Cement vs Concrete
The terms concrete and cement are used very often in our lives. We hear it every other day ‘“ about their fluctuating prices, and our neighbours talking about applying concrete to their patio edges, and so on.
Concrete and cement are two different things and the usage also is for different purposes. In common language cement can refer to any binding material that makes two surfaces to stick together. Glue, paste, mortar, etc are some common examples of the commonly used cement. But chemically speaking and in terms of construction, cement is a substance which is made from calcium, silicon, iron, limestone, and aluminium and some other lesser ingredients. It is in a powdered form and when we add the proportionate amount of water to it, it hardens after forming a semisolid substance. Concrete is something more than cement. It is a mixture of cement, gravel, and sand. All these ingredients are mixed in the correct proportions with water to form concrete. The cement in the mixture gets bound to the sand and gravel, thus forming a uniform mixture.
Both concrete and cement are used as building materials in construction purposes. These are used between bricks, rocks, or such structures to keep the structure intact. Portland cement is a variety of cement and is usually used for building oilrigs, lighthouses, dams, and bridges. Pre-stressed concrete is a type of concrete which is more effective than plain concrete.
Concrete has less tensile strength and cannot withstand the strong forces of wind or earthquakes. So it is not good for cross tensions. To make it more tensile, concrete is reinforced by using it with long steel rods. In pre-stressed concrete, instead of steel rods, tautly stretched cables are used.
Compared to concrete, cement requires more time for setting. The setting speed of concrete depends on the amount of gypsum added to the mixture. The setting time can be accelerated by the addition of calcium chloride. You can slower the setting speed by adding sugar to the mixture.
The strength is more in the concrete mixture as it contains rocks. This makes the structure stronger and durable. Concrete is often used for constructing the sidewalks, roads, subways, the edges of the pools, and even skyscrapers. Both cement and concrete are environment friendly products but the industries emit huge amounts of carbon dioxide during the production process.
Summary:
1.Cement is made up of substances like limestone, calcium, silicon, iron, and so on while concrete is made up of cement, gravel, sand, and crushed rock pieces.
2.Portland cement is a different variety of cement while pre-stressed concrete is a type of concrete.
3.Concrete has lesser tensile strengths and to increase the tensile strength it is reinforced.
4.While cement is used in the construction of dams, lighthouses, and oil rigs, concrete is used for constructing sky scrapers, roads, pool side, and even sidewalks.