Materials
Sustainable and innovative concretes.
Sustainable and innovative concretes
Concrete is the most produced material on earth. Over 25 billion tons of concrete are made each year, and it makes up most of the built environment around us. This also means that we need a lot of natural resources to produce concrete – minerals and stone for cement and aggregates. Of course, this places a large strain on the environment.
At the C3S research group, we are actively involved in developing sustainable and innovative concretes using a variety of approaches and materials in order to reduce the burden placed on the environment by concrete production. Our work includes:
- Concretes produced with different supplementary cementitious materials such as fly ash, slag, fillers and calcined clay;
- Concretes produced with recycled aggregates;
- Concretes produced through additive manufacturing (3D printing).
To quantify the benefits of the materials we develop, we utilize Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) modelling as well as different multi-criteria optimization methods.
Sustainable and innovative reinforcement
So far, concrete with reinforcement in the form of steel bars has been prevalent. Nonetheless, the use of steel reinforcement is not always the optimal choice from a structural, economic or environmental point of view.
The C3S research group places a large effort on research into more sustainable and innovative types of reinforcement in order to speed up construction time, lower the cost of construction and provide better structural performance. Our work includes:
- Fiber reinforced concrete (FRC), i.e. concrete reinforced with micro or macro steel, macro-synthetic, glass and basalt fibers;
- Concrete reinforced with embedded fiber reinforced polymer (FRP) bars, i.e. glass and carbon FRP bars for structural use;
- Textile reinforced concrete (TRC), i.e. concrete reinforced with cages of different fabric such as jute, glass fiber and polypropylene.
To quantify the benefits of the materials we develop, we utilize Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) modelling as well as different multi-criteria optimization methods.