American Concrete Institute’s Post

Our last talk of the day, What are the challenges for Low Carbon Concrete? - curated by ICE, 16.15 at the Materials Stage. The session will focus on the various corners of Low Carbon Concrete and the challenges for the use of it.

Roughly 1000 hours of simultaneous meetings are wrapping up this week at the American Concrete Institute's spring convention in New Orleans, LA, USA. I know there may be fewer things to cause glazing-over to some eyeballs, but I found it to be inspiring. Thousands of passionate international experts, educators, and students discussing and debating how to make concrete design, manufacturing, and construction better- safer, more durable, more economical, and more sustainable. (Had you ever heard of Lunar Concrete? Neither had I: https://lnkd.in/grzpwpDF)   And seeing how concrete keeps making the news for its CO2 contribution, did you know....? -There are over 300 ACI publications on measuring and improving concrete's sustainability, including ACI Technical Committee 130 “Report on the Role of Materials in Sustainable Concrete Construction". -The structural concrete building code (ACI 318) now has sustainability design provisions that include alternative cements and recycled aggregate, and there is a new 318 subcommittee (N) dedicated to the field of sustainable concrete. -ACI launched the NEU Center for Carbon Neutral Concrete.   The American Concrete Institute is not sitting by and idly watching the concrete dry!

Only one day left to register. Durability not only extends the lifespan of concrete structures but also contributes to sustainability and reduces overall lifecycle costs. However, many specifiers are not yet familiar with the latest solutions to significantly enhance concrete’s durability and service life. Join us on July 10 for an insightful webinar where our experts will explain what Hard-Cem is and how it can benefit your projects. https://bit.ly/3ztHevs

How can we meet the future requirements for halving the climate impact in new construction? 🏗 The independent report from IVL shows that cast-in-place concrete frames with semi-precast from Thomas Betong AB can achieve 200 kg CO2e/m² gross area. – The report that came out last autumn shows that with our low-carbon precast products in combination with our low-carbon concrete Thomagrön, we can meet future requirements for new construction. There is actually further potential if, for example, the construction is optimized. And that without compromising on the sound class, which can actually be a challenge in other building systems," says Mats Karlsson, product manager at Thomas Betong. Curious to read more? 👇 Here’s the link to the report https://lnkd.in/d8GgJgRA #Precast #Concrete #Innovation #Technology

  Next week marks the Structures in Fire Conference in Portugal which many of our graduate team will be attending and presenting. This year we have papers featuring steel, concrete and timber materials in fire. Each paper brings an added important consideration and theme to the research presented using case studies to exemplify the importance of research findings: Experimental and Numerical Response of Steel Trusses Exposed to a Localized Fire. This study communicates principles of HBIF in stadia to structural practitioners and the inter-relation of these themes; Post-Fire Structural Performance of Corroded Concrete Beams. This study discusses the important aspects of informalized settlement fires; and Towards Alternative Fire Design Solutions for Canadian Wood-to-Wood Connections. One which I will present personally discusses a recent Toronto fire of heritage infrastructure and our need to better understand timber structures in fire. The study uses blue light technologies to investigate the degradation of timber in fire (charring and ember generations).

It could not be more compact - CO₂ path Ytong in the 2024 Masonry Calendar The main topics of the new Masonry Calendar are "Climate-friendly and sustainable construction - Fixings - Building in existing buildings". Xella Technologie- und Forschungsgesellschaft mbH is also represented in this issue. In their special publication, the team of authors Torsten Schoch, Dr. Berit Straube, Dr. Oliver Kreft and Dr. Hartmut Walther show ways to a CO2-neutral autoclaved aerated concrete (AAC) industry in Germany. How Xella Group can and will contribute to this field is described in this scientific article based on current research projects on alternative and CO2-reduced binding agents – including a binding agent that is produced from old porous concrete from building demolition. Have a look: here is the link to our article: https://lnkd.in/edkAB6uh The combination of academic expertise and practical know-how in this yearbook is exciting. https://lnkd.in/esjPcr9C #xella #ytong #research #AAC #publication #co2 #sustainable #construction

“Rethinking Sustainability” is the motto the 69th BetonTage. The leading congress of the concrete and precast industry will take place from 11 to 13 March 2025 in the Congress Centrum Ulm. It will present a new program structure, and will address the ecological and digital transformation of the construction industry. Find out more here. #congress #concrete #precast #ecologicaltransformation #digitaltransformation #constructionindustry

It’s brown, it’s muddy, and you wouldn’t believe how important it can be for minimising the carbon footprint of the very CO₂-heavy building material concrete! 🏭🌍 In a new, pioneering research project, Industrial PhD student at DTU Sustain and COWI Marvin Glißner uses clay from the Danish underground to make concrete without even an ounce of cement – so-called geopolymer concrete. Along with his supervisor, concrete expert Dr. Ing. Carola Edvardsen, he has developed a mixture of calcined clay and a waste product from steel production that can replace cement in concrete production. This reduces the carbon footprint of concrete by as much as 80% compared to traditional Portland concrete. Every year, the world uses approximately 17 billion tonnes of concrete for buildings, bridges and roads around us. So, any opportunity to make concrete production greener is definitely worth celebrating! The research project has received funding from COWIfonden and Innovationsfonden. Watch a demonstration of the cement-free concrete and see the potential for yourself.

Please join us on tomorrow webinar "Non-Metallic Repair Strategies: Advances in Rehabilitation and Strengthening of Reinforced Concrete using Fiber Reinforced Cementitious Matrix (FRCM)"

There is still a significant research gap for defining Mix Design for Geopolymer Concrete