https://dyconcretepumps.com/impact-of-sugar-in-concrete/
The specifics in the screenshot are a bit “legendy,” but the concept is real. Sugar does impede the setting of concrete.
The last time this was posted, someone with more complex knowledge on the subject showed up with backing science that not only is this not true, but it until the mixture is around 10 percent sugar by weight, it has no noticable effect. So unless you’re carrying 400 lbs of sugar with you, the only thing you’d do is risk arrest.
My understanding is that sugar delays the setting of the cement but doesn’t stop it entirely. I’ve heard of sugar being dumped into loads of cement that workers didn’t have time to finish pouring and smoothing out.
And I quote: Beyond 0.06% use of sugar it is found that the both initial and final setting times drastically reduces.
and a ton is 2000 lbs and we need only 0.1% to 0.2% of the mass to be sugar to significantly reduce setting times and cause concrete to be prone to crumbling Or 2 to 4 lbs for those that can’t math.
So not far off in terms of sabotage but not precisely correct in terms of the exact effects produced.
But the lesson can be better generalized, altering things from the engineered specification can with only subtle actions make breaking changes.
Like the loading dock manager in the 1980s in Intel that cost them billions by opening the wafer containers and trying to count them… https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NGFhc8R_uO4
So it benefits up to .06%, but can be more prone to crumbling at much higher amounts. 2 to 4 lbs isn’t unreasonable to carry, but it has to be mixed in, and unfortunately the average cement truck is loaded with 32000-48000 lbs. Sneaking 40-75 bags of sugar into an active construction site seems a bit more risky.
Please be sure enough is used. You don’t want to end up with marginally compromised concrete that stands up to construction but fails in a couple years killing the inmates.
