Foreword to concrete durability

Far more concrete is produced than any other manufactured material. It is the basic material for the construction industry that employs 7% of the workforce worldwide and over half in some countries. One tonne of concrete is produced every year per head of population on the planet

Editorial

As deputy-chair of the editorial panel I am particularly pleased to introduce this edition of Construction Materials because of the excellent spread of topics covered. While the study of concrete dominates worldwide publications on construction materials this edition covers six different materials in six papers

Editorial

In this editorial I shall discuss the impact of two significant changes which are currently taking place; before introducing the excellent papers in this issue of Construction Materials

Self-compacting concrete. De Schutter, Geert; Bartos, PeterJM.; Domone, Peter; Gibbs, John. , Dunbeath, UK, Whittles Publishing, 2008. , 978-1904445-30-2, £85.00

Book review of SELF-COMPACTING CONCRETE Geert De Schutter, Peter J. M. Bartos, Peter Domone and John Gibbs. Whittles Publishing, Dunbeath, UK, 2008, ISBN 978-1904445-30-2, £85.00, 312 p

Concrete research

Members of the Construction Materials editorial advisory panel provide overviews of their areas of expertise, highlighting recent and forthcoming developments likely to affect engineers and others working in the field of construction materials

Review of Corrosion of steel in concrete :understanding, investigation and repair

Review of Corrosion of steel in concrete – understanding, investigation and repair 2nd edn. Broomfield J. P. , Taylor & Francis, London, 2006. , 978-0-4153-3404-4, Є79•00, p. 29

Gypsum: prospects for recycling

The term gypsum is used to refer to three main compounds of calcium sulphate: anhydrite, hemihydrate and dihydrate; but it is most often used for the dihydrate. The two main industrial uses of these compounds are in cement and in plaster products. Cement producers use a blend of gypsum and anhydrite as a set controller. Plaster is made with hemihydrate. This material is used both for bagged plaster and also to feed the plasterboard production lines. The materials are available from both primary and secondary sources.Waste plasterboard is an increasingly important secondary source but there are a number of problems which limit the proportion of thismaterial that can be used in plasterboard production. Research is therefore in progress to find other uses for it, such as lowstrength concrete mixes