THE ENCORE PROJECT: SUSTAINABLE SOLUTIONS FOR CEMENTITIOUS MATERIALS

MARTINELLI, E.; BARROS, J.; ETSE, G; FERRARA, L.; FOLINO, P; KOENDERS, E.; TOLEDO FILHO, R.

Durability and Sustainability of Concrete Structures

ACI

Lugar: NY; Año: 2015; p. 1 - 7

Since concrete is the most widely utilizedconstruction material, several solutions are currently being developed andinvestigated for enhancing the sustainability of cementitious materials. One ofthese solutions is based on producing Recycled Concrete Aggregates (RCA) fromexisting concrete members resulting by either industrial processes ordemolitions of existing structures as a whole. Moreover, waste resulting fromindustrial processes other than the building construction (i.e., tirerecycling, production of steel, powders resulting from other depurationprocesses) are also being considered as possible low-impact constituents forproducing structural concrete and Fiber-Reinforced Cementitious Composites(FRCC). Furthermore, the use of natural fibers is another option for producingenvironmentally-friendly and cost-effective materials, depending on the localavailability of raw materials. To promote the use of concretes partiallycomposed of recycled constituents, their influence on the mechanical and durabilityperformance of these concretes have to be deeply investigated and correlated.This was the main goal of the EnCoRe Project (www.encore-fp7.unisa.it), aEU-funded initiative, whose activities and main findings are summarized in thispaper.