The challenge:
Construction industry in the North has to endure long distances and harsh and cold climate. The lowest temperatures for economically feasible concrete works are set at around -10°C (but typically world-wide 5°C is defined as a limit for winter concreting). Works at lower temperatures are also possible but it requires significant amount of additional treatments and equipment to be used which increases the price and also risk substantially. Main challenge is that all of current winter concreting techniques are very energy consuming and they lead to high emissions of CO2.
Solution and objectives:
In this project we develop environmental-friendly binder recipes and casting technologies targeting to subzero casting. The main goal of the project is to improve the sustainability of the arctic concreting and to develop innovative solutions to improve economic growth in the Northern area. Main aims of the project are
- To develop novel environmentally friendly concrete mixtures utilizing local industrial waste materials for winter concrete works, as well as novel production technology for winter concreting
- To enable concrete works below 5 °C and in extreme cases temperatures below -25 °C with long transportation distance from concrete plant to casting site reaching up to 100 km
- Strengthen cross boarder cooperation, mobility possibilities and utilization of complementing competence within the construction industry through involvement of key industry players
- Enhance innovation and improve competitiveness of cement and concrete industry
- Reduce costs and energy consumption associated with building and maintenance of large infrastructure developments in arctic and sub-arctic regions
- To create recommendation and guidelines for design and execution of concrete work in winter using developed in this project materials and production technologies.
Project duration:
1st August 2018 - 31st July 2021
Funded by:
- Interreg Nord
- Regional Council of Lapland
In media / publications:
- Paper about fly ash carbonation and utilization as a construction material has been published in Journal of CO2 utilization https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcou.2020.101203
- Review article about different utilization possibilities of fluidized bed combustion fly ash has been published in Sustainability: https://doi.org/10.3390/su12072988
- Article about frost resistance of mortar containing biomass fly ash has been published in Journal of Materials in Civil Engineering: https://ascelibrary.org/doi/abs/10.1061/%28ASCE%29MT.1943-5533.0003189
- Article about the ARCTIC-ecocrete project has been published in “Betoni” journal: https://betoni.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/BET1903_92-95.pdf
- Results about Saint Gobain's waste material have been published in Minerals Engineering: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mineng.2019.106093
- Article about fly ash utilization in construction is published in Uusiouutiset (in Finnish): https://www.uusiouutiset.fi/lentotuhkat-rakentamiseen/
Cases:
- Development of cement that hardens in subzero temperatures.
- Raw materials of eco-concrete_Slag, sand aggregates, alkali activator and water.
- Full scale reinforced concrete beams with ecological UHPC concrete used as repair/strengthening material.
- Prestudy for Heatwork AS: Formwork systems with hydronic heating/cooling.
- Hydronic heat or cooling in formwork system: Case study of Con Form wall (prefab sidewalls).
- Monitoring temperature drop during concrete transport.
- Helicopter bucket test rig.
Video:
Temperature Measurements in a Concrete Mixing Truck (Sintef): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IdVzZ0Q0yS0#action=share
Project scientists:
- University of Oulu: Katja Ohenoja, Ahmad Alzaza, Elijah Adesanya, Päivö Kinnunen, Visa Isteri
- LTU: Andrzej Cwirzen, Ankit Kohtari, Karin Habermehl
- Sintef: Bård Arntsen, Isak Langås, Christian Petrich, Øystein Kleven, Irina Sæther, Megan O’Sadnick
Last updated: 16.6.2020