la Statique

19:39 Feb 12, 2022 

My son-in-law did his PhD at Penn State a few years ago and is working in the US Concrete is his thing. I gave him the sentence and the suggestions that this could be related to load, equilibrium or strength. Here's basically what he replied:
When building columns, for example, we place the formwork in the shape of the column and then fill it up with concrete. Then we remove the formwork when the concrete is strong enough to stay up on its own. So in this context, it probably means strength. Thus, here the time it take to reach the minimum strength required to remove the formwork. Strength is the main factor controlling the formwork removal time. Some people leave it on a bit longer to preserve the humidity of the concrete and prevent it from drying although it's not that common.

13:25 Feb 12, 2022 

I've put the question to an engineer specialising in concrete. I'll report back if he comes up with something helpful.

15:35 Feb 10, 2022 

structural engineering, specifically to the part about calculating "required strength" for various load bearing elements. And the time required for concrete to get to it.

21:13 Feb 9, 2022 

means structural engineering.

I wonder if you could get round this by saying "different drying times".

01:05 Feb 9, 2022 

For a big surface of wall / parking / ... concrete is poured in steps (reprises de coulée).
Every one of these "steps" is slightly different, so the final "shade" of colour of the finished concrete elements is never perfectly the same.

22:51 Feb 8, 2022 

Are you sure it's paint they are talking about? It would seem more logical to me to think 'teinte' refers to the colour of the finished concrete. You know the book about the 50 shades ... and in 1967 The Monkees had a song about it - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ygyAMIne0g0.

21:54 Feb 8, 2022 

Thank you, Marco. I was on the wrong track! This fits well in the context.