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Civil Engineering & Construction vocabulary · Concrete and Steel

Compressive strength

Meaning in civil engineering & construction, with examples

nounCommon term

In civil engineering & construction, compressive strength means: How much crushing pressure a material, especially concrete, can take before it fails. For concrete it is measured in megapascals (MPa) on cubes or cylinders, usually at 28 days.

In Turkish: basınç dayanımı

How it is used

Concrete classes such as C30/37 give the characteristic cylinder and cube strengths. Site teams take samples during a pour, and the lab reports 7-day and 28-day results.

Example sentences

  1. The 28-day compressive strength came out at 41 MPa, above the specified 37.

  2. Low compressive strength in the column cubes means we may have to take cores.

Common collocations

  • 28-day compressive strength
  • characteristic strength
  • cube test
  • core test
  • strength class
  • concreteA building material made by mixing cement, water, sand and gravel. It is placed while wet and hardens into a strong, stone-like mass.
  • slump testA simple site test of how workable fresh concrete is: a cone is filled with concrete and lifted away, and the drop in the concrete's height is measured in millimetres.
  • curingKeeping newly placed concrete moist and at a suitable temperature for several days so that the cement keeps reacting and the concrete reaches its full strength.
  • specificationA written document that describes the materials, standards, workmanship and testing required for a project. It is used together with the drawings.

More terms: Concrete and Steel

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