Exploding concrete - and other teaching resources
With funding from CONSTRUCT and in collaboration with Imperial College Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering’s materials testing lab, we have created a suite of videos to support the teaching of the behaviour of reinforced concrete. The videos are the latest resources to appear in the virtual materials laboratory that forms part of Expedition Workshed.
Read an overview of Expedition Workshed
Visit the new concrete resources on Workshed
Follow this link to read the latest posts about this project on the Workshed blog
Building on the suite of pilot videos we produced in the summer of 2010, these new resources are intended to be the first in a whole raft of materials dedicated to exploring and unpicking the theory of this major construction material.
Our approach when developing materials for Workshed is to create resources that support teachers, rather than replace them. So while our videos show in great detail the behaviour of materials undergoing different tests, the interpretation is left to the teacher or the learner.
Accompanying each video is a downloadable diagram of the testing rig and a graph of the material behaviour. We provide students with suggestions of other videos that they should watch for comparison in order to help the develop cross-linkages between various concepts in their learning.
The complete list of tests is:
Compression testing of an ordinary concrete cylinder
Compression testing of a high-strength concrete cylinder
Compression testing of a high-strength cement cylinder
Compression testing of an ordinary concrete cube
Compression testing of a stocky reinforced concrete column
Tensile testing or a concrete cylinder (the ‘Brazilian test’)
Tensile testing of a high-tensile reinforcing bar
Tensile testing of a mild steel bar
