Graphical Construction Glossary >> Concrete and Concreting. >> >> Mass Concrete

Mass Concrete

Concrete without reinforcement. Often poured in large quantities. Also known as un-reinforced concrete.

Cyclopean Concrete

Mass-concrete that also contains large stones or rocks. Typically not less than football size, but they can be a lot larger in civil engineering work.

Plain Concrete

Concrete containing no more than 0.2% of reinforcing.

No-Fines Concrete

Concrete that contains little or no fine aggregate or sand. Also known as pervious concrete.

Mass-concrete is any cast in place concrete that is designed to resist loads purely because of it's mass. It is typically used in foundations and often has a low cement ratio and a large proportion of larger aggregate.

Cyclopean Concrete is used very rarely in house construction but more often in civil works. For example when building protection works around bridges, wing walls and the like in remote areas we were allowed to use what we called plums, that is say rocks of maximum 200 diameter and only use a certain percent of them in the concrete mix. This was to enable use to use local material and to cut down the cost of the concrete for the job.

No-Fines Concrete Is used for house and pavement construction.

• It does not have the same strength as ordinary concrete and as such it is never used with reinforcing for structural applications.
• It is quite a lot lighter in weight than standard concrete and so it was used to build the walls of many thousands of houses after WW11. Other materials like AAC have replaced it for this purpose.
• No-fines has the feature of being porous. An alternative name for the material is Pervious concrete. Water can pass through it and so for this reason it is used for concrete pavements to inhibit rainwater run off. It is seen as eco-friendly in allowing rainwater into the ground. It is also useful in retaining walls to allow ground water to travel through the structure rather than build up pressure behind the wall.

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