Christopher Brough
@ChrisPBrough
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Consultant and researcher in defective concrete @Petrolabltd. Spending more time in defective concrete than I ever expected.
Redruth
Joined February 2022
One of the reasons this matters is both the ultimate solution (i.e. demolition and rebuild as recommended in the revised standard), but also setting up a suitable testing regime to cover conveyancing purposes. Some properties that will fail will still look ok at the moment.
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Reading the redraft of I.S.465 I was reminded that not all ISA occurs quickly. The example below is a hall built in 1926 (Cornwall) that is now Unsound - it's taken nearly 100 years to get to this point - slow, but ultimately critical failure.
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Delighted this is out. Look forward to reading and engaging with the changes.
Important notice: public consultation for I.S. 465 now open A second, fully revised edition of I.S. 465 has been developed and the NSAI has launched a public consultation. I.S. 465 is "Assessment, testing and classification of damaged buildings containing concrete blocks
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A bit of petrographic "tinsel" as we are winding into the Christmas break. This is rare red acicular dumortierite growing within a quartz vein. The vein X-cuts the section so as to leave the dumortierite like a piece of tinsel draped across the sample #geoart #thinsectionthursday
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Intriguing one from general petrography analysis with what looks like a xenolith of a rounded basalt hosted within another basalt. Both are compositionally very similar suggesting eruption, solidification, erosion & then eruption again. #thinsectionthursday #petrography
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Coming back to #Irish petrography - sometimes you see Fe oxide staining in hand specimen but rarely such a good example in thin section - this happens when Fe from the oxidising pyrrhotite in the phyllite leaches into the surrounding binder. And it's not just Fe.
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This is very interesting. Cultural reasons were different obviously but can have an older maternal age with high fertility rates. Raising fertility rates is something the West will need to grapple with in the not far distant future of course - interesting to see how it does.
In Denmark in the 1850s, the age of women's first birth was surprisingly high: average of 28 years old. This can be observed from parish records. Despite this, fertility was high. This was due to an 1824 law prohibiting marriage if you couldn't financially support your family.
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After 7.5 years in the House, I did not get to speak, on behalf of all those who've written, for even 3 minutes, on one of the most important and contested Private Members' Bills we've had... Proof that this is NOT the way for us to legislate on these matters #AssistedDyingBill
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Such a difficult day for parliamentarians and the country. This summary from @danny__kruger is on point. Once we establish a 'right to die' everyone facing death will have to choose. The vulnerable will be coerced, subliminally or explicitly.
I’m biased because I agree, but @danny__kruger’s was honestly the best speech – best conclusion to one, anyway – I have heard from any living parliamentarian. Key passage:
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Understandably our train was cancelled and we had to divert round to Plymouth - in the weather chaos we did end up catching Schrodinger's train - it was both cancelled and running at the same time! - (see pic - it did get us home in the end though, for which thank you @GWRHelp)
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The previous image has a scale of roughly half a mm. But all the micro-cracking is space creating so if you compound and repeat it over the scale of blockwork then you get similar cracking to what was so visually demonstrated in @ProfPaulDunlop's recent paper.
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Visualisation of degradation in concrete can help illustrate the nature of ISA risk. The image below is from research done on a critically failed block, using SEM mapping of sulphates. The pink is gypsum - cracking expansively through aggregate (green) and binder.
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Our new paper that's the most detailed analysis of the role pyrrhotite & internal sulfate attack plays in causing concrete failure in Donegal homes is free to download @EngineerIreland @DeptHousingIRL @HousingAgencyIE @NSAI_Standards @micaactiongroup 👇 https://t.co/fLckBHe64H
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En vacances - enjoying some downtime with the family and checking in intermittently.
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Useful thread on how the science has progressed in the last 12 months - every publication has pointed overwhelmingly in one direction. #pyrrhotite, #pyrite, #isa
@BrendanM56 @DarraghOBrienTD @SimonHarrisTD @EngineerIreland It is also problematic dogmatically sticking to a standard acknowledged by @EngineerIreland to be flawed and ignoring the published research available since 2023 that has identified the primary failure mechanism 👇 https://t.co/p9dWETSF3N
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Rare opportunity to see the last Cornwall refinery of Cornish tin today - a small local operation looking to create a unique product from salvaged tin ore - the temperature was something else!
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Struck by the challenge of this task. A lot of the details within this article are taken from our 2023 paper - even since then the scale and complexity has only increased, and new high risk concrete types are emerging. https://t.co/ELyp3Sc356
independent.ie
A risk window for properties affected by the defective concrete blocks crisis in Co Donegal may be wider than initially thought.
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😂- going to be a good match this weekend.
Brilliant!
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This is a very fair take.
Following the question in the debate last night are Rishi Sunak and Keir Starmer "the best we've got"? @afneil says the UK should be "grateful" for the candidates we have because “our guys are at least able to string some sentences together”. 🎧: https://t.co/WZ0Y9vqJAk
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When you look at this @ChrisPBrough map from their paper on defective concrete you can clearly see that Inishowen & Letterkenny is at the epicenter. It's no wonder @SunnyMalinHead & @JoyBeardmica both affected by this crisis have been elected. Full paper👇 https://t.co/lk4bn1XvGt
Powerful national story emerging from Inishowen. @donegalcouncil tallies indicating election of 2 @100_redress candidates, Ali Farren (@SunnyMalinHead) & @JoyBeardmica - probably more to come! #Election24 showing sheer depth of feeling on Defective Concrete. #FFGTakeNote 🗳
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