When people started to use stone as a building material centuries ago, its application was limited because they did not have a good binding material. The low tensile strength of the stone also prevented the passage of large openings. The desire to cross large openings has driven people to seek alternative systems and belt systems have been developed where the section as a whole works on pressure.
Belt System
The unending desire of humans to achieve the better has led to the discovery of binders such as natural cement and lime, which are thought to have been used for the first time by the Romans. With these binding materials, more durable structures could be built. Cement, which is widely used today, was found by an English mason named John Aspdin. Aspdin registered the cement as “Portland Cement”, as it resembled the stones found in Portland while patenting the cement.
Portland Stone
It was determined that the concrete formed by mixing the cement with sand, gravel and water was not resistant to impact effects and shrinkage, and it was strengthened with steel rods and the resulting material was named reinforced concrete.
The basic issues in reinforced concrete, which is a more flexible composite material that can resist both tension and pressure with the addition of steel rods to the concrete, are given below.
All the tension is covered by the reinforcements (steel bars). Working together of steel and concrete is ensured by the interlocking and adherence between these two materials.
Expansion coefficients of concrete and steel are very close to each other.
