A New Approach for Durable and Sustainable Infrastructure Concrete

Abstract

The durability of reinforced concrete infrastructures is a major concern related to several aspects of the sustainability. The actual concrete design is still largely based on prescriptive indications, such as the cement content and the water cement ratio, while the durability investigation started to be oriented towards a more performance-based concept. The actual laboratory durability tests depend on the environmental exposure classes. Nonetheless, the actual stringent durability limits force to produce concrete with a too rapid strength development. This fact adversely affects the rigidity of the infrastructure and reduce the durability. Furthermore, the actual concrete requirement concepts partially inhibit the use of more sustainable concrete. This work proposes a new approach and a new concrete framework to produce more eco-efficient and more durable concrete. This will be attained by introducing a better laboratory-field relationship with respect to the durability by means of combined laboratory environmental attacks, which better simulate the real infrastructure site condition.