Atomistic simulation conference
The team of the UPV/EHU leaded by Prof. Hegoi Manzano is traveling to Singapore to participate in the 2024 International Conference on Atomistic Simulation of Cementitious Materials that will take…
The team of the UPV/EHU leaded by Prof. Hegoi Manzano is traveling to Singapore to participate in the 2024 International Conference on Atomistic Simulation of Cementitious Materials that will take…
Last Friday, February 23, 2024, Mohammad Rahjoo, from Materials Physics Center successfully defended his PhD dissertation titled “MULTI-SCALE MODELLING AND DESIGN OF THERMAL ENERGY STORAGE (TES) DEVICES BASED ON CEMENT-BASED…
On the 21st of November, Jorge S. Dolado gave a talk to the general public in the lectures “Qué sabemos de…” organized by Centro de Física de Materiales (CFM CSIC-UPV/EHU)…
Members of the LTC-Green Concrete attended the Euskampus Bordeaux Eguna 2023 this week (13th-14th November, Bilbao) to celebrate the annual meeting of the Euskampus-Bordeaux Cross-Border Campus Community. We took part…
From 2 to 5 October 2023, Sara Rubio from POLYMAT, participated to the XI Congress of young researchers in polymers, organized by the specialized polymer group of the RSEQ and…
Several researchers from the LTC-Green Concrete presented their latest works in the 16th International Congress on the Chemistry of Cement (ICCC 2023) held in Bangkok on 18-22 Sept 2023. In…
Dr. Edurne González Gándara from Polymat recently participated in the prestigious “International Polymer Colloids Group Conference 2023”. The conference, held at Queen’s University in Kingston, Canada, from June 18-22, brought…
Sara Rubio from Polymat took part last May in the workshop IkerGazte with a poster and presentation titled “Comparison between bio-sourced and petroleoun-based monomers for the development of sustainable coatings”.…
Painting constellations was the title of the fist Misiones Euskampus meeting that took place last May 16 in Bilbao. The event brought together more than 60 representatives of private companies,…
Last April 26 to 27, researchers from CFM-CSIC and Tecnalia took part in the “MIRACLE – Training course” organized by the Institute of Construction and Building Materials (WiB) of TU…
The environmental footprint of cement composites comes from three sources: CO2 emissions, energy demand and consumption of raw materials. The main contributor to the first one is the clinkerization process itself that involves high temperatures and the decarbonation of raw materials. Over the years, cement producers have made an important effort to improve the efficiency of the process, but they are arriving at a point where further improvement is no longer possible without a technological breakthrough. The activities of the LTC in this matter will focus mainly in the development of alternative production methods, like microwave clinkerization or hydrothermal treatments, and the improvement of clinker itself by the activation of less reactive phases or the promotion of the most reactive ones.
Cement composites are really awesome. First, they are very cheap and can be produced almost anywhere in the world using solely local materials. In addition, upon mixing of the solid components (mainly cement and aggregates) with water, a fresh cement composite is obtained. In such state, the material can even be pumped to the top of a skyscraper where it will acquire the shape of the mold where it is poured in. And then, after some time the material will harden at ambient conditions without human intervention. But the best of all is that the properties of the fresh and hardened material as well as the time it takes to become rock-solid can be tuned almost at wish. Nonetheless the development of cement composites with improved performance (strength, toughness, durability, thermal stability, etc.) never stops and it will be one of the main objectives of the LTC. The same applies to the development of novel functionalities (electrical conductivity, sensing capacity, self-healing, thermal properties, energy harvesting, etc.). Not to forget two of the main drivers of the last and coming years in Europe, the reduction of the environmental impact (and its quantification) and the digitalization of the industrial processes that will also be considered.
Additions, admixtures and additives are added during the process of the production of the cement or the cement composites to improve their performance. Therefore, the concrete of the future cannot be conceived without the development of processes (like supercritical fluids) for the synthesis of additions and additives with new or improved properties. Special focus will be placed on the development of nano-enabled material (nanoparticles and nanostructured materials) and superplasticizers; although other products might also be considered.
Cement matrix is a truly multi-scale structure whose features at the lower levels (nano-scale) have a substantial effect in the highest ones (macro-scale), and in the macroscopic properties. Furthermore, it is a “living” material whose properties may evolve for years due to a combination of physical and chemical phenomena. As a consequence, a deep study of the matrix requires of the participation of multidisciplinary teams that combine expertise on sample preparation, multi-scale simulation techniques, engineering tests, materials’ characterization methods, and so on.