Ancestral Roman Structures have always been a great attraction for ordinary people and researchers. The durability of those magnificent architectural feats like the pantheon of Rome made the researchers curious about how they are high after two thousand years of the height of Roman Empire. Although the longevity of these structures can be largely attributed to Roman concrete, the question still prevails over the specialty and materials used in the concrete itself.
Ingredients of the Roman concrete
According to the to study Published in Science Advances, an international team of researchers led by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (WITH) found that not only materials are a little different from what we can have thought, but the techniques used to mix them were also different.
An ingredient -chau was Pozzolan, or Ash. The Romans used ashes of the volcanic beds of the Italian city Pozzuoli and sent him throughout the Empire. Silica and alumina in the ashes react with lime and water in a pozzolanic reaction to ambient temperatures, resulting in a stronger and longer lasting concrete.
Another -chave ingredient is lemon classes, or small pieces of QuickLime.
These classes give the Roman concrete their self -capacity. Concrete weathers and weaken over time, but water can infiltrate their cracks and reach classes. When it reacts with water, classes create crystals called calcites that fill the cracks.
Difference with modern cement
The high temperature oven process used today to transform modern portland cement, move all thin powder materials. It eliminates lime classes that results in the lack of self-tapered properties of the Roman cement.
The Romans used a method known as warm mix, which involves the rapid combination with pozzolane, water and other ingredients and then warming them. The MIT team found that this method helps unlock lemon class self -skill skills and can result in a faster than cement with a fast water solution called slaughter lemon.