Table of Contents
What is Green Concrete Made of?
What are the other forms of eco-friendly concrete?
Ground granulated blast furnace slag (GGBS):
Applications of Green concrete?
Green concrete is an eco-friendly sustainable concrete that can act as a substitution for traditional concrete by using recycled materials to produce similar properties to traditional concrete with less production of carbon dioxide during the process.
In 1998, Dr WG from Denmark invented this concept of green concrete and it gains popularity over time as it has various environmental benefits. The increased demand for cement production on a global level is accountable for more than 6% (1)of CO2 emissions around the world. Green concrete helps in reducing CO2 emissions to a greater extent.
All the materials that are used to produce green concrete should be eco-friendly and releases less energy during the manufacturing process. The rationale behind selecting the materials for green concrete involves the following aspects:
The materials that are used for green concrete should be locally available in significantly higher quantities so that the overall lead and lift for the materials can be reduced.
The selected materials should be reused or recycled materials so that overall production cost will be reduced, and the amount of energy produced also can be significantly put down. The selected materials should have all the cementitious properties which traditional concrete consists of within a similar cost.
The materials that are used for the manufacturing process are listed below.
The process of manufacturing green concrete is similar to traditional concrete only but some proportion of ordinary Portland cement can be replaced by various cementitious materials with varying percentage shares. They are discussed in detail in the below sections.
The methodology adopted for the manufacturing of green concrete is depicted below.
Flow Diagram for Green concrete
Green concrete is having various environmental benefits which increase its usage in modern times. Following are the various benefits of using green concrete:
There are various other forms of Eco-friendly concrete in which some portion of the ordinary Portland cement is replaced by other cementitious materials and are listed below.
Ashcrete can be utilized as a substitute for traditional concrete in which large quantities of fly ash are treated as a cementitious material. This is the by-product of burning coal in electric power generating plants. It is generally used as a partial substitute for 25 to 55% of the normal Portland cement.
Fly ash is mixed with water and a certain amount of lime to make strong and eco-friendly concrete that has similar properties as traditional concrete. By applying the fly ash in Ashcrete makes it further resistant to alkali-silica reactivity, increases the strength of concrete, reduced the bleeding, and reduces shrinkage when contrasted to traditional concrete.
Ground granulated blast furnace slag is also called slag cement and it is a by-product of the steel industry. It can be commonly used as a partial substitute for ordinary Portland cement up to 80% of concrete. This produces less amount of heat of hydration during its production.
Micro silica can also be called Silica fume which is the by-product that comes from the electric furnace which is used in the production of silicon alloy. It can be applied up to 5 to 10 % as a replacement for normal Portland cement. Micro silica enhances the durability of concrete by increasing the compressive strength of concrete plus making it less preamble for moisture content.
Concrete made using micro silica are mainly used for structures that will be exposed to highly concentrated chemicals.
Very fine materials of fibres of glass will make up fibreglass which can act as a substitute for ordinary Portland cement but to a very minimal extent up to 0.1 to 3%. By the implementation of fibrous material in concrete the flexural strength could be increased significantly as contrasted to the traditional concrete.
All these percentage shares by which they can be utilized as a replacement for OPC are mentioned in table A.6 of the British standard BS 8500 part1, 2006.
Green concrete has a wide range of applications and some of them are listed below.
I hope the blog provides you with adequate knowledge of Green Concrete and its associated features. Please feel free to like, share and comment.
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References:
(1) https://www.ijert.org/research/green-concrete-for-the-future-a-review-IJERTCONV4IS08011.pdf
(2) https://www.specifyconcrete.org/blog/eco-friendly-alternatives-to-traditional-concrete
(3)https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/
(4) http://data.conferenceworld.in/IIMT2017/P270-274.pdf
(5) https://madhavuniversity.edu.in/green-concrete.html
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