Physico-Chemistry of Cement, Part 3

Part three takes the hydrated material from part two and asks how it fails. It covers transport through the pore structure, which governs almost everything else, then the major mechanisms in turn: carbonation and reinforcement corrosion, chloride ingress, sulphate attack, alkali aggregate reaction and freeze thaw damage. Each is treated as a chemical process with conditions and a rate, so that the mitigation discussed at the end follows from the mechanism rather than from a rule of thumb.

It runs 7 times over the published calendar, in 6 cities and live online. Every date is the same programme with the same content and the same certificate.

• Explain transport through hardened cement paste.
• Describe the mechanism and rate controls of each attack.
• Interpret durability test results.
• Select binder composition appropriate to an exposure.
• Diagnose a deterioration from its evidence.

Laboratory and quality staff, product development engineers, concrete technologists and durability specialists, and technical staff advising on exposure classes.

Short input, then work. Across 5 days of roughly 6 teaching hours each, the balance sits deliberately with the second: a programme where the trainer talks for six hours produces notes rather than capability.

• Your own material

  Exercises run on situations delegates bring, not on a case study written for a different organisation in a different decade.

• A capped cohort

  Small enough that everybody is asked something. Executive programmes are capped tighter still.

• Practice under scrutiny

  The difficult conversation, the challenged assumption, the decision defended out loud. Judgement is not built by watching.

• Something to take back

  Each day ends with a thing you can use on Monday rather than a slide deck you will not reopen.

• A deterioration diagnosis from a real case.
• A binder selection rationale for a stated exposure.
• A durability testing plan.

A GATI certificate recording what you attended, issued after the programme has run and attendance has been taken. Attending at least 80 per cent of the days earns a certificate of completion; attending less earns a certificate of attendance stating exactly what was attended.

Every certificate carries a code that anybody can check against GATI's own record, which is what makes it worth holding. It records participation. This site will not imply one it does not have.