Project Summary

Concrete produced with Alternative Cementitious Materials (ACMs) often exhibits superior mechanical performances and lower carbon footprint compared to those produced with Ordinary Portland Cement (OPC). ACMs also allow utilizing high-volume of industrial by-products as the binding materials instead of OPC, thus offering an environment-friendly alternative of traditional concrete. However, the durability performances of ACMs can vary depending on the selection of the reaction route (i.e., strength gaining mechanism). As a result, any definite evidence on the service life performances and shrinkage properties of these materials are still in infancy. To address these challenges, we will investigate the durability performances of ACM concrete in comparison to those of traditional OPC-concrete, specifically for typical cold-climatic regions. Two ACM systems will be evaluated in this project, including (i) alkali-activated binders and (ii) CO2 activated binders.