Guest Presentation – Concrete Sustainability: Cement Replacement, 3D Printing, and Durability Modeling

Guest presentation

 Concrete Sustainability: Cement Replacement, 3D Printing, and Durability Modeling 

Friday January 31, 2025 at 1-2 p.m. in SF1009, Sandford Fleming Building

Speaker:
Claudiane Ouellet-Plamondon, P.Eng. M.Sc. Ph.D.  | Professor
Canada Chairholder on Sustainable Multifunctional
Construction Materials
DFG Mercator Fellow
Department of Construction Engineering
École de technologie supérieure  |  Université du Québec

ABSTRACT
Concrete is the world’s most widely used construction material, and innovative approaches are essential to enhance its sustainability. This presentation shows the methodology to investigate alternative sources for cement replacement, experimental and algorithmic methods to formulate mixture for additive construction, modelling of durability and life cycle carbon impact. Examples of alternative supplementary cementitious materials include industrial by-products from primary aluminum production and dredged sediments. Feasibility assessment for cement replacement focus on evaluating the reactivity of these materials to enhance their suitability. These initiatives aim to advance material circularity within the construction sector. Additive construction, such as robotic 3D printing concrete (3DPC), enables the creation of complex shapes and optimized concrete usage tailored to specific designs. Using an algorithmic approach, we have formulated 3D-printable concrete mixtures. To reduce the carbon footprint, we developed a localized version of limestone calcined clay cement mortar for 3D printing and assessed its environmental impact through life-cycle analysis in the Canadian context. We are also calibrating the compressive packing model (CPM) with local materials to design mixtures suited for 3D printing. To assess material durability, we are enhancing the pore partitioning model (PPM) framework, which includes hydration, pore volume, and thermodynamics. The concrete-specific PPM (PPMC) predicts porosity distribution, transport properties, critical saturation, freeze resistance, resistivity, and strength. Our vision is to enhance concrete durability, reduce its global climate impact, and integrate added functionality into structures to address both local and global challenges.

BIOGRAPHY
Dr. Claudiane Ouellet-Plamondon is a professor in the Department of Construction Engineering at the École de technologie supérieure (ÉTS) in Montreal, member of the Université du Québec network. She holds the Canada Research Chair in Sustainable Multifunctional Construction Materials. She completed her B.Eng. at Dalhousie University, a M.Sc. from Université de Montreal, a PhD in engineering from the University of Cambridge in the UK and a postdoc at ETH Zurich. Her research investigates how construction materials can respond to the challenges of sustainable development, circular economy, and adaptation to climate change. With her group, she is studying the reactivity of alternative sources of supplementary cementitious materials, robotic 3D printing concrete, bio-sourced materials, alkali-activated materials, modelling of durability, multifunctional materials, and life cycle assessment. With her team, she develops algorithms to enable multicriteria in design and to optimize the research plan. She leads projects supported by NSERC Alliance, NSERC Discovery grant, NFRF, Mitacs Acceleration, and others. She is a member