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Fibre Reinforced Concrete with Recycled and Waste Materials Optimised for Improved Sustainability of Urban Projects

Project description

A green solution for more sustainable concrete products

Manufacturing materials for reinforced concrete (cement, aggregates, steel) contributes to rising greenhouse gas emissions. Although advancements have been made in producing more eco-friendly forms of concrete, they are not widely used due to a lack of quality standards and design guidelines. The EU-funded GREEN-FRC project will develop optimised construction materials that combine fibre-reinforced concrete (FRC) and green concrete produced with recycled materials and industrial byproducts. The performance of green FRC will be validated by testing its properties when using various recycled additives. The project will also establish methods for material testing, criteria for better quality standards and design specifications of green FRC. Project results are expected to lead to increased manufacture and use of sustainable concrete in urban infrastructure.

Objective

Reinforced doncrete urban infrastructure poses significant, insufficiently addressed, environmental challenges due to impacts from cement, natural aggregate and steel reinforcement production. This proposal focuses on integrating fibre reinforced concrete (FRC) with “green” concretes produced with waste and recycled materials. The large scatter of current FRC characterisation tests leads to conservative structural design and the incomplete understanding of waste and recycled materials’ effects on “green” concrete properties leads to quality control challenges. As a result, existing standards and design codes are not comprehensive and the market uptake of these concretes is low. This action proposes a synergy of FRC and “green” concretes to achieve fully sustainable urban infrastructure. The action will develop and optimise structural-grade “green” FRC (G-FRC) with different recycled and waste materials for maximising sustainability; develop novel G-FRC characterisation tests with reduced result scatter; formulate performance-based indicators for recycled and waste materials used in G-FRC to facilitate quality control; and develop design guidelines for G-FRC structures with full-scale structural test verification and in-situ application, within 24 months of project duration. The expertise of the experienced researcher (ER), Dr. Nikola Tošić, and the supervisor, Dr. Alberto de la Fuente Antequera, are fully complementary and will enable them to develop novel research techniques through a two-way knowledge transfer and comprehensive training activities for the ER. The project will engage Smart Engineering Ltd for industrial application of project results. Comprehensive dissemination and communication measures focusing on different target audiences are formulated. A carefully thought through and detailed work plan, resource use, and contingency measures for risk mitigation have been developed to ensure a smooth and timely project implementation with maximised impact.

Coordinator

UNIVERSITAT POLITECNICA DE CATALUNYA
Net EU contribution
€ 160 932,48
Address
CALLE JORDI GIRONA 31
08034 Barcelona
Spain

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Region
Este Cataluña Barcelona
Activity type
Higher or Secondary Education Establishments
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Total cost
€ 160 932,48