GREEN-FRC · Fibre Reinforced Concrete with Recycled and Waste Materials Optimised for Improved Sustainability of Urban Projects
Horizon 2020 — Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions
- Duration
- 2020-02-03 → 2022-02-02
- EU contribution
- €160,932
- Participants
- 1
- Scheme
- MSCA-IF
Lines connect the coordinator with its partners.
Results in brief
Fibre Reinforced Concrete with Recycled and Waste Materials Optimised for Improved Sustainability of Urban Projects
The percentage of the global population living in urban areas in the EU is 75.2%, i.e. 385 million people, expected to increase to 80% by 2050. Hence, the demand on cities for maintaining and increasing the well-being and quality of life of their citizens will only continue to increase. In order to achieve this goal, sustainable, resilient and robust urban infrastructure is required. The majority of urban infrastructure, such as buildings, bridges, roads and tunnels, is produced from reinforced concrete. However, the challenges of sustainable concrete production need to be urgently addressed. These include the use of recycled and waste materials for aggregate and binder in concrete, as well as the use of alternative reinforcements such as steel and synthetic fibres, as sustainable replacements of steel reinforcing bars. With these challenges in mind, the GREEN-FRC project was carried out, with the main aim of producing fibre reinforced concrete (FRC) with sustainable reinforcement, and recycled and waste materials as constituents of concrete. More specifically, the project objectives were the development of “green” FRC mixes, novel testing methods for determining FRC properties, performance-based indicators for sustainable, recycled and waste material use in concrete and design guidelines and standards for “green” FRC structures. The project fits within the context of UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDG 11 – Sustainable Cities and Communities), European Green Deal and the EU Strategy for the sustainable competitiveness of the construction sector and its enterprises.
Data: CORDIS, © European Union
Project 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.
Original text from CORDIS.
Participants
- UNIVERSITAT POLITECNICA DE CATALUNYA · BARCELONACoordinatorSpain
Links
Data: CORDIS, © European Union