The document summarizes a student project exploring concrete. The students conducted activities to understand concrete composition and properties. They tested how additives like salt and sugar affect curing time. Different concrete mixtures were tested for density and strength. The best mixture used equal aggregate portions and low water-cement ratio. For their design project, the students proposed a concrete that incorporates crushed pottery to provide insulation for Qatar's hot climate. Their most heat-resistant sample used pottery, fiberglass, and metal reinforcement. The students concluded the project provided a valuable hands-on learning experience about concrete uses and formulations.

1. AL-Bairaq
I am Discovering Materials 13th Cycle
Concrete
Founders
Hamza Kamaleldin Hamza Mohamed Salih

2. Outline
• Introduction
• Activity 1: Hunting for objects made of concrete
• Activity 2: Comparing Different Types of Cement
• Activity 3: Comparing Different Concrete
Formulation
• Activity 4: Testing Properties of Concrete
• Design Project : Concrete Reinforcement
• Product Idea

3. Introduction
• Concrete is a mixture of cement and course
aggregate like gravel and fine aggregate like
sand and the main material is cement. It has
many uses in our life and you will find out in
the next slide.

4. • Objective: to recognize different uses of
concrete.
• We used internet to search about concrete
and it is properties
Activities 1: Hunting for objects made of
concrete

5. Activities 1: Hunting for objects made of
concrete
Company
Street
Bridge House
Airports
runaways
Dam
Sky Scrapper
• Conclusion: We learned about concrete and how it is used in building
because it is strong, formable, and cheap.

6. Activities 1: Hunting for objects made of
concrete
• Concrete needs 24-48 hours to harden.
• But, it needs 28 days to completely dry.
• However there are 9 different additives that
you can add to the concrete mixture that has
different capabilities. For ex. Positive catalyst
for a fast hardening concrete mixture and
also negative catalyst for slowing the
hardening process for transporting concrete
and there are many more etc…

7. Activities 2: Comparing Different Types
of Cement
• Objective: Observe the chemical and physical
change, as cement hardens
• First, we had 3 samples which is A, B and C.
A B C
200g of
cement+100ml
of water
200g of
cement+100ml
of water+ Salt
200g of
cement+100ml
of water+ Sugar

8. Activity 2: Comparing Different Types
of Cement
• Sample B Sample A Sample C
Fastest Slowest
• Sample B {Calcium chloride salt} : is a
positive catalyst that increases the hardening
rate of cement.
• Sample C {table sugar} : is a negative catalyst,
interacts with the surface of growing hydrate
particles, therefore interfering with the
hydration process.

9. • Objective: Compare the densities of different
concrete formulations
• We mix different portions of coarse and fine
aggregates and measure density by dividing
mass over volume.
Activity 3: Comparing Different Concrete
Formulation (Part A)

10. Activity 3: Comparing Different Concrete
Formulation (Part A)
• Conclusion: To achieve the highest density
we discovered that using equal portions of
course aggregate with fine aggregate will
give you the highest density.
• Varying coarse aggregates to fine
aggregates ratio will vary density
accordingly to achieve highest density is
by using equal portions of coarse and fine
aggregates.

11. Activity 3: Preparing concrete samples
(part B)
• Objectives: Making different concrete
formulations
• Procedure:
1- We started preparing our molds
which were made out of paper.
2- The molds were equally made to
ensure a fair test.
3- The molds were named A, and E.

12. Activity 3: Preparing concrete samples
(part b)
• Results: after mixture dries concrete block with
different texture due to the different mixture they are
made from
• Conclusion: when concrete
dries, voids in mixture are made
due to water evaporation, these
voids will leave concrete less
dense.

13. Activity 4: Testing Properties of
Concrete
Objective: Compare the properties of composite
materials with the properties of the materials of
which the composites are composed.
We took the samples that we made to test their
strength.

14. Activity 4: Testing Properties of
Concrete
The sample E was the strongest because it equal portions
of aggregates is used and water to cement ration was also
small.
Decreasing water to cement
ratio in concrete mixture will
increase concrete density

15. Design Project Concrete
Reinforcement
• Objective: Concrete reinforcement by adding
different materials to the mixtures.
• We made sample of concrete mixture called
E+ and we used metal as reinforcement. The
materials used to make the best sample was
60g of cement + 120g of sand + 120g of gravel
+ 33ml of water.

16. • Results: Sample E+ was the strongest because
we added metal for reinforcement to support
and make it stronger.
• Conclusion: We found out that adding any
material that is hard like metal will Support
the concrete and make it stronger.
Design Project Concrete
Reinforcement

17. The perfect concrete
Introduction and Rationale
• The project idea is to make concrete that is better at cooling, because
Qatar has a hot climate and temperatures can reach over 45 degrees
Celsius. So we are using pottery and make it a powder/sand substance
by crushing the pottery until it becomes sand. Pottery is a clayware that
is made by mixing substances like sand and other things.
• The aim is to reduce the electricity used for the air conditioners by let
less heat go inside the building making it a great insulator.
• What’s so special about it to be used in Qatari region? Well as we all
know Qatar is a really hot country, and also spends too much electricity
on air conditioning and cooling. So we want to let the house feel a bit
cooler and feel a nice temperature in the room without air conditioning.

18. The perfect concrete
Methods and Materials
Hypothesis
• Our hypothesis was as following: Adding pottery to the concrete mixture
makes it a better heat insulator.
• We thought of the result because people many years ago didn’t have
refrigerators so, they used to make the water cold by putting water in
the pottery.
• We also thought that way because pottery is known as a good insulator
for heat and when ever you touch it, it is impossible to find the pottery
hot.

19. The perfect concrete
Methods and Materials

20. The perfect concrete
Methods and Materials
• Materials:-
1. Cement
2. Course aggregate
3. Fine aggregate
4. Pottery
5. Water
6. Paper molds
7. Cups
8. Spoon
9. Gloves
10. Grams scale
11. Fiberglass screen
12. Metal for reinforcement

21. 120g gravel+120g
sand+60g cement+50ml
water+33g pottery
120g gravel+120g
sand+60g cement+70ml
water+33g pottery
120g gravel+120g
sand+60g
cement+50ml
water+120g
pottery
120g gravel+120g
sand+60g cement+33ml
water
120g sand+60g
cement+40ml
water+120g pottery
120g sand+60g cement+70ml
water+120g pottery

22. 120g gravel+120g sand+60g
cement+60ml water+120g
pottery+ Fiberglass+ Meral for
reinforcement.
It was the most heat resistant
and heat didn’t reach the
other side.

23. The perfect concrete
Methods and Materials
• Methods:-
• Grind the pottery until it becomes well
grinded to become in sand state.
• Make a concrete mix
• Mix the pottery with the concrete mix
• Reinforce the concrete

24. The perfect concrete
Methods and Materials
Results
• There are many uses and benefits for our project. It has daily uses
advantage for cooling the houses.
• It is a really useful idea to the furthest extent. It can be a leading idea
because of how cheap and easy to use reason. There is even more.
• The best mixture was 120g gravel+120g sand+60g cement+60ml
water+120g pottery+Fiberglass layers with metal reinforcement.
• It was the strongest and the most resistant to heat.
• The worst mixture was without using course aggregate. It never dried.

25. Recommendations
• Our product should be definitely used especially in the
middle east. We really encourage it be used because of
how easy it is to find and how beneficial it is.
• We would like more investigation by specialists for my
idea because it is really needed for the people as soon
as possible.
• We faced a big obstacle which was the concrete
mixture started to get weak. So we changed the
formulas a bit in order for it to be strong. At the end
we found the reinforcing materials and we found the
fiber glass also in order to strengthen the samples.

26. Conclusions
In conclusion, we have learned a lot during Al-
Bairaq work shops. We discovered things that
we never thought about from before. Overall
it was a nice and interesting experience. I wish
to join Al-Bairaq next year.

27. Acknowledgment
Many thanks to my teachers, school and AL-Bairaq team from
Center for Advanced Materials (CAM), Qatar University for
supporting us during our journey with a AL-Bairaq.
Also, I would like to thank the sponsors UNESCO, Qatar National
Commission,and Shell.