How are Rome's monuments still standing?

Re:How are Rome's monuments still standing? by smegger001 on Monday December 20, 2021 @04:58PM (#29630883)

I wonder how long carbon fiber rebar, or plastic coated steel rebar would last.

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Re:How are Rome's monuments still standing? by tastyfreeze on Monday December 20, 2021 @05:11PM (#29631034)

Basalt rebar is chemically resistant and doesn't corrode. It does have a lower tensile strength than carbon fiber but is suitable for current designs.

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Re:How are Rome's monuments still standing? by Cerium on Monday December 20, 2021 @05:11PM (#29631023)

Plastic coated rebar is a product. In theory it can solve the rusting problem, but in practice the coating will get some nicks during installation that can concentrate corrosion leading to point weaknesses. There are additional concerns with the bonding between the concrete and the coated bar.

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Re:How are Rome's monuments still standing? by dr_orpheus on Monday December 20, 2021 @05:16PM (#29631103)

I don't know how it compares to actual rebar reinforced concrete, but we do use fiberglass reinforced concrete.

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Re:How are Rome's monuments still standing? by bluGill on Tuesday December 21, 2021 @05:56AM (#29636135)

Steel and concrete have similar coefficients of expansion. Most other choices don't and so as temperature changes something has to bend or give which reduces life.

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Re:How are Rome's monuments still standing? by jaclaz on Tuesday December 21, 2021 @05:09AM (#29635831)

Briefly (costs/duration):

normal steel rebar=1

epoxy coated rebar=1.1-1.3 <- terrible in practice

zinc coated rebar=1.2-1.4 <- good

stainless steel rebar=3-4-5 <- very, very good

carbon fiber rebar=? <- AFAIK not used in new buildings, as it has a series of issues in practice, used in some rare cases of consolidation/repair of old buildings, mostly not as rebar but rather as mesh/net.

What is used, not as "main" reinforcement but to have a (much better) mass strength are fibers, they can be either steel or plastic.

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Re:How are Rome's monuments still standing? by Sankozi on Tuesday December 21, 2021 @06:44AM (#29636426)

I think I do not understand the numbers. You wrote "costs/duration" so higher the number the worse solution (bigger costs or worse durability), yet the descriptions suggests otherwise.

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Re:How are Rome's monuments still standing? by jaclaz on Tuesday December 21, 2021 @12:57PM (#29640090)

Sorry, numbers are cost only (1 is "normal" rebar steel) order and text are duration ("normal" steel no text, base duration, the terrible in practice means that it doesn't offer longer duration, and may have issues in adherence to concrete).

Not so surprisingly the higher the cost the longer the duration.

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Re:How are Rome's monuments still standing? by mc32 on Monday December 20, 2021 @05:15PM (#29631077)

There are stainless steel rebar and epoxy coated rebar for structures exposed to the elements. Stainless steel rebar appears to be kind of expensive so its use is limited.

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Re:How are Rome's monuments still standing? by FredPret on Monday December 20, 2021 @05:05PM (#29630951)

Interesting idea, but carbon fiber would need to be really cheap. Would work well until a critter of some sort evolves that eats plastic

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