土木工程英语课程计划.doc

Unit One Cement Introduction Cement, any material that hardens and becomes strongly adhesive after application in plastic form. The term cement is often used interchangeably with glue and adhesive; in engineering and building construction the term usually refers to a finely powdered, manufactured substance consisting of gypsum plaster or portland cement that hardens and adheres after being mixed with water. Cements are used for various purposes, such as binding sand and gravel together with Portland cement to form concrete, for uniting the surfaces of various materials, or for coating surfaces to protect them from chemical attack. Cements are made in a wide variety of compositions for a wide variety of uses. They may be named for the principal constituents, such as calcareous cement, which contains silica, and epoxy cement, which contains epoxy resins; for the materials they join, such as glass or vinyl cement; for the object to which they are applied, such as boiler cement, or for their characteristic property, such as hydraulic cement, which hardens underwater, or acid-resisting cement, or quick-setting cement. Cements used in construction are sometimes named for their commonly reported place of origin, like Roman cement, or for their resemblance to other materials, such as Portland cement, which produces a concrete resembling the Portland stone used for building in England. Cements that resist high temperatures are called refractory cements. Cements set, or harden, by the evaporation of the plasticizing liquid such as water, alcohol, or oil, by internal chemical change, by hydration, or by the growth of interlacing sets of crystals. Other cements harden as they react with the oxygen or carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Portland Cement Typical Portland cements are mixtures of tricalcium silicate, tricalcium aluminate, and dicalcium silicate, in varying proportions, together with small amounts of magnesium and iron compounds. Gypsum is o