Experimental Characterization of Steel and Concrete as Construction Materials: State-of-the-Art Methods and Advances Beyond Standardized Testing

Abstract

Construction materials like steel and concrete have been used for thousands of years; however, their industrial-scale production began relatively recently in the 19th century. These materials are still being improved as the drive to build taller buildings, longer bridges, larger dams, and similar engineering marvels keeps pushing boundaries and requirements to previously unimaginable values. Yet, testing and characterization of construction materials that make all that progress possible are overshadowed in scientific literature by more trendy materials such as graphene, composites, nanomaterials, smart materials, and biomaterials. The objective of this review was to identify, collect, and systematically analyze recent papers in which the researchers performed experimental testing on construction materials to document how state-of-the-art experimental practice extends beyond what standardized protocols prescribe. This paper covers Uniaxial Tensile Testing (UT), Compact Tension C(T), Uniaxial Compression (UC), and Single Edge Notched Bending SEN(B), as they are the most commonly used and best-suited techniques for construction material analysis. State-of-the-art papers featuring these techniques were systematically gathered using AI-assisted literature discovery tools, and their contributions beyond ISO and ASTM standards were identified and summarized. Using this review, material scientists and engineers can quickly discover the most influential and relevant papers with the actual experimental data and can apply the testing procedures described in these papers in their laboratories so they can compare their results with the previously published measurements and make an engineering decision based on appropriate comparisons.