ClimatCon – Climate-resilient pathways for the development of concrete infrastructure: adaptation, mitigation and sustainability
Project Overview
ClimatCon aims to develop a method for the evaluation of the whole life performance of RC structures subjected to carbonation in conditions of climate change, which takes into account both mitigation and adaptation measures. The method is based on the integration of two techniques: Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), which places emphasis on environmental issues, and Life-Cycle Cost Analysis (LCCA), which concentrates on economics. Since there are numerous uncertainties associated with associated with environmental and mechanical loads, material properties, models, etc. the method uses a probabilistic approach. To achieve this aim the following objectives have been planned:
Experimentally determine the carbonation rate in traditional and ‘green’ (i.e. with fly ash and blast furnace slag) concretes in unloaded and loaded states;
Develop a numerical model for predicting carbonation and CO2 uptake of concrete, which accounts for the influence of loads (including caused by them cracks), time-variant ambient CO2 concentration, temperature and relative humidity;
Develop an integrated probabilistic LCA-LCCA method for evaluating the whole life performance of RC elements (e.g., beam, column) subjected to carbonation with particular emphasis on their deterioration and subsequent maintenance/repair and associated CO2 emissions and uptake;
Prepare case studies illustrating application of the method.
Project Results
The result of the project includes methods based on an integration of the Life-Cycle Assessment (LCA) and Life-Cycle Cost Analysis (LCCA) techniques for the evaluation of the whole life performance of reinforced concrete (RC) structures subjected to carbonation in conditions of climate change. The outputs are represented by 3 research reports available online.