176
We Finally Know How Ancient Roman Concrete Was Able to Last Thousands of Years
(www.sciencealert.com)
this post was submitted on 01 Feb 2024
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Wdym? Just replace the iron rebar with gold
Gold is no where near strong enough.
Titanium would work just as well, and last quite a bit longer.
Isn't titanium too rigid for this application though? I've worked with both for a mechanical application, and titanium has no flex, so stresses get passed in to other components.
I don't know, I'm no civil engineer. Any civvies wanna fill us in?
Aluminum then?
I'd say all the Civil engineers who continue to spec steel do it for well-established reasons.
Steel is just so hard to beat in so many applications. Even for the average road bicycle, surprisingly. Because steel can tolerate more flex than things like aluminum/titanium/carbon fiber. So other materials require different designs. In the end, the average street bike in steel or aluminum can often weigh the same, depending on the design choices (not specialized bikes, where different compromises are made).
Like so many things, when used as designed in concrete, steel is just fine, and I assume meets the cost, availability, industry knowledge, etc, goals.
Makes me think of "don't remove a fence until you know why it's there". Every year upcoming engineers do tests during their education. If a different material was a better choice, I'm sure a research arm of a university would present it.