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Optimisation of embodied carbon and compressive strength in low carbon concrete

Nukah, Promise D.; Abbey, Samuel J.; Booth, Colin A.; Nounu, Ghassan

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Authors

Promise D. Nukah

Profile image of Samuel Abbey

Samuel Abbey Samuel.Abbey@uwe.ac.uk
Associate Director - Engineering Practice and Management/Associate Professor

Profile image of Colin Booth

Colin Booth Colin.Booth@uwe.ac.uk
Professor of Smart and Sustainable Infrastructures



Abstract

To improve the prediction of compressive strength and embodied carbon of low carbon concrete using a program algorithm developed in MATLAB, 84 datasets of concrete mix raw materials were used. The influence of water, silica fume and ground granular base slag was found to have a significant impact on the extent of low carbon concrete behaviour in terms of compressive strength and embodied carbon. While the concrete compressive strength for normal concrete increases with reducing water content, it is observed that the low carbon concrete using lightweight aggregate material increases in compressive strength with an increase in embodied carbon. From the result of the analysis, a function was developed that was able to predict the associated embodied carbon of a concrete mix for a given water-to-cement ratio. The use of an alkaline solution is observed to increase the compressive strength of low carbon concrete when used in combination with ground granular base slag and silica fume. It is further shown that ground granular base slag contributes significantly to an increase in the compressive strength of Low carbon concrete when compared with pulverised fly ash. The optimised mix design program resulted in a 26% reduction in embodied carbon and an R2 value of 0.9 between the measured compressive strength and the optimised compressive strength.

Journal Article Type Article
Acceptance Date Nov 24, 2022
Online Publication Date Dec 5, 2022
Publication Date Dec 5, 2022
Deposit Date Dec 6, 2022
Publicly Available Date Dec 6, 2022
Journal Materials
Print ISSN 1996-1944
Electronic ISSN 1996-1944
Publisher MDPI
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 15
Issue 23
Pages 8673
Series Title This article belongs to the Special Issue 'Structural Behavior of Masonry and Concrete Members Strengthened with Fibre-Reinforced Composite Materials: Experimental Tests and Modelling'.
DOI https://doi.org/10.3390/ma15238673
Keywords General Materials Science; embodied carbon; optimisation; low carbon concrete; water‐to‐binder ratio compressive strength; simplex algorithm
Public URL https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/10224288
Publisher URL https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1944/15/23/8673
Related Public URLs https://www.mdpi.com/journal/materials/special_issues/SF494UO599

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