Some Emerging Trends for making Concrete more Sustainable

Kanchan Mala Jaypee University of Engineering and Technology, Guna, M.P., India

Abstract : Concrete is the most important, most versatile and most widely used construction material world-wide. It consists of cement, sand, coarse aggregate and water in some definite proportion. Production of cement not only uses enormous raw materials but also demands high energy. Apart from that, emissions of large amount of CO2 during manufacturing process (production of 1 tonnes cement generates 1 tonnes CO2) makes it less sustainable material. In recent years, aggregates sources are beginning to be depleted at a high speed due to large number of construction activities. To make concrete more sustainable lots of research works have been done. New and improved technologies have been developed to reduce CO2 emissions and energy consumption. Substitute materials like fly ash, blast furnace slag etc have been explored to reduce the use of cement clinkers and making concrete more durable and environment friendly. Use of recycled aggregates and artificial aggregates, manufactured by utilizing industrial wastes, have reduced the burden on resources of natural aggregates. Use of ready mix concrete not only allows the construction workers to have concrete at congested sites but also reduce pollution at the sites. This paper gives an outlook on some emerging trends and practices adopted by construction industry for making concrete more sustainable. Key words : Sustainable, concrete, supplementary cementitious material, recycled aggregate 1 Introduction It is essential for human beings to use concrete to continue building infra structures, residential buildings, pavements, dams etc. The concrete production, however, consumes a large amount of natural resources and energy. A large amount of CO2 emission takes place during manufacturing of cement and reinforcing steel bars. Concrete productions, construction, maintenance, demolition of concrete structures, transportation are all accounted for energy consumption. Some practices and strategies are available to lessen the adverse affect on environment and make concrete more sustainable. Few of them are summarized as following: Increase use of supplementary cementitious materials (SCMs) especially byproducts. Finding alternatives of cement in concrete. Use recycled aggregate produced from demolished waste Emphasis on durability of structure for longer service life and less maintenance Use high strength concrete to reduce the size of structural members. Use of ready mix concrete Reuse of wash water

2 Use of supplementary cementitious material

Replacing parts of the cement in concrete with SCMs or making blended cement where clinker is partly replaced with SCMs is an effective fastest remedy to reduce CO2 emissions from the cement and concrete industry. At present scenario, the share of fly ash based Portland pozzolana cement (PPC) and Portland slag cement (PSC) increases world-wide in cement production. In India more than 65 % production is of PPC. Fly ash is a byproduct of coal based thermal power plant and it is abundantly available world-wide. Earlier the maximum replacement percentage of cement by fly ash was less but it has increased to higher percentage due to intensive research works and improved technology. In India, the maximum replacement percentage has been increased from 25% to 35% i.e. more saving in raw materials and energy consumption at the same time less emissions of CO2. In 1985, CANMET developed a concrete incorporating large volumes of fly ash for mass concreting and structural use which exhibits excellent mechanical properties, low permeability, superior durability, and that is environmentally friendly. This concrete is now popular as high volume fly ash concrete. The cement is replaced more than 50 % in this type of concrete. Ternary cement blends are superior to binary cement blends due to synergic effect. In this system cement is replaced by two different SCMs. The SCMs are selected in such a way that their combination would complement each other to improve the performance of concrete. For example in the most popular ternary cement blends of OPC, fly ash and silica fume , silica fume compensate the early age strength loss due to inclusion of fly ash. On the other hand fly ash compensate the increased dose of superplasticizer which arises due to inclusion of very fine particles of silica fume Due to significant reduction in the number of skilled workers in Japan's construction industry has led to the development of self compacting concrete (SCC) in the beginning of 1990s. The fluidity of SCC allows self-consolidation of concrete without vibration and flow easily through highly congested reinforcement. The major benefits of SCC is substantial reduction in construction time and labour cost, reduction in compaction and vibration noise, proper filling of restricted access areas and heavily reinforced members and utilization of waste products like fly ash, etc. 3 Finding alternatives of cement in concrete Research work has been also carried out to find or develop some alternatives of cement in concrete so that it can totally replace with some other material. Geopolymers are one of them. They are aluminosilicates which obtained by alkali activation of silica and alumina rich materials like fly ash and metakaoline. Alkali activation of fly ash is of great interest in the context of effective disposal of fly ash. Lots of work has been done by A. Palomo et al on alkali activation of fly ash concrete and used it successfully in manufacturing of prestressed railway sleepers, precast slab panels etc. B.V. Rangan et al developed mix design for different strength using alkali activated fly ash and study the applicability of existing design codes for the design of structural members made with this concrete. Fly ash is activated by using sodium hydroxide and water glass solution at elevated temperature. It gains strength very fast and due to absence of calcium in the paste increases the durability of structures. The disadvantage is the curing at

elevated temperature and handling alkaline solution. Hence these make the material not suitable for all type of construction work. It is used mainly in pre fabricated work. This material is still in research stage and work is going on to make it user friendly. 4. Recycled aggregate and artificial aggregate In recent years, the sources of good quality river sand and natural gravel have depleted at very high speed. At the same time disposal of waste due to demolished structures is also going to be a critical issue. With the aim of solving these problems, the recycling techniques have been developed to use aggregates from demolished waste. Some part of the virgin aggregates in concrete are replaced with recycled aggregates without compromising the quality and strength of concrete. The main problem associated with using recycled aggregates is their high porosity and water absorption due to adherence of mortar on the surface of aggregate. If the recycled aggregates obtained from demolished wastes are used without any treatment then it produce low quality recycled aggregate which results in low strength. Nowadays techniques have been developed to remove the mortar from surface by mechanical scrubbing or heated scrubbing, which produce high quality recycled aggregate, virtually the same as the virgin aggregates. Also two stage mixing approach has developed to improve the strength by strengthening the bond of mortar and aggregate. Apart from recycling aggregates from demolition waste artificial aggregates have been made from using industrial waste like slag and fly ash. The sintered fly ash aggregate, foamed blast furnace slag aggregate, copper slag aggregates, steel slag aggregates are some of them but they account very less fraction of total aggregate production for concrete. 5. Emphasis on durability of structures In recent years, the emphasis is shifted from using only high strength material to durable material. Durable materials last for longer life so service life of structure will increase and lesser maintenance will require. This will reduce the cost and lessen the burden on natural resources. High performance concrete is developed to enhance the mechanical properties as well as durability. Use of SCMs and superplasticizers is mainly responsible for better performance of concrete. SCMs refine the pores of mortar and resultant concrete exhibits less permeability, better resistance to corrosion, chemical attacks, impact, abrasion etc. Superplasticizers contribute to get desired workability for placing concrete at very low water cement ratio. This makes the structure more durable and having longer service life. 6. Use of high strength concrete Using SCMs and superplasticizers revolunize the concrete industry and concrete can be designed for very high strength. Use of high strength concrete allows designers to use thinner section for

structural member and to provide larger span of member so fewer supports (columns, pier, etc) are needed. Hence reduction in material used and lesser impact on environment. 7. Use of ready mix concrete Construction of flyovers and broadening of existing pavements without disturbing the traffic flow and working in very less space is a great challenge for construction industry. Due to shortage of space at site for making concrete and having better control on quality of concrete ready mix concrete plants have come into existence. The ingredients of design concrete mix are batched and mixed away from congested cities in these plants. Use of set retarders prolongs the initial setting time of concrete and it can be transported to longer distance in ready mix concrete mixer and placed at site. Use of ready mix concrete also reduces pollution significantly at construction sites. 7. Reuse of wash water Some mortar and aggregates are adhered to the inner surface of concrete mixer, especially in ready mix concrete mixer. The water use to wash them contains the concrete and water. This water can be used to make the concrete again by decantation and solid materials can be used either in concrete or land filling. Hence, there is saving in valuable water. 8. Conclusions In this papers some trends and practices has been discussed for making concrete more sustainable. More works are required, innovative techniques has to develop

A. Palomo et al.,1999, Alkali-activated fly ashes a cement for future, Cement and Concrete Research Vol. 29, pp. 1323-1329. M. D.J. Sumajouw and B. V. Rangan, 2006,Low-calcium fly-ash based geopolymer concrete : Reinforced beams and columns, Research Report GC3, Curtin University of Technology, Perth, Australia.