The book is a compilation of recent research results on building construction materials. The construction industry consumes extreme volumes of material, and the growing demand for quality and safety require continuous improvement of materials and material compositions. A deep understanding of material behavior is essential to enable efficient construction: light-weight or heavily burdened structures ask for the development of innovative composites or new material compositions.
Civil Engineers and Materials Scientists from all over the world present their ideas for further material developments, the testing of structures and solutions for in situ applications. Many of the innovations, composites and the design of existing material mixes, especially for concrete, are discussed. These include high-strength and high-performance concrete (HPC), self-compacting concrete (SCC), shotcrete, and textile or fiber reinforced concrete (FRC).
Moreover, the enhancement of material variations and the improvement of their properties are observed for most construction materials (e.g. wood, masonry, steel, polymers).
This book gives a good overview about the state-of-the-art in construction material science. Some of the world s leading experts have contributed in honor of Professor Dr.-Ing. Hans W. Reinhardt. The book starts with a review about his scientific achievements up to his recent retirement. Some contributions are presented at the conference "Advances in Construction Materials" (ACM2007) held in July 2007 in Stuttgart.
