Development of eco-friendly concrete with low embodied energy and adequate performance for sustainable structures

许多国家都致力于“2030挑战”，目标是到2030年，所有新建筑和重大改造都将实现碳中和。为了减少建筑物的碳足迹，重要的是要考虑这些建筑物中使用的材料中的隐含能量（EE）的量。波特兰水泥混凝土是世界上使用最广泛的建筑材料。水泥工业每年消耗约5%的工业能源消耗，并导致约5%的人为二氧化碳（CO2）排放量。因此，人们对寻找对环境影响较小的波特兰水泥的替代粘合剂的兴趣日益浓厚。已经开发了几种具有低EE和低CO2排放特征的替代有前途的粘合剂。然而，这些粘合剂在建筑行业中被接受时面临困难。这主要是由于缺乏对化学和物理行为和性能的许多基本问题的理解。其次，这些粘合剂没有标准的成分或性能参数可纳入建筑规范和规格。拟议研究计划的长期目标旨在为可持续结构开发智能，响应性环保的混凝土，并探索其物理化学耦合响应，以应对其使用寿命周期内周围环境的变化。该计划的短期目标是开发具有最小EE的生态友好型混凝土，同时保持足够的机械和耐久性性能。具体而言，它有三个目标：（1）根据其成分最大限度地减少混凝土EE：将研究减少混凝土混合物EE的不同技术，包括使用替代水泥的粘合剂和使用回收材料。(2)评估低EE环保混凝土在类似野外条件下的性能：确保创新混凝土在类似野外条件下具有足够的性能，并对其混合物进行微调，以减轻性能的任何可能下降。（3）低EE生态友好混凝土性能模型：将开发考虑各种环境条件下混凝土成分和性能之间相互作用的智能预测模型。这项研究计划将涵盖学术文献中的几个关键空白。它将解决不同的技术，以生产低体现能量混凝土。 这将有效地促进在各种建筑应用中更广泛地使用这种生态友好型混凝土，并对北美混凝土标准和规范产生影响。开发和支持替代可持续技术，以生产对环境影响最小的绿色建筑材料，将有助于加拿大和其他地区的整体可持续性。

Many countries have committed to the “2030 Challenge” targeting that all new buildings and major renovations shall be carbon-neutral by 2030. To reduce the carbon footprint of buildings, it is important to account for the amount of embodied energy (EE) in materials used in these buildings. Portland cement concrete is the most widely used building material in the world. The cement industry consumes annually around 5% of the industrial energy consumption and results in about 5% of the total man-made carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. Therefore, there is a burgeoning interest in finding alternative binders to Portland cement with a lower environmental impact. Several alternative promising binders that are characterized by low EE and low CO2 emission have been developed. However, these binders are facing difficulties in getting accepted in the construction industry. This is primarily due to the lack of understanding for many fundamental questions regarding chemical and physical behaviors and performance. Secondly, there is no standard composition or performance parameter for these binders that can be incorporated into building codes and specifications.***The long term goal of the proposed research program aims to develop smart, responsive eco-friendly concretes for sustainable structures and explore their physical-chemical coupled response to changes in their surrounding environment over the service life cycle. The short term goal of the program focuses on developing eco-friendly concrete with minimal EE while maintaining adequate mechanical and durability performance. Specifically, it has three objectives: (1)Minimize concrete EE based on its ingredients: Different techniques for reducing the EE of concrete mixtures including the use of alternative binder than cement and the use of recycled materials will be investigated. (2) Evaluate the performance of low EE eco-friendly concretes under field-like conditions: Ensuring adequate performance of the innovative concretes under field-like conditions and fine tuning of their mixtures to mitigate any possible drop in the performance. (3)Model low EE eco-friendly concretes performance: Intelligent predictive models that consider the interaction between concrete compositions and performance under various environmental conditions will be developed.******This research program will cover several key gaps in the academic literature. It will address different techniques to produce low embodied energy concretes. This will effectively contribute to the wider use of such eco-friendly concretes in various constructional applications, with an impact on North American standards and specifications for concrete. Developing and supporting alternative sustainable technologies for producing green construction building materials with minimal environmental impact will contribute to the overall sustainability of Canada and beyond.