Technological evolution of concrete : from ancient times to ultra high performance concrete

Abstract

Since the fall of the Roman Empire, concrete only suffered significant advances with the discovery of portland cement. The technological knowledge that the Romans held was empirical, based on the principle of trial and error, and allowed the discovery of new materials which properties could be reproduced but not explained. The ability to go beyond empiricism was only acquired by the scientific development that occurred mainly from the twentieth century onwards. In fact, no other binder materials were used other than those used by the Romans by the beginning of the nineteenth century. Only in the late eighteenth century was there a concrete renaissance. Nowadays, we can produce high-performance concrete with relative ease, maintaining the versatility of conventional concrete with the durability and strength of natural stone. However, it can be easily shaped, armed, hard-working pre and post tensioned with cables and mixed with different kind of fibers. In this paper, an overview of the use of concrete from ancient times to the most sophisticated ultra-high performance concrete in use is presented.