Performance of Fresh And Hardened Concrete Essay

Performance of Fresh And Hardened Concrete - Essay Example The researcher states that today there is an increasing trend for using recycled materials to create new concrete in order to increase sustainability and decrease costs among other factors. The effects of the recycled aggregates on the created concrete can be minimal to significant depending on a host of factors. The properties of concrete are affected both in the fresh state and in the hardened state and so there is great need to understand how the use of recycled aggregates affects concrete. The various kinds of recycled aggregates in use include recycled concrete aggregate (RCA), recycled wash glass sand, recycled rubber tyres and others. This text will attempt to analyse the effects of recycled aggregates on the fresh properties of concrete and on the properties of hardened concrete. Based on the investigations and results presented above it is obvious that the addition of recycled aggregates affects the properties of concrete significantly. The inclusion of recycled aggregates t o concrete helps to increase the sustainability and reduce the cost of the build but compromises on the strength achieved. Therefore concrete created with these methods can be utilised for less demanding tasks that require lower loading. In some cases however, the addition of aggregates has helped improve some of concrete’s abilities especially fresh concrete’s workability and other properties. More investigation into creating concrete with the inclusion of aggregates can help to boost sustainability and decrease costs further.

Ecological crisis Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Ecological crisis - Research Paper Example countries have on the other hand been transferring multinational companies to these countries because of the availability of cheap labor and resources (Dean 2005). This paper therefore will discuss the environmental crisis of Capital vs. Nature appropriation facing Latin America. This will be important in coming up with the possible solutions to the crisis. The history of environmental crisis facing Latin America dates back to the days that economy of United States became developed. United States enacted different laws that were aimed at guarding its natural resources from exploitation by multinational companies. As a result, multinational companies were forced to look for countries where laws were friendly to their activities. At that time, Latin America was facing political upheavals therefore; the countries had no stable laws. This saw mass investment being taken to these countries (Catro 1997). With economies of countries such as Brazil, Argentina, Mexico and Columbia growing tremendously the previous companies and other mushrooming companies have put a strain on natural resources while at the same time the these countries are in need of capital and labor to sustain the growing population (Roberts 2003) Currently, little has been done to reverse the condition with the impact of degradation of the environment in these countries affecting the whole world. Different summits have been held in these countries with the latest being the UN summit on environmental protection (Rio+20) which was held in Brazil. I believe that the solution to this crisis can be achieved by these countries themselves. These countries need to enforce laws that will force the companies to comply with the set measures aimed at improving the environment. In addition, more campaigns need to be conducted in order to sensitize the general public on the importance of taking the appropriate measures in protecting the environment (Dià ¡z 2005). In addition, this region needs to set up a specific