Masonry is an assembly of individual units like concrete blocks, stones, or bricks laid in rows and bonded with mortar to create walls, floors, arches, ...

Ingredients such as Portland cement, an essential binding agent; hydrated lime, which improves workability; sand, a carefully screened inert aggregate; ...

Good mortar in a plastic state possesses good workability and the ability to retain water. Good workability allows the mortar to spread smoothly, adhere ...

Bricks are masonry units made from fired clay in various shapes, sizes, and colors. Conventionally, bricks were made in a simple wooden mold, producing a ...

The dimensions of a brick are determined by three measurements: its width, height, and length. Typically, bricks are sized to build walls in modules of 4 ...

The bricks used in construction are generally classified as facing bricks, building bricks, and hollow bricks. Facing bricks, also known as face bricks, ...

Freeze-thaw is the process where water absorbed within a brick expands upon freezing and contracts when it thaws, leading to the degradation of the brick. ...

The simplest brick masonry wall has one single wythe with a stretcher course. In this arrangement, the brick's longer edge runs horizontally, with its ...

Consider building a brick wall where a full brick cannot fit into the remaining space. To fit a brick in this space, a mason's hammer with a ...

Mortar joints are the spaces between bricks filled with mortar. Joints bind the bricks together, ensuring structural integrity and strength. The thickness ...

When building brick walls, openings for windows and doors need to be supported with lintels, corbels, and arches to withstand the loads from the wall ...

Reinforced brick masonry incorporates steel reinforcements within the hollow cores of the bricks or sandwiched between two masonry wythes, then secured ...

Building stones are sourced by extracting rock from natural rock deposits and shaping it into the specific forms and dimensions needed for building ...

Quarrying involves the meticulous extraction of stone from a quarry by either using controlled explosions or precision cutting techniques to remove the ...

Stone masonry falls mainly into two categories: rubble and ashlar. Rubble masonry uses uneven, naturally shaped stones, often found as river rocks or ...

Manufacturing concrete masonry units involves pouring stiff concrete, comprising Portland cement, aggregates, and water, into metal molds. This is ...

Consider the construction of a concrete masonry wall; first, the base is cleaned, the mortar is spread, and then the initial row of blocks for a corner ...

Steel manufacturing begins with smelting iron ore into cast iron in the blast furnace. Smelting involves layering the iron ore with a fuel called coke and ...

Structural steel products are manufactured in a structural mill, where the beam blank is reheated and refined through rollers into the required shape and ...

Steel sections can be fastened using rivets, bolts, or welding. A rivet is a steel fastener with a cylindrical shaft and a specially shaped head. The ...

Mechanical characteristics of steel such as tensile strength are determined by a tension test where a specimen is pulled in a gripping device. The tension ...