Overview

We have seen in the last three chapters that organic materials play a complementary role in civil engineering techniques, with respect to other classes of material, on the two aspects commonly experienced by users of cohesion additives, i.e. mainly as binders on the one hand and on the other as plastic or rather manufactured products, to which we have added industrial wood.

The first aspect is more complex. Adhesion involves several partners who are not always in perfect harmony. There is often even competition involved, as seen with respect to bitumen where adhesiveness in fact concerns the preferential wetting of the aggregate for bitumen in the presence of water. Notions of adhesion and adhesive bonding or gluing have been evoked several times, but for the study of the utilization of organic material based on a physico-chemical approach, it seems important to develop the subject in a specific manner.

When we speak of plastic, we normally imply qualities of flexibility, lightness and freedom of shape. However, flexibility goes hand in hand with its enemy, mechanical weakness. The recent development and appearance of organic matrix composites provide an original answer to the question. It is interesting to dedicate a few lines to the same, by pointing out that the significant amount of global scientific research taking place at the moment on this subject is almost exclusively on the mechanical aspect. The physico-chemical aspect does not appear very much.

Lastly, it is interesting to note that due to the existence...