Unlocking the Secrets of Creeping Concrete
Tuesday, August 2, 2016 - 11:31
in Physics & Chemistry
Concrete is everywhere -- a ubiquity owed to its strength as a building material. Despite its strength, however, it has a pernicious but inescapable tendency to "creep," or deform progressively under mechanical stress, which leads to crumbling bridges and cracked roads. Despite the obvious relevance this holds for the safety of infrastructure, however, the physical origin of the mechanism has remained poorly understood, and even scientifically contested.