SESSION 12: CONCRETE MIX OPTIMIZATION

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Reducing Carbon Footprint of Concrete – The Low-Hanging Fruit

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Karthik Obla, PhD, PE, Vice President, Technical Services, NRMCA

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This presentation will look at achieving low-carbon concrete through proven approaches, and existing materials, without large capital expenditures. Ideas explored include performance-based specifications, improved testing, improve quality, mixture optimization, and more. The presentation will use technical data to address the question – Can we get to the 2030 industry average GWP goals using these approaches? The presentation will also cover how the different stakeholders - designers, producers, contractors, and test labs need to work together in this effort.

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Product Spotlight - concrete.ai

How an AI-driven Software Can be Used to Improve Concrete Performance

 

Ryan Henkensiefken, Vice President of Business Development, concrete.ai

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Mix optimization is key to any producer’s success. Whether it be to optimize for performance, cost, a reduced carbon footprint or a unique combination of these factors. But this process has become more difficult with the increasing complexity of supply chains, changes in material types and costs, along with the increasing requests for concrete with a lower carbon footprint, without compromising performance. Very simply, engineers and concrete producers are mired in data and it is often more difficult to quickly and accurately optimize mix designs. Concrete.ai was founded to process the myriad of data points in real-time with AI-driven software, delivering speed and ease for the user. At the same time, Concrete.ai knows that experience and human judgement is central to every project. As a result, users choose what to optimize - from performance, cost, and/or carbon reductions — and what constraints to apply based on their unique situation and business objectives. This results in a Mix Optimization tool that is simple, fast and offers flexible decision-making. 

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Product Spotlight - Chryso/GCP

Driving Carbon Reduction through Innovative Products, Tools and Data

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Lisa Barnard, LEED AP, WELL AP, Sustainability & Customer Engagement Program Manager and Terry Harris, Director, Technical Service - Concrete, Chryso & GCP; Saint-Gobain Construction Chemicals

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We are at a pivotal moment in the concrete industry. There are tremendous opportunities to reduce the carbon footprint of concrete throughout its lifecycle. However, essential factors such as strength, savings and other concrete challenges are often not paired with solutions to curb CO2. This presentation will address Chryso/GCP's “Curbing CO2 at the Source” approach which enables the achievement of technical, business and sustainable objectives through synergies across the cement and concrete lifecycle. The presentation will provide an overview of this approach showcasing the products, processes and tools that drive cement reduction and strength enhancement and will present case studies featuring a new strength enhancing admixture that delivers more strength with less cement, allowing customers to show CO2 reduction through quantification tools and leverage that data for better decision-making and successful projects.

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