71

Previously, a yield strength of 5,000 pounds per square inch (psi) was enough for concrete to be rated as “high strength,” with the best going up to 10,000 psi. The new UHPC can withstand 40,000 psi or more.

The greater strength is achieved by turning concrete into a composite material with the addition of steel or other fibers. These fibers hold the concrete together and prevent cracks from spreading throughout it, negating the brittleness. “Instead of getting a few large cracks in a concrete panel, you get lots of smaller cracks,” says Barnett. “The fibers give it more fracture energy.”

top 50 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[-] Darrell_Winfield@lemmy.world 72 points 3 weeks ago

Holy nothing burger, Batman!

First off, this article is from 2022, re-released to farm clicks from the current hype cycle.

Secondly, this is conjecture on top of conjecture. They discuss that we can't know the current damage from satellite, and Iran down plays the damage. Then they go on to say "concrete is strong and can be stronger".

Articles like this annoy me. It's all based on lots of unsubstantiated claims, and then one guy's theoretical research. We don't know the strength of the bombs. We don't know the strength of Iran's bunkers. We don't know how much damage was done. None of this has changed. I doubt we'll ever really know. But throw whatever political spin on it you want, and now you've got a click worthy news article.

[-] Buelldozer@lemmy.today 19 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago)

There's also the fact that the majority of Iran's nuclear facilities were built before UHPC, the concrete discussed in the article, was available!

[-] Saleh@feddit.org 4 points 3 weeks ago

In the late 2000s, for instance, rumors circulated about a bunker in Iran struck by a bunker-buster bomb. The bomb had failed to penetrate—and remained embedded in—the surface of the bunker, presumably until the occupants called in a bomb-disposal team. Rather than smashing through the concrete, the bomb had been unexpectedly stopped dead. The reason was not hard to guess: Iran was a leader in the new technology of Ultra High Performance Concrete, or UHPC, and its latest concrete advancements were evidently too much for standard bunker busters.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fordow_Fuel_Enrichment_Plant

Construction on the facility started in 2006, but the existence of the enrichment plant was only disclosed to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) by Iran on 21 September 2009,[6][7] after the site became known to Western intelligence services. Western officials strongly condemned Iran for not disclosing the site earlier;

Seems to fall into the same timeframe.

[-] Darrell_Winfield@lemmy.world 4 points 3 weeks ago

I was suspicious of that as well, but I'm not knowledgeable enough on that subject to speak on it, so didn't include it. But I doubt any country can build that extensive of a nuclear factory in so few years.

[-] tyler@programming.dev 3 points 3 weeks ago

I thought we do know the depth of the bunkers though. And that American bombs can’t go that deep, even multiple of them

load more comments (4 replies)
[-] Rivalarrival@lemmy.today 38 points 3 weeks ago

Sounds to me like someone is trying to justify actually using a tactical, atomic bunker buster.

[-] DeathByBigSad@sh.itjust.works 17 points 3 weeks ago

tactical

Lol, they're gonna do the strategic one next

[-] muntedcrocodile@hilariouschaos.com 30 points 3 weeks ago

Giving the yield strength in psi is the most pointless thing ever. Every single engineer would use metric Pa so its clearly a conversion for the average american idiot but the average American idiot has no idea what yield strength is.

[-] PolydoreSmith@lemmy.world 18 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago)

Your comment is informative but now all I can hear in my head is Green Day’s “American Idiot”.

[-] slaneesh_is_right@lemmy.org 10 points 3 weeks ago

We dropped a big boom worth 120000 hamburgers and the explosion was many football fields big. Salute to the brave troops.

[-] someguy3@lemmy.world 28 points 3 weeks ago

That concrete really isn't new and really isn't that special. There's a reason they built it under a mountain - because the mountain does what concrete can't.

[-] Saleh@feddit.org 3 points 3 weeks ago

It is not that it can do what concrete cannot. It is just that digging a tunnel under a mountain is much easier than making a mountain out of concrete.

[-] skisnow@lemmy.ca 19 points 3 weeks ago

I suspect the world would be safer if everyone just let Trump think he won.

load more comments (3 replies)
[-] Nougat@fedia.io 6 points 3 weeks ago
[-] FaceDeer@fedia.io 5 points 3 weeks ago

And no bomb is irresistible.

[-] sundray@lemmus.org 4 points 3 weeks ago

That's why we need the Orbital Ion Cannon.

[-] Spacehooks@reddthat.com 2 points 3 weeks ago

Sorry no tiberian. This is generals timeline. Need partical cannon.

[-] mysticpickle@lemmy.ca 2 points 3 weeks ago
[-] ayyy@sh.itjust.works 4 points 3 weeks ago

I did NOD see that coming.

[-] Empricorn@feddit.nl 1 points 3 weeks ago

"Hey there, you sexy bomb... I can't stay away!"

load more comments (5 replies)
[-] RizzRustbolt@lemmy.world 2 points 3 weeks ago

Except copeium.

[-] rottingleaf@lemmy.world 3 points 3 weeks ago

They mean mixing in steel dust or nylon hair?

Hard to believe this is a recent enough thought.

[-] BeardedGingerWonder@feddit.uk 6 points 3 weeks ago

I doubt it's a recent thought, knowing civil engineers, they're absolute perverts when it comes to concrete.

load more comments (3 replies)
[-] Vanilla_PuddinFudge@infosec.pub 2 points 3 weeks ago

"no, these missiles only bust the bunkers we tested them on."

[-] Buffalox@lemmy.world 1 points 3 weeks ago

From this article it sounds very likely that the bunker buster attack failed.

[-] Paradox@lemdro.id 5 points 3 weeks ago

The article is 3 years old

load more comments (1 replies)
[-] FaceDeer@fedia.io 4 points 3 weeks ago

And I read that the US used more than half of its stock of these bunker-buster bombs in this attack, the largest conventional bunker-busters in existence. So they can't simply try again.

[-] MangoCats@feddit.it 7 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago)

By your math, they absolutely can simply try again: one more time.

By my math, the bunker-buster bomb makers just got a big new contract.

something something DOGE of WAR something...

[-] match@pawb.social 1 points 3 weeks ago

They can try one more time but worse

[-] Buelldozer@lemmy.today 3 points 3 weeks ago

Why? The kinds of UHPC being discussed in the article weren't available even in the United States until the year 2000 but most of Iran's nuclear facilities were built between 1974 and 2005. Even their primary enrichment facility in Fordow, which was struck with MOPs, was started no earlier than the mid-2000s as it was still unfinished in 2009.

Basically the majority of Iran's facilities, even their major ones, are too old to have the kind of concrete being discussed in the article.

[-] Darrell_Winfield@lemmy.world 1 points 3 weeks ago

That's what they want you to think, but we have no evidence to either direction. And I doubt we will ever have a definitive answer.

[-] MangoCats@feddit.it 1 points 3 weeks ago

My guess: that bunker buster attack was twice as successful as the missile attack on the the airfield in Qatar.

2 x 0 = 0.

Now accepting bets on when we will find out that Trump had a secret call with Ali Khamenei where they negotiated the whole thing ahead of time, thus explaining the movement of the Uranium out of the facility, the movement of our servicemen out of the airbase, etc. etc.

[-] Zorque@lemmy.world 1 points 3 weeks ago

I mean they usually only do about 30 damage anyways.

Source

[-] Buffalox@lemmy.world 1 points 3 weeks ago

So Iran knew EXACTLY how strong they needed to make their defenses!
Pretty stupid of the American military to give that info to a game developer, that would obviously use it.

[-] unexposedhazard@discuss.tchncs.de 1 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago)

Basically they used pyramid age tech to outplay billions of dollars worth of weapons tech.

load more comments (9 replies)
load more comments
view more: next ›
this post was submitted on 25 Jun 2025
71 points (78.9% liked)

Technology

72897 readers
1355 users here now

This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.


Our Rules


  1. Follow the lemmy.world rules.
  2. Only tech related news or articles.
  3. Be excellent to each other!
  4. Mod approved content bots can post up to 10 articles per day.
  5. Threads asking for personal tech support may be deleted.
  6. Politics threads may be removed.
  7. No memes allowed as posts, OK to post as comments.
  8. Only approved bots from the list below, this includes using AI responses and summaries. To ask if your bot can be added please contact a mod.
  9. Check for duplicates before posting, duplicates may be removed
  10. Accounts 7 days and younger will have their posts automatically removed.

Approved Bots


founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS