Within the discipline of building and notably in civil engineering, natural supplies are basically perceived as bonding components. Whether or not we’re speaking about bitumens for street surfacing, polymers for formulating merchandise for restore and structural gluing or admixtures for a extra compact concrete, all these merchandise are meant for realizations the place we need to make sure the cohesion of granular teams.

That is in truth the first position assigned to this class of supplies, however we should not overlook that there are different fields the place plastic supplies have been developed efficiently, notably sealing, environmental safety and engineering geology in common.

Right here, we enter into the sphere of manufactured merchandise the place the time period “natural materials” takes on its fullest that means. We can also notice in passing that industrial wooden, the invention of which is after all not current, however whose industrial improvement is altering quickly, falls underneath this second class.

The presentation of natural supplies used in civil engineering due to this fact compels us to check these two elements in depth. As such, we’ll cope with these in the primary few chapters, however we won’t place our most important concentrate on them, as our research is predicated on a physico-chemical method, as recommended by the subtitle of this e book.

This level requires a couple of explanations. In a building undertaking, the designer expects from the supplies that he intends to make use of a set of properties, in explicit: − mechanical properties, comparable to a sure compressive energy for the conclusion of a load-bearing unit, bending energy and due to this fact tensile energy for a construction that should current a sure flexibility, resistance to affect or different varieties of aggressions;

− bodily properties, if mandatory, with respect to water or gas-tightness; sound insulation, for example;

− aesthetic or extra typically sensorial properties, in order to higher meet the aspirations of the undertaking proprietor and future house owners;

− sensible properties, as regards their dealing with or their use in common.

All that is a part of the artwork of the engineer and the architect, but in addition implies necessities in phrases of the minimal sturdiness of all of the above properties in addition to in phrases of the waste administration on the end-of-life of the supplies used.

These two elements deserve explicit consideration insofar as they’re at present as essential as the necessities in phrases of mechanical energy. Man in the 21st century should know that he’s not constructing for eternity and that his undertaking should keep in mind the service life that he requires from the builder.

It follows logically that he’s compelled to adjust to, willy-nilly, well being and environmental necessities imposed on him to protect the residing atmosphere of the neighborhood. The sturdiness of a cloth construction brings into play the character of the supplies that represent it.

The style in which they’re organized with respect to one another, the style in which they’re assembled, and their potential evolution throughout the construction, with out forgetting the situations underneath which they’re positioned. We thus enter the physico-chemical discipline: the evolution of a cloth underneath static or dynamic stress depends upon its construction and its composition.

The data of those knowledge and the legal guidelines that govern them is key for anybody in the sturdiness of buildings and buildings. In some circumstances, this may even be a decisive criterion in the selection of supplies.

We should due to this fact by no means neglect the physico-chemical side in all of the operations that contain supplies. Even in circumstances the place it won’t appear helpful to us, it’s a precaution that may show invaluable in responding effectively in the occasion of an unlucky improvement.