Concrete Innovation in Focus

What would you expect of a concrete innovation panel that is global when there is enough content to fill a conference for a week! 

Earlier this month at the Global Cement and Concrete Association (GCCA) conference, my colleague Claude Lorea and I hosted parallel cement and concrete innovation panels. We both sought to cover the broad scope of each topic.  

To set the scene for the concrete panel, I used the 8 aspects of the future of construction identified by one of GCCA’s working groups: Sustainability, Urbanisation, Growth, Digitalisation, Automation, New Business Models, Offsite and Modular, and Advanced materials. I welcomed Yvonne Soh to explore the first of these. As CEO of Singapore Green Building Council, one of 70 National GBCs, Yvonne is perfectly placed to explain the actuality of the sustainability challenge faced by the construction sector.  

Of the 8 aspects of the future, sustainability is arguably the most important, but many of the other 7 aspects of the future were also directly or indirectly covered by the remaining 3 speakers.  

 Evolving the Material and its Transport  

Dr Zhong Hua of GCP Applied Technologies explained 3 innovations in material technology that are making evolutionary changes to concrete production, transport and placement. These are improving resource efficiency, productivity and quality whilst also reducing carbon.  

Using chemistry to enable the use of lower quality aggregates rather than having to increase cement content is a win. So too is obtaining the benefits of self-compacting concrete by using enhanced chemistry to reduce the tightness of specification on water content and aggregate grading. The third example moved from chemistry to the internet of things. Digitisation, GPS tracking and machine learning, is being used to control slump during transportation from ready mixed plant to site. This avoids over specification thus improving resource efficiency and it also improves vehicle utilisation.  

 Durable Infrastructure 

Dr Akio Kasuga Vice-President of Federation International Beton has designed over 200 bridges. His story of evolving bridge design covers 3 distinct phases over the last 20 years. It is culminating in a non-metallic bridge (deck, webs and soffit) using aramid reinforcing and post tensioned strands and ultra high performance concrete for 150mm thick butterfly girder webs. These webs, and hence the elevation of the bridge, are akin to a castellated steel beam, but there is no risk of corrosion and associated maintenance. A small 20m span example has already been built. The innovation is now being deployed on a much longer and multi-span project.  

 Digital Construction 

Professor Robert Flatt in explaining the range of digital construction techniques had an overarching message: 

This field is moving quickly so do not make judgements on what you have heard in the recent past, but equally, it is important not to over sell  

As for where it is heading, Robert explained that development of techniques and reduction of their cost, brings complexity into the realm of cost possible. This complexity enables resource efficiency design, for example the ability to vary section along span to match structural requirements.  

I was left excited about the possibilities for digital construction including additive manufacturing and reminded that the frequent examples we typically see are proof of concept. We need to apply our imagination to see the potential for daily application. 

Innovations being applied now and being developed for the near future will enable concrete producers, designers and contractors to address the challenges that construction faces in the near future. The same is true for innovations in cement, but for that you’ll need to see Claude Lorea’s LinkedIn article.