NanoSuspens: Research into new cement-bound building materials based on a nanoscaled binding matrix and suspension concrete technology

  • Project team:

    Weil, Marcel (Project leader)

  • Funding:

    Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung (Federal Ministry for Education and Research – BMBF), WING

  • Start date:

    2009

  • End date:

    2013

  • Project partners: Subcontractors of the following companies: German Sucon GmbH (Tagewerben), Dyckerhoff AG (Wiesbaden), Universalbeton (Hering) (concrete related company), Rehm Kies- und Betonwerk GmbH & Co. KG (Lottstetten) (concrete and gravel related company)
  • Research group:

    Research for Sustainable Energy Technologies

Project description

The conventionally manufactured concrete has the following disadvantages:

  1. Poor corrosion-resistance and strength with normal/mass concrete
  2. The manufacturing of better quality products increases costs by up to 50 %
  3. Insufficient process reliability when manufacturing high-performance concrete and special concrete, esp. in the case of self-compacting concrete (SCC)
  4. Energy-intensive manufacturing process associated with high environmental pollution, esp. with high CO2 emissions

Especially in the field of self-compacting concrete that is being used in almost all large constructions in the world, there is an urgent need for new binder systems and procedures in order to make the production process of this type of concrete more reliable, more cost-effective, and, last but not least, less detrimental to the environment.

The joint project "NanoSuspens" is exploring new cementitious building materials based on a binding matrix with nanoparticles using the suspension concrete technology as an innovative manufacturing process. The main objectives of this project are:

  • Reduction of the proportion of cement clinker in binders in order to reduce CO2 in the process chain
  • Improvement of the processing characteristics (esp. of the flowability) of the fresh concrete
  • Increasing of the durability of the hardened concrete
  • Implementation of high quality concrete applications
  • Economic and ecological analysis of the innovative concrete system
  • Identification of optimization potentials (technically, ecologically, and economically)

Contact

Dr.-Ing. Marcel Weil
Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT)
Institute for Technology Assessment and Systems Analysis (ITAS)
P.O. Box 3640
76021 Karlsruhe
Germany

Tel.: +49 721 608-26718
E-mail