ARCTIC - ecocrete

During the past decades, use of various industrial products and pozzolanic materials in concrete has increased drastically, not only to reduce the environmental impact of ordinary Portland cement (OPC) but also to enhance the mechanical and durability performance or concrete. The present project deals with development of ecological concrete in cold climatic conditions.
During winter, atmospheric temperature is below freezing point in most of the Scandinavia countries and producing concrete in conventional way is expensive due to artificial heating of aggregates, water and surrounding area to create normal environment for concreting and curing. With controlled concrete delay in set time, strength gain and susceptible to frost damage are majorly experienced challenges. The development of new binders from industrial by-products ie, blast furnace stroke and fly ash by alkaline activation as alternative to traditional cement and utilizing commercially available chemical admixtures will reduce the cost and energy consumption by avoiding or limited use of heating elements.
The main objective of the research is to develop a novel and innovative solution to produce ecological concrete using industrial waste, applicable in winter conditions. The crucial challenge is to make concrete work below 5 ° C and moving down to extreme -25 ° C and also must be simple to adapt, reliable and economically viable. The project will also take advantage of Northern industrial side stream and utilizing as a binding material in sustainable arctic concrete.

Contact
Andrzej Cwirzen
- Professor and Head of Subject
- 0920-493387
- andrzej.cwirzen@ltu.se
- Andrzej Cwirzen
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