Building more with less – Scientific Challenges and Technical Pathways for Sustainable Concrete Construction
| When |
May 31, 2022
from 11:00 to 12:00 |
|---|---|
| Where | Salle des thèses |
| Attendees |
Michael Haist |
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Concrete by far is the most widely used industrial product both by mass as well as volume and amounts to approx. 30 000 mio. m³ annually. The production of concrete – and here especially its constituent cement – however, is afflicted with substantial CO2 emissions, currently amounting to more than 8 % of the world’s total anthropogenic CO2 footprint. Further, concrete production goes along with a pronounced consumption of natural resources, e.g., amounting to approx. 90 % of European minerals consumption.
Following the world’s climate goals, a pronounced reduction in emissions and resources consumption from cement and concrete production is mandatory. The scientific challenges to achieving this goal however are enormous, requiring a highly interdisciplinary approach: Developing new types of cement requires in-depth expertise in inorganic chemistry; ensuring fresh concrete flow behavior and thus rheology is a complex interplay between particle reactivity, particle packing, surface complexation, mechanical interaction, and rheology; obtaining strength and durability of the material at the hardened state goes along with nano-to-macro scale hydrate phase interactions requiring highly sophisticated micromechanical models, etc.
The lecture by Prof. Haist gives a first overview of the technical pathways to sustainable concrete construction and hereby especially highlights the scientific challenges on this pathway. The lecture will be the first in a series of 4 lectures, considering the physics (and chemistry) involved in the most widely used building material in the world.