Combining #sustainability with #technical #excellence, that's what we're after!
Glassifier - PhD - Structural engineer, CTO and head of R&D at vitroplena | Postdoctoral researcher at Ghent University
🌍 Last week, during Glass Technology Live (#GTL) at glasstec – International Trade Fair 2024, the #G2C #walkway was unveiled ✂ 🎀. By only using structural adhesive bonding, we were able to showcase a structurally and aesthetically performing fully bonded glass-concrete walkway 🎆🚀. But, did you know 🤔 ? In this demonstrator, CRH Structural Concrete bv (Belgium) demonstrates the potential to drastically reduce concrete's carbon footprint. The technology, developed in collaboration with ResourceFull, uses steel slag and is a milestone in the pursuit of more #sustainable #concrete. In this project, an Ultra‐High‐Performance Concrete (#UHPC) staircase was made #without #cement 😵. Cement is responsible for ±90% of the carbon footprint of unreinforced concrete 😰. In UHPC in particular, cement has a very large share in the #carbon #footprint of the final concrete product. In this project, all cement was replaced by a binding agent made of secondary flows from metallurgy 😎. The obtained concrete mixture achieves overall #strengths of more than 100 MPa and is low in #shrinkage, ensuring an excellent #aesthetic final quality of the #architectural product with a footprint of less than 20% compared to the reference mixture 😲. The G2C walkway using cement-free UHPC serves as a powerful demonstration of how structural adhesives and alternative binding agents can transform building materials 💪. Together, they pave the way for aesthetically refined, sustainable solutions in architecture, offering a glimpse into the future of eco-conscious construction 🤜🤛. photos: Cas Maertens and Bert Van Lancker partners: Ghent University, fischerwerke GmbH & Co. KG and vitroplena #G2C #glass #concrete #UHPC #adhesives #carbonfootprint #highstrength #lowshrinkage #aethetic #architecture #sustainable #withoutcement #UGent #Fischer #vitroplena #durfdenken #letsglassifytheworld #getglassified