4: Self-Healing Concrete for Aqueduct in Imperial Rome, 2,000 BP

Geodiversity and Cultural Diversity: Current Public Issues in Physical Science · LibreTexts

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    From LibreTexts, under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0, as the source states it; its equations are written in TeX, which the PDF shows typeset. This page at LibreTexts.

    • 4.1: Reading/Media
      Some ancient Roman aqueducts are still functioning today after two millenniums' service, while modern concretes crumble in only a century. The longevity of the Roman aqueduct is due to a self-healing property of the Roman concrete, a mineralogical discovery made only in the second/third decades of the 21st century.
    • 4.2: Classroom Activity
      This Classroom Activity covers the identification of calcite and quartz minerals through X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis. It introduces Bragg's law, connecting diffraction angles with atomic plane spacing. The strongest diffraction peaks for both minerals are identified, and the activity emphasizes locating peaks and validating lattice spacings, promoting the application of XRD in mineral studies.
    • 4.3: Assignment
      This Assignment explores advancements in the understanding of Roman concrete's durability through recent research, highlighting self-sealing mechanisms via various minerals identified by Jackson et al. (2017) and Seymour et al. (2023). It discusses the role of Al-tobermorite linked to aluminosilicates and draws parallels between the self-healing properties of Roman concrete and natural rock processes.

    This page titled 4: Self-Healing Concrete for Aqueduct in Imperial Rome, 2,000 BP was last modified on Fri, 01 May 2026 02:14:20 GMT and is shared under a CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 license and was authored, remixed, and/or curated by Likwan Cheng.