Sustainable Light Concrete Structures

The book presents new technologies for easy and economical construction of light concrete structures saving materials and CO2. The new super-light technology allows a designer to place forces, where it is optimal, and save material everywhere else. The book also supports this “Direct Engineering” principle with a number of new details and structural principles. The new pearl-chain technology makes it possible to design optimal shapes such as arches, vaults, cupolas, floating tunnels, and shells etc. from inexpensive, and mass-produced components. The new super-light deck-elements presented in the book are now produced in six factories in Denmark, Finland, and USA, and the number is increasing. The book will be of interest for all structural engineers, who would like to save materials, CO2 and optimize their structures, for students learning about the new technologies, and for contractors and architects, who want to investigate new building technologies.

Production of Portland cement is responsible for about seven percent of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions. The pressure to make the production of concrete more sustainable, or "greener", is considerable and increasing. This requires a wholesale shift in processes, materials and methods in the concrete industry. Pure Portland cement will need to be replaced by more complex binary, tertiary or even quaternary binders, including other types of cementitious materials. We can expect an increasing use of high performance concrete, primarily because of its high sustainability and durability. Much more attention will have to be paid to the proper curing of the concrete if we want to improve its life expectancy. Presenting the latest advances in the science of concrete this book focuses particularly on sustainability, durability, and economy. It explores the potential for increased sustainability in concrete from the initial mixing right through to its behaviour in complex structures exposed to different types of loads and aggressive environments.

The challenges facing humanity in the 21st century includeclimate change, population growth, overconsumption of resources,overproduction of waste and increasing energy demands. Forconstruction practitioners, responding to these challenges meanscreating a built environment that provides accommodation andinfrastructure with better whole-life performance using lowervolumes of primary materials, less non-renewable energy, wastingless and causing fewer disturbances to the naturalenvironment. Concrete is ubiquitous in the built environment.It is therefore essential that it is used in the most sustainableway so practitioners must become aware of the range of sustainableconcrete solutions available for construction. While sustainabledevelopment has been embedded into engineering curricula, it can bedifficult for students and academics to be fully aware of theinnovations in sustainable construction that are developed by theindustry. Sustainable Concrete Solutions serves as an introductionto and an overview of the latest developments in sustainableconcrete construction. It provides useful guidance, withfurther references, to students, researchers, academics andpractitioners of all construction disciplines who are faced withthe challenge of designing, specifying and constructing withconcrete.

This book provides a collection of recent research works, related to structural stability and durability, service life, reinforced concrete structures, recycled materials, and sustainability with endogenic materials. Intended as an overview of the current state of knowledge, the book will benefit scientists, students, practitioners, lecturers and other interested parties. At the same time, the topics covered are relevant to a variety of scientific and engineering disciplines, including civil, materials and mechanical engineering.

Cement-based concrete has excellent properties as a construction material, and the raw materials of cement—rocks, and limestone and clay—are bountiful. Yet its production generates high quantities of CO2, making it a potentially unsustainable material. However, there are no alternatives to concrete and steel as basic methods for development of socioeconomic infrastructure at this time. Highlighting sustainability issues in the construction industry, The Sustainable Use of Concrete presents guidelines on how to move toward sustainable concrete construction. The book begins by clarifying the historic background and meaning of sustainability, after which it outlines areas that need to be considered in connection with sustainability in the concrete and construction field. It examines environmental, social and cultural, and economic aspects, then considers an evaluation system of sustainability. The authors include various tools and ISO standards, and then explore technologies for sustainability, with case studies and examples that promote understanding of current technologies. Although the construction sector, in the broadest sense, has come to recognize that infrastructure development over the past two centuries has been unsustainable, it has been slow to adjust. Comprehensive information and relevant practical guidance are very scarce. This book lays out a roadmap for creating a human-friendly and safe environment with low environmental burden.

This book presents the latest research advances and findings in the field of smart/multifunctional concretes, focusing on the principles, design and fabrication, test and characterization, performance and mechanism, and their applications in infrastructures. It also discusses future challenges in the development and application of smart/multifunctional concretes, providing useful theory, ideas and principles, as well as insights and practical guidance for developing sustainable infrastructures. It is a valuable resource for researchers, scientists and engineers in the field of civil-engineering materials and infrastructures.

Sustainability is a crucial concept. Sustainability was first introduced in the fib by creating a Special Activity Group under the convenorship of Prof Sakai. This group encouraged and helped all fib commissions to create their own groups dealing with sustainability. The fib Commission 6 “Prefabrication” took up this challenge and created a Task Group called “Sustainability of Structures with Precast Elements” in 2012. The group was created as a joint group with PCI (Precast Concrete Institute of USA), with the then-active fib Commission 3 “Environmental aspects of design and construction”, and the fib’s SAG8 on Sustainability. Therefore, this Bulletin 88 is a joint publication between PCI and fib. The aim of the work was to gather and study the most recent work that has been developed regarding sustainability – and more particularly Life Cycle Assessment - of structures in which precast elements are used. The final aim of the group would be to provide recommendations for the study and assessment of structures built with precast elements. It will cover all aspects of this kind of structure, from planning, design, execution, use, maintenance and remedial activities to deconstruction, reuse, demolition and recycling. The fib holds sustainability as a high priority, which triggered the creation of a new Commission 7 “Sustainability” during the 2015 fib commissions reorganisation. This commission has been chaired since then by Prof Hájek. Sustainability concepts were already introduced in the Model Code 2010 and are a key part in the elaboration of the Model Code 2020. Experts from many parts of the world contributed to this fib Bulletin 88 which gives the document a broad overview of sustainability sensibilities across different continents. Bulletin 88 starts with a description of the importance of environmental concepts and developments in the world today and the reason why sustainability is a crucial concept that will be even more important in the future. The document then focuses on the different advances of standards and regulations that have been developed or are in the process of being implemented. ISO, European regulations, North American regulations, Brazilian implementation in real precast companies and the developments of the fib Model Codes have been considered in this bulletin. After that, the bulletin examines life cycle aspects of precast structures, taking former fib bulletins as a basis. Then, it moves on to an in-depth study of specific sustainability aspects of precast structures. Then, the bulletin deals with the special methodologies and tools that are available around the world to handle sustainability in general and with precast structures in particular. A selection of tools is described in this chapter. The Task Group also developed proposals about how to deal with the sustainability of precast structures. Some of the proposals are described conceptually in the text. The final chapter compiles several case studies or examples of sustainability applications of precast structures. The examples differ and are grouped by category: buildings, infrastructure and special works.v The task group continues to work on developing other documents that will focus on the detailed practical application of some of the sustainability models described in this document.