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Iran makes superhard concrete -- already in use in bunkers?
The Danger Room | 04/13/2007 | David Hambling

Posted on 04/13/2007 10:37:30 AM PDT by OldGuard1

http://blog.wired.com/defense/2007/04/irans_superconc.html

Iran's Invulnerable Bunkers?

A few weeks back, the Air Force detonated out its most powerful bunker-buster yet. But a new Iranian super-strong concrete might make it almost useless before it reaches service.

Ord_massive_ordnance_penetrator_boe I owe this story to DANGER ROOM reader Jay Sappington, a civil engineer in Fort Worth. He graduated with his masters from the University of Texas at Arlington (UTA), where he had participated in a student competition organized by the American Concrete Institute. The challenge was to make a 2?x2? concrete cube with the highest possible compressive strength. Among the competitors at this internationally diverse school was a team from the University of Tehran. Jay takes up the story.

"I designed a 2?x2? concrete cube with a compressive strength of 16,000 psi [pounds per square inch] at 28-days, a relatively high strength as standard concrete is on the order of 3,000 psi, typically. Now, The University of Tehran made several cubes between 50,000 to 60,000 psi, and possible stronger!

(cont'd)


TOPICS: Foreign Affairs
KEYWORDS: bunker; concrete; iran; nuclear
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The article goes on to say that the professor who sponsored the team works in Iran's nuclear industry, and goes on to point out how incredibly strong 60,000 psi really is. Our new Massive Ordinance Penetrator goes 60 meters through 5,000 psi concrete, but only 8 meters through 10,000 psi concrete.

Disturbing stuff.

1 posted on 04/13/2007 10:37:32 AM PDT by OldGuard1
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Comment #2 Removed by Moderator

To: OldGuard1
Is the recipe available?
3 posted on 04/13/2007 10:43:30 AM PDT by lmailbvmbipfwedu
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To: OldGuard1

Superhard, penetrator, bunker-buster?

Doesn’t not compute - error - bad joke overload...


4 posted on 04/13/2007 10:44:41 AM PDT by Sax
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To: OldGuard1
First of all...if anyone moves against Iran it won't be the US or Europe,it will be Israel.My hunch is that Israel doesn't have what it takes to defeat Iran using conventional weapons even if this report is false.

And if this report is true it just gives Israel another reason to attack...and to use her nukes.

5 posted on 04/13/2007 10:44:51 AM PDT by Gay State Conservative ("The meaning of peace is the absence of opposition to socialism."-Karl Marx)
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To: OldGuard1

This sounds like a professor at a university that won a contest with his students, it could well be employed in this manner, but it’s a far cry from being a standard material being used for bunker construction by a defense contractor.
BTW-Who does Iran use as a contractor for it’s bunkers or nuclear facilities? I’d bet it’s a Russian or German company.


6 posted on 04/13/2007 10:46:12 AM PDT by Brett66 (Where government advances ? and it advances relentlessly ? freedom is imperiled -Janice Rogers Brown)
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To: Lucius Vorenus
Remember, this is a nation so filled with dimwits that it can't even refine its own petroleum into gasoline.

I have met and worked with some very smart Iranians. I assume there are plenty more where they came from. Also, although Iran imports some refined petroleum products, they do have their own refineries.

8 posted on 04/13/2007 10:47:58 AM PDT by wideminded
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To: Brett66

Since Russia is building their reactor I would assume they are also pouring the concrete.


9 posted on 04/13/2007 10:48:51 AM PDT by stm (Believe 1% of what you hear in the drive-by media and take half of that with a grain of salt)
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To: Brett66
I’d bet it’s a Russian or German company.

Or French....or Dutch.....or Belgian...or Italian....or Swedish....or Canadian....

10 posted on 04/13/2007 10:49:02 AM PDT by Gay State Conservative ("The meaning of peace is the absence of opposition to socialism."-Karl Marx)
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To: OldGuard1

Ahmadinejad hits his head against the concrete to test it.


11 posted on 04/13/2007 10:50:12 AM PDT by popdonnelly (Our first responsibility is to keep the power of the Presidency out of the hands of the Clintons.)
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To: OldGuard1

well, thats it, best excuse to nuke there is


12 posted on 04/13/2007 10:50:30 AM PDT by sure_fine ( • not one to over kill the thought process)
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To: OldGuard1

I seriously question how easy it is to produce large quantities of a 50,000psi concrete to protect something like an underground nucealr facility.


13 posted on 04/13/2007 10:54:50 AM PDT by finnman69 (cum puella incedit minore medio corpore sub quo manifestus globus, inflammare animos)
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To: OldGuard1

I call BS. I smell typical oriental hyperbole. Such claims of “Hyper-strong” concrete are a sign of desperation.

The Iranians are not stupid, but their “achievements” in science propagated lately are ridiculous.
Ahmadinejad claimed Iranian scientists can mass-clone sheep and have a cure for AIDS. Not to mention all the faux propaganda about Iranian developed “Super-Secret and Super-Sonic” Doomsday missiles, torpedoes and “flying boats”.


14 posted on 04/13/2007 10:58:14 AM PDT by SolidWood (Islam is an insanity cult that makes everyone act Arab)
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To: OldGuard1

I wish I could make 50,000 psi concrete - steel is normally 30,000 psi.

Of course the trick with concrete is that it’s compressive strength is not the same as it’s strength in tension. Stuff must be quite brittle.


15 posted on 04/13/2007 11:00:07 AM PDT by FastCoyote
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To: OldGuard1
As great as the concrete is in theory, it still has to be properly installed by Iranians.

The same corner cutting Iranians that seem to crash a plane once every week or two from bad maintenance.

I wish them luck.

16 posted on 04/13/2007 11:01:15 AM PDT by UNGN (I've been here since '98 but had nothing to say until now)
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To: SolidWood
“flying boats”

It was *stealth* boats, remember? lol

Best not to underestimate the enemy though. Between cruise missiles and stealth platforms we should be able to do quite a lot of damage without risking much.

Seems to me that making industrial quantities and pouring it is quite different from making a small lab quantity.

18 posted on 04/13/2007 11:03:27 AM PDT by PreciousLiberty
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To: Lucius Vorenus

The Iranians have more than just one Refinery. The matter is their installations are dated and they lack the means to refine all their crude. Therefore they import the vast majority of refined stuff.


19 posted on 04/13/2007 11:06:37 AM PDT by SolidWood (Islam is an insanity cult that makes everyone act Arab)
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To: kots

Last I heard, BB were dropped in pairs, one to follow the other down the ‘rabbit hole’....

Nukes OTOH - well, one is usually enough.


20 posted on 04/13/2007 11:08:02 AM PDT by ASOC (Yeah, well, maybe - but can you *prove* it?)
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