I-Corps: Impact of extended time on fresh concrete and durability

这个I-Corps项目的更广泛的影响/商业潜力是开发一种减少浪费的混凝土。 美国每年有超过10亿立方码的预拌混凝土返回混凝土厂。这些混凝土中的大部分作为废物被丢弃或被冲洗掉以回收系统中使用的骨料。这些废物导致垃圾填埋场的硬化混凝土，污染的冲洗水和增加的温室气体。减少这一点可以通过防止垃圾填埋场中不必要的材料和减少用于洗涤的稀缺水资源的使用以及改善运营成本来显着提高可持续性。此外，卡车每年拒收混凝土的主要原因是严格遵守90分钟的时限。 该技术是一种混凝土添加剂，可以让混合混凝土“睡眠”以保持质量。这个I-Corps项目基于改进的混凝土配方的开发，以允许延长搅拌时间，而不会对长期耐久性产生负面影响。 随着交通和道路拥堵日益严重，这一规则不必要地增加了建筑成本和浪费混凝土。所提出的技术可以将混合时间延长150分钟，而不会对混凝土混合物的长期耐久性产生负面影响。 最近的研究检查硬化混凝土的性能，如抗压强度，冻融，和表面电阻率，并表明放电时间没有显着影响的新鲜性能，表面电阻率，和冻融耐久性长达150分钟。这项技术可以改善排放时间限制和延长规格。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并已被认为是值得通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估的支持。

The broader impact/commercial potential of this I-Corps project is the development of a type of concrete that reduces waste. More than one billion cubic yards of ready-mix concrete produced in the United States is returned to concrete plants every year. Much of this concrete is discarded as waste or washed out to reclaim the aggregates used in the system. This waste results in hardened concrete in landfills, contaminated washout water, and increased greenhouse gases. Reducing this may significantly improve sustainability by preventing unnecessary material in the landfill and reducing use of scarce water resources for washing, as well as improving operating costs. Furthermore, the main reason for truck rejections of concrete every year is due to the strict adherence to the 90-minute time limit. The technology is a concrete additive that allows mixed concrete to “sleep” to preserve the quality. This I-Corps project is based on the development of an improved concrete formula to allow extended mixing times without negatively impacting long-term durability. As traffic and road congestion has gotten progressively worse, this rule has unnecessarily increased construction cost and waste concrete. The proposed technology may extend mixing times by up to 150 minutes without negatively impacting the long-term durability of concrete mixtures. Recent studies examined hardened concrete properties such as compressive strength, freeze-thaw, and surface resistivity and indicate that the discharge time had no significant impact on the fresh properties, surface resistivity, and freeze-thaw durability up to 150 minutes. This technology may improve discharge time limits and extend specifications.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.