Report

Teaser, summary, work performed and final results

Periodic Reporting for period 2 - SUPERCONCRETE (SUstainability-driven international/intersectoral Partnership for Education and Research on modelling next generation CONCRETE)

Teaser

SUPERCONCRETE (SUstainability-driven international/intersectoral Partnership for Education and Research on modelling next generation CONCRETE) is a cross-disciplinary international/intersectoral project dealing with theoretical models for next-generation concretes...

Summary

SUPERCONCRETE (SUstainability-driven international/intersectoral Partnership for Education and Research on modelling next generation CONCRETE) is a cross-disciplinary international/intersectoral project dealing with theoretical models for next-generation concretes, characterised by a significant sustainability enhancement for the construction industry. Specifically, it focuses on three classes of “next generation” concretes, whose development is currently going on in scientific laboratories, as they appear to be most attractive for making concrete more sustainable and durable:
- Low-Carbon Concrete (LCC), characterised by non-conventional constituents, often derived from recycling industrial waste or by-products;
- High-Class Concrete (HCC), encompassing materials with enhanced performance in strength, durability;
- Fibre-reinforced Cementitious Composites (FCC), with special properties in terms of both fibre/textile reinforcement and matrix.
Therefore, developing through-life multi-scale models for these novel materials is the key objective of the SUPERCONCRETE project. Specifically, three transversal modelling issues are considered:
- Rheology and Early age;
- Hardened state and service life;
- Extreme conditions.
Each Project Participant brings a specific competence into the consortium, on either the aforementioned innovative classes of concrete or the relevant life stages. A further cross-cutting objective aims at defining a “Sustainability Index”, based on both the constituents and the processes requested for producing each concrete class.

The construction sector is still of utmost importance to the European economy. It represents around 850 billion € turnover, which corresponds to about 10% of the GDP, and 12 million jobs. It is a fundamental sector in job generation with one additional job in construction considered to generate two more in other sectors. Unfortunately, the construction sector is mainly based on resource-demanding and energy consuming productions, often results in significant production of waste and, then, is characterised by adverse environmental impacts.
In this context, the SUPERCONCRETE project aims to contribute significantly in turning the construction sector from an high environmental impact sector, into a sustainability-driven one. Therefore, the choice of focussing on three advanced concrete materials, potentially more sustainable than the ordinary ones, and the objective of developing an organic set of predictive models for their rational application in newly designed structures, is mainly moved by the aim of enhancing sustainability in the construction sector.

The transfer of “next generation“ knowledge to be achieved is, in itself, considered as the key objective for the activities planned in this project. Specifically, the SUPERCONCRETE’s final deliverables will be 1) a joint international course on sustainable concretes with 2) a web-based platform for interacting with students and practitioners and 3) an underlying textbook.

Work performed

\"During the second 24 months of the SUPERCONCRETE project several documents have been prepared and submitted as part of Work Packages 2-8, including the three final deliverables consisting in preparing master course (D6.1), a web-based platform (D6.2) and a textbook (D6.3).

WP1 - COLLECTION OF AVAILABLE KNOWLEDGE
The communication activities foreseen by this WP were intended at sharing the available data and knowledge among the project participants. They have been completed within the first Reporting Period.

WP2 - FORMULATION OF MODELS FOR LCC
WP2 focusses on formulating through-life models for Low-Carbon Concretes (LCC). Specifically, the following deliverables have been prepared and submitted during RP2:
• Formulation of theoretical models for LCCs under service life loading scenarios (D2.3);
• Formulation of theoretical models for LCC under extreme conditions (D2.4).

WP3 - FORMULATION OF MODELS FOR HCC
WP3 on formulating through-life models for High-Class Concretes (HCC). Specifically, the following deliverables have been prepared:
• Formulation of theoretical models for HCC rheology and early age phenomena (D3.2);
• Formulation of theoretical models for HCCs under service life loading scenarios (D3.3);

WP4 - FORMULATION OF MODELS FOR FCC
WP4 focusses on formulating through-life models for Fibre-reinforced Cementitious Composites (FCC). Specifically, the following deliverables have been prepared and submitted:
• Formulation of theoretical models for simulating the thermo-mechanical behaviour of FCCs at early age (D4.2);
• Formulation of theoretical models for FCC under extreme conditions (D4.4).

WP5 - TRANSVERSAL SUSTAINABILITY-RELATED ASPECTS
WP5 aims at developing an integrated model for environmental sustainability assessment of for the materials belonging to the three concrete classes under consideration in SUPERCONCRETE. Specifically, the following deliverables have been prepared and submitted:
• Database of constituents for LCC, HCC and FCC with relevant information about aspects for sustainability (D5.1);
• Software package capable of assessing the sustainability of a given concrete design (D5.2).

WP6 - DISSEMINATION OF PROJECT RESULTS
WP6 aims at disseminating the main project results by means of the three following \"\"public deliverables\"\" that were prepared and submitted during RP2:
• Preparation of a M.Sc. Course (D6.1);
• Preparation of a web-based platform (D6.2);
• Preparation of a textbook (D6.3).

Finally, besides all the formal reporting documents foreseen by the Grant Agreement, 2 more deliverables (D7.1 and D8.1) have been submitted at the end of the project with the aim of summarising, respectively, coordination and management activities.\"

Final results

\"The SUPERCONCRETE project basically aims at improving the level of knowledge of the technical community in utilising advanced low carbon (LCC), high-class (HCC) and ductile fibre reinforced (FCC) concretes, as possible solutions for enhancing sustainability in the construction sector of tomorrow. Therefore, the knowledge gained in this project will be transferred to the next generation of students, that will be more aware and better trained in using “next generation” theoretical models capable of predicting the physical properties and the mechanical behaviour of the aforementioned material,s which will be consequently made fully available for the building industry.

As a result of the research and dissemination activities foreseen in the SUPERCONCRETE project, the innovation and design skills of the next generations of students and practitioners will be significantly improved and, even more important, they will become aware of the enormous potential that the selected classes of concretes may offer in terms of performance, sustainability and durability. The new skills and extra knowledge on advanced concretes will be transferred to the students via educational courses, taught at all participating Universities. Once having attended this international course, students will have significantly enhanced their career perspectives, which will make a difference in application procedures for positions in future environmentally friendly construction and ecological design methods.

With this aim, three \"\"public deliverables\"\" are made available in Open Access through the project web-site (www.superconcrete-h2020.unisa.it).\"

Website & more info

More info: http://www.superconcrete-h2020.unisa.it.