Driving infrastructure sustainability with Strain Hardening Cementitious Composites (SHCC)

Abstract

Many nations, developing or developed, are experiencing increasing pressures resulting from extreme weather patterns, energy and water scarcity, and civil infrastructure decay. While these large societal challenges of the 21st century initially appear unrelated to one another, they may in fact be coupled in one way or another. For example, concrete is the most used engineered material, exceeding 12 billion t/year and amounting to about 2 ton per person per year (van Oss and Padovani, 2002) on average globally for civil infrastructure construction and repair. Accompanied with the large material flow is the high-energy intensity of cement, about ten times that of the averaged economy in the US (WBCSD 2002). Cement production is also responsible for about 5% of anthropogenic carbon dioxide and significant levels of SO2, NOx, particulate matter and other pollutants (USEPA 2000); it contributes disproportionately to the global warming potential when compared with other human activities. It is now the 3rd CO2 polluter worldwide, after fossil fuels and deforestation. About a third of the drinking water in the US never reaches consumers due to leakage in our aging water infrastructure. And about 40% of the energy in the US is consumed in buildings (ASCE 2009). The intertwining relationship between the built and the natural environment is becoming increasingly evident.