From slump loss to Gibbs' free energy

In its classical form, the science of construction materials is a descriptive, empirical discipline related to certain types of materials, e.g. the study of the properties of wood, steel, concrete and plastics. This traditional division of the science into the separate study of the different material types is appropriate as long as the purpose is to collect, disseminate and use knowledge about the simple physical and chemical properties of specific materials. Through generations, research, teaching and engineering practice have all functioned within this framework without problems. However, during the last few decades the nature of the research being pursued within construction materials has changed. Increasingly, construction materials research is carried out by specialists within theoretical disciplines such as physics, chemistry and physical chemistry. The methods used for investigations have become more sophisticated, and it is often necessary to "interpret" the results before they become meaningful for the practical civil engineer. This development has given rise to an unfortunate gap between research and engineering practice in the field of building materials. Fundamental research has gradually been fragmented into a number of narrow specialist disciplines, making it difficult for the researchers to communicate fundamental new knowledge in a form that can be utilized by the construction materials engineer. And the schism becomes more and more noticeable as research has resulted in development of a number of new construction materials.” [1]. The present talk describes a new concept of teaching construction materials at the university level. The concept which is developed by the late professor Per Freiesleben Hansen aims at overcoming the abovementioned problems. As opposite to classical construction materials teaching, the new concept contains a scientifically coherent treatment where phenomena within construction materials are treated as examples. In this way, the construction materials knowledge of the students is generated through inductive catalysis rather than by deductive teaching. Per Freiesleben Hansen Danish text book [1] is presently being translated into English: The Science of Construction Materials. The translation is expected to be finished during 2005. The text book forms the basis for teaching construction materials on this new teaching concept.