A New Method for Proportioning Sustainable, Economic, and Resilient Concrete
The ordinary Portland cement (OPC) component of concrete is the highest contributor to concrete’s cost and carbon footprint. Historically, code-writing organizations have required a high volume of paste in concrete mixtures by imposing minimum limits on the OPC content for a given application. Howev...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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MDPI AG
2023-12-01
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| Series: | Construction Materials |
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| Online Access: | https://www.mdpi.com/2673-7108/4/1/2 |
| _version_ | 1827306610214567936 |
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| author | Gokul Dev Vasudevan Naga Pavan Vaddey David Trejo |
| author_facet | Gokul Dev Vasudevan Naga Pavan Vaddey David Trejo |
| author_sort | Gokul Dev Vasudevan |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | The ordinary Portland cement (OPC) component of concrete is the highest contributor to concrete’s cost and carbon footprint. Historically, code-writing organizations have required a high volume of paste in concrete mixtures by imposing minimum limits on the OPC content for a given application. However, high paste contents can result in dimensional instability, higher costs, higher carbon footprints, and lower durability. Minimizing the OPC content in concrete can provide economic, durability, and sustainability benefits. This study hypothesizes that the amount of OPC required to achieve some required fresh and hardened characteristics is highly dependent on the aggregate characteristics, supplementary cementing material (SCM) characteristics, and proportions of these. Given this, this research proposes using the amount of voids in the aggregate system (AV), or more specifically the paste volume-to-aggregate void ratio (PV/AV); SCM reactivity; and the SCM replacement level as key parameters to proportion concrete mixtures with minimum OPC contents to meet sustainability, economic, and resilience (SER) requirements. A new mixture proportioning procedure, referred to here as the SER proportioning method, is developed in this study based on assessing AV and identifying an optimal PV/AV that satisfies the required concrete characteristics. The results show that implementing the SER mixture proportioning method and including SCMs, or more specifically off-spec fly ashes (OFAs), can lead to significant reductions in the paste content and associated reductions in the cost and embodied carbon footprint of concrete. |
| first_indexed | 2024-04-24T18:24:18Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-2c961d73c5524821b2f23a495884dbb4 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2673-7108 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-24T18:24:18Z |
| publishDate | 2023-12-01 |
| publisher | MDPI AG |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Construction Materials |
| spelling | doaj.art-2c961d73c5524821b2f23a495884dbb42024-03-27T13:32:12ZengMDPI AGConstruction Materials2673-71082023-12-0141163610.3390/constrmater4010002A New Method for Proportioning Sustainable, Economic, and Resilient ConcreteGokul Dev Vasudevan0Naga Pavan Vaddey1David Trejo2School of Environmental, Civil, Agricultural, and Mechanical Engineering, University of Georgia, Athens, GA 30605, USAConstruction Testing Limited, Skokie, IL 60076, USASchool of Civil and Construction Engineering, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR 97330, USAThe ordinary Portland cement (OPC) component of concrete is the highest contributor to concrete’s cost and carbon footprint. Historically, code-writing organizations have required a high volume of paste in concrete mixtures by imposing minimum limits on the OPC content for a given application. However, high paste contents can result in dimensional instability, higher costs, higher carbon footprints, and lower durability. Minimizing the OPC content in concrete can provide economic, durability, and sustainability benefits. This study hypothesizes that the amount of OPC required to achieve some required fresh and hardened characteristics is highly dependent on the aggregate characteristics, supplementary cementing material (SCM) characteristics, and proportions of these. Given this, this research proposes using the amount of voids in the aggregate system (AV), or more specifically the paste volume-to-aggregate void ratio (PV/AV); SCM reactivity; and the SCM replacement level as key parameters to proportion concrete mixtures with minimum OPC contents to meet sustainability, economic, and resilience (SER) requirements. A new mixture proportioning procedure, referred to here as the SER proportioning method, is developed in this study based on assessing AV and identifying an optimal PV/AV that satisfies the required concrete characteristics. The results show that implementing the SER mixture proportioning method and including SCMs, or more specifically off-spec fly ashes (OFAs), can lead to significant reductions in the paste content and associated reductions in the cost and embodied carbon footprint of concrete.https://www.mdpi.com/2673-7108/4/1/2paste volume-to-aggregate void ratiofine aggregate-to-coarse aggregate ratio |
| spellingShingle | Gokul Dev Vasudevan Naga Pavan Vaddey David Trejo A New Method for Proportioning Sustainable, Economic, and Resilient Concrete Construction Materials paste volume-to-aggregate void ratio fine aggregate-to-coarse aggregate ratio |
| title | A New Method for Proportioning Sustainable, Economic, and Resilient Concrete |
| title_full | A New Method for Proportioning Sustainable, Economic, and Resilient Concrete |
| title_fullStr | A New Method for Proportioning Sustainable, Economic, and Resilient Concrete |
| title_full_unstemmed | A New Method for Proportioning Sustainable, Economic, and Resilient Concrete |
| title_short | A New Method for Proportioning Sustainable, Economic, and Resilient Concrete |
| title_sort | new method for proportioning sustainable economic and resilient concrete |
| topic | paste volume-to-aggregate void ratio fine aggregate-to-coarse aggregate ratio |
| url | https://www.mdpi.com/2673-7108/4/1/2 |
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