Merits of Concrete

Economical:
The three major components in concrete are water, aggregate, and
cement. Compared with steels, plastics, and polymers, these
components are the most inexpensive, and are available in every
corner of the world.

Ambient Temperature-Hardened Material:

No high temperature is needed, its reaction occurs at room
temperature and thus concrete can gain its strength at ambient
temperature.

Energy Efficiency:
The energy required to produce plain concrete is only 450 750
kWh/ton and that for reinforced concrete is 800 3200
kWh/ton, while structural steel requires 8000 kWh/ton or more
to make.

Cont.
High-Temperature Resistance:
Concrete conducts heat slowly and is able to store considerable
quantities of heat from the environment. Moreover, the main
hydrate that provides binding to aggregates in concrete, calcium
silicate hydrate (CSH), will not be completely dehydrated until
910C.

Ability to work with reinforcing steel

Concrete and Steel both exhibit similar coefficient of thermal
expansion values. Also due to existence of CH and other alkalis,
(under normal conditions) concrete produces a good protection
to steel.

Excellent resistance to water

Ability to be cast into any desired shape and size
Less maintenance required

Demerits of Concrete
Quasi-Brittle failure model:
Materials (Concrete) exhibiting a strain-softening
behavior are called quasi-brittle materials. Both
brittle (glass) and Quasi-brittle materials fail
suddenly without giving a large deformations as a
warning sign. While with ductile materials (lowcarbon steel), large deformation serves as a
warning before collapse.

3 Failure Modes of Materials

Cont.
Low Tensile Strength:
Tension strength of concrete is only about 1/10 of its
compressive strength for normal-strength concrete, or
lower for high-strength concrete. Second-generation
concrete addressed this shortcoming.

Working with cracks

Due to the low tensile strength, the concrete cover cracks
on tension side. Most reinforced concrete structures have
existing cracks on their tension sides while carrying the
service load. With the third-generation concrete this
limitation was rectified as well.

Formwork is needed during construction

Long Curing time