. If you took modern concrete and used it in the exact same way the Romans did, I'm willing to bet it would outlast the old stuff.

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u/KingZarkon Nov 04 '19

Traffic was not just lower, it was much MUCH lighter. The weight of traffic is the biggest factor in how quickly the road wears. That's why you can see a road that gets only residential traffic last decades without resurfacing while roads that deal with lots of trucks need resurfacing every few years. The lightest modern vehicles are close to 2 ½ tons. The biggest ones are about 40 tons. Even the light ones would be heavier than the largest Roman vehicles.

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u/supbrother Nov 04 '19

Exactly. It's an entirely different ball game.