Reference
Glossary
Plain-English definitions for the terms on this site.
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- 28-day strength
- The industry's standard checkpoint. Concrete keeps gaining strength for weeks, and engineers accept it based on samples tested 28 days after the pour.
- 50/50, 60/40, 70/30 mix
- The split of cement to slag (or other SCM) in the binder. 50/50 is half cement, half slag.
A
- A1–A3
- The "cradle-to-gate" stages in an EPD: raw materials, transport to the plant, and manufacturing.
- AASHTO R18
- The accreditation standard for construction-materials testing labs.
- Accelerator
- A chemical that makes concrete harden faster. Trident is not one: it makes the reaction more complete, not faster.
- Admixture
- A liquid your concrete supplier adds at the plant to change how concrete behaves.
- ASTM C494 Type S
- The standard category for specialty-performance concrete admixtures, and what engineers check before approving one.
B
- Basis of design
- The product a spec is written around. "Or approved equal" allows alternatives.
- BMPR 101
- Illinois DOT's product-approval procedure.
- Break (7-day break, 28-day break)
- Crushing a test cylinder in a lab press to measure strength at a given age.
- Buy Clean
- Government purchasing policies that cap embodied carbon in materials bought for public projects.
C
- C-S-H
- Calcium silicate hydrate: the "glue" crystal that gives concrete its strength.
- Calcined clay
- Clay heated so it can replace part of the cement.
- Capex
- Capital spending on equipment.
- Cement (OPC, Type IL)
- The ingredient that binds concrete together, and the source of most of its carbon. OPC is ordinary portland cement; Type IL is a common variety blended with limestone.
- Control
- The same concrete made without Trident, poured and tested alongside it for a fair comparison.
- Critical path
- The chain of tasks where any delay pushes back your finish date.
- Cylinder / ASTM C39
- Small concrete cylinders cast from the same batch and crushed in a lab. ASTM C39 is the standard test method.
D
- Design strength (f′c)
- The strength your structural engineer requires the concrete to reach, usually confirmed at 28 days.
E
- EC3
- A free tool owners and design teams use to compare embodied carbon across materials.
- Embodied carbon / GWP
- The greenhouse gas emitted making a material. GWP (global warming potential) is how it's reported, in CO₂-equivalent.
- Engineer of record (EOR)
- The licensed engineer responsible for the structure's design.
- EPD
- Environmental Product Declaration: a third-party-verified carbon label for a building material.
F
- Fly ash
- A byproduct of coal power plants, used the same way as slag. Type C and Type F are two grades.
- Freeze-thaw (RDF)
- How well concrete survives repeated freezing. The Relative Durability Factor is scored against an 80% minimum.
G
- GDOT NPE
- Georgia DOT's New Product Evaluation process.
H
- Hydration
- The chemical reaction between cement and water that makes concrete harden.
M
- Mold turn / strip strength
- How many times a day a precast plant can reuse a form. Strip strength is the strength needed before the piece can come out of the form.
N
- NTPEP
- AASHTO's national product-evaluation program. States use its results when approving products.
- Nucleation sites
- Starting points where the glue crystals begin to grow. Trident adds more of them, so more of the cement reacts.
O
- oz/yd³, g/m³, oz/cwt
- Dose units: how much Trident goes in per volume of concrete, or per 100 lb of cement. Your supplier handles this.
P
- Performance spec
- A spec that states the result required (strength, carbon) rather than the exact recipe.
- Permeability / chloride penetration
- How easily water and road salt seep into concrete. Lower means longer life for the steel inside.
- Post-tensioning
- Tightening steel cables inside a slab. It has to wait until the concrete reaches a set strength.
- Precast
- Concrete pieces (walls, beams, panels, vaults) cast in a factory and trucked to site.
- PSI / compressive strength
- Pounds per square inch: how much pressure a concrete sample holds before it crushes. Higher is stronger. (Metric: MPa.)
Q
- QPL
- Qualified Products List: a state DOT's list of approved products for public road and bridge work.
R
- Replacement level
- The share of cement swapped for SCM.
S
- SCM
- Supplementary cementitious materials: industrial byproducts like slag and fly ash that replace part of the cement, cutting cost and carbon.
- Slag (GGBS, slag cement)
- A byproduct of steelmaking, ground into a powder that can replace cement.
- Submittal
- Documents a contractor sends the engineer for approval before using a product or mix.
- Superplasticizer (PCE)
- An admixture that makes concrete flow more easily without adding water.
T
- Trial batch
- A test batch of the actual project mix, made and tested before production pours to prove it meets the spec.
V
- Value-engineered
- When a lower-cost or simpler option replaces what was specified — often because the original choice looked too slow or expensive for the schedule.
Y
- yd³
- Cubic yard, the unit concrete is sold in (about 0.76 m³).
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